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A Vibrant Community Gathering Place for Magnolia Manor Park
Friends of Magnolia Manor Park
Find us online at: http://magnoliamanorpark.org/ https://www.facebook.com/friendsofmagnoliamanorpark
Sept-Oct 2013Karen Andersen, Editor
Autumn BBQ FundraiserSunday, September 154:00 pm -‐ 6:30 pm
Shop at the Garden for Your Holiday Gifts!
At our BBQ, we will have holiday giAs for those on your giA list. Allex Nellias has some homemade soaps made with olive oil and various items from the garden, as well as Christmas ornaments.
We will also be taking orders for ceramic holiday ornaments in various shapes that you can personalize with a name. There will also be sugar scrubs for sale. If you missed our last BBQ’s honeycomb sale, you’ll be delighted to learn that we will be selling more honeycombs at $15.00 each. And that’s the buzz for now.
Great news! Chef Robert will be preparing grilled smoked salmon pizza accompanied with yummy veggies. If you’d like to share some tasty treats from your garden for the menu, please leave them on the picnic table by the shed on Friday, September 20.
$10 per person. Please bring your own beverages to share or bring salads, or other side dishes. As always, guests are welcome to join in on the fun. All proceeds feed the p-‐patch’s bank account and ensure that our expenses are paid. Thank you for your support.
Look for a sign up sheet in the Shed for the block captains to post so we can keep track of what each block will be bringing. Please either bring your own eaXng utensils, cups or glasses, or if a member wants to bring enough to share for all of us, that would be great too.
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Celebrate harvest season at Seattle Tilth’s annual urban
farm festival!Par$cipate in this fun, lively hands-‐on community fes$val with workshops, cooking demonstra$ons and fun ac$vi$es for all ages. Enjoy tasty food, and live music with friends and family. Harvest season is a $me to celebrate!
Bring your friends and family for a seed swap, cider pressing and DIY herb crowns. Kids can par$cipate in craFs in the children's garden, see a puppet show and take part in the parade at noon (arrive by 11 a.m.) with a marching band! Let us know you're coming, and invite your friends on Facebook!
SeaNle Tilth's Harvest Fair is FREE and open to the public, with voluntary dona$ons accepted at the entrances. Get direc$ons.
Congratulations!On Tuesday, September 3rd, the SeaZle City Council unanimously approved the recommendaXons of the Opportunity Fund Oversight CommiZee, which included money for Magnolia Manor Park. This project will re-‐posiXon the fences along the east side of the reservoir to connect the OLA and the P-‐Patch. It also renovates the plaza area north of the dog park, as envisioned in the original plan developed by the community in 2011.
The next steps are for the SeaZle Parks Department to solicit community input on the design and development of the area, probably with one or more public meeXngs.
Our work doesn't end with this approval however. We need to be a player in the planning process as it moves forward. Stay tuned to learn how you can parXcipate as we expand our neighborhood community and ensure that Magnolia Manor Park conXnues to be a beauXful resource that benefits us all.
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There is a 3 panel cartoon by Shel Silverstein in the adult coffee table book Different Dances; the first panel shows a Xny man heAing a stone block roughly 100x his size above his head. The second panel includes a second man, poinXng his finger and shaking his head “no” at the man with the stone block. The 3rd panel shows the stone block on the ground with fingerXps sXcking out of the boZom. Incredibly for me becoming a new gardener at the newly christened Magnolia P-‐Patch reminds me a lot of that cartoon.
True confessions -‐ I came into the garden with a troubled gardening past—forgive me if you’ve heard this already. My mother let us plant carrots when I was 5 years old. When they sprouted, the gardener thought they were weeds and pulled them out. I made up a rash of—shall we say-‐-‐compost about that experience which is why I am now a new gardener at 56 years old. But back to the correlaXon with the cartoon.
Nobody told me what I can’t do. So I planted 8 sunflower seeds along my back border and seeded snow peas in front of them and broccoli in front of that and interspersed kale and planted 12 (yes count them, 12 ) nasturXum seeds. I planted beet seeds and carrot seeds and waited. Nothing happened so I planted some marigold starts and kale starts and tomato plants so things didn’t look so barren. Two weeks later my plot looked like a carpet. Two weeks aAer that I was giving away nasturXum plants. They flowered like crazy. Carrots showed up only aAer I thinned out roughly 90% of the kale in one secXon. Bush beans rock!
We are now coming into the tail end of summer and I have harvested 2 sunflowers—with 2 more gejng ready within the next week. I am kind of gejng Xred of kale, but love juicing it and gejng that intense green into my body.
I finally figured out how to tell when the black cherry tomatoes are ripe (look for the pink) and how unbelievably not good they are when they aren’t ripe yet, unlike fried green tomatoes from my Xme in Texas. I have made so many great discoveries, all cataloged in preparaXon for next year’s gardening experiences. And though each of our plots are different, it is clear that they are all loved and that life enjoys thriving if we relax and give it space, and just ignore that voice that tries to tell you what you can’t do.
A Garden of DiscoveryBy Magi Speelpenning
“Imagina(on is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming a9rac(ons.”
~ Albert Einstein~
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March 19, 2013 by Erica Strauss, excerpted fromhZp://www.nwedible.com.
If you can get over the ewwww factor, pee-‐cycling your own urine into the garden makes good sense. Fresh urine is high in nitrogen, moderate in phosphorus and low in potassium and can act as an excellent high-‐nitrogen liquid ferXlizer or as a compost accelerator.
Components of UrineThe exact breakdown of urine varies depending on the diet of the pee-‐maker. The more protein a person consumes, the more nitrogen will be excreted into the urine. Typical Western Diet pee has an NPK raXo of about 11-‐1-‐2. In comparison, blood meal is 12-‐2-‐1 and coZonseed meal is 7-‐2-‐2.
Urine also contains salt – someXmes quite a lot of it if you are hopped up on a diet of canned soup and french fries. Because of both the salt and high nitrogen levels, urine should generally be diluted 10:1 before use on garden crops. Greater diluXon – 20:1 or more – is appropriate for more tender plants, seedlings and poZed plants which are more suscepXble to salt build up.
Fresh pee can have a pH anywhere from 5 to 9 depending on a person’s diet, but it tends to move toward neutral as it ages and breaks down when applied outside. I would not personally worry too much about the variable pH of urine
for garden use.
Safety IssuesIn a healthy person, urine is sterile. In someone with decent hygiene and wiping technique, it should more-‐or-‐less stay that way as it leaves the body. Cross contaminaXon with fecal maZer (health risk!) can be a concern, so perfect your front-‐to-‐back TP technique if you are going to pee-‐cycle.
If you are on medicaXon, don’t ferXlize with your pee. If you have a UTI or other infecXon or – well, let’s just say anything funky going on in or around your pee-‐hole – your urine is not fit for garden use.
Grossness IssuesAssuming the safety issues are saXsfactorily addressed, then the grossness issue is cultural programing and you should think about if it’s programming you want to keep in your brain. Most gardeners, aAer all, are pleased as punch to get ahold of a big load of cow poop for their garden, and that ferXlizer has a far greater chance of spreading harmful pathogens than pee.
If the tree-‐hugger eco stuff doesn’t move you to acXon, consider the cost of a bag of blood meal.
Now consider the cost of your pee. You will never find a more easy-‐to-‐acquire, cheaper source of fast acXng nitrogen.
Note from the editor.In our last issue we featured a page about bees, so this Xme I thought we’d go a bit further into the alphabet, to the Pees! When I read the below arXcle on a SeaZle blog site called hZp://www.nwedible.com, I thought WOW, this is entertaining, informaXve, and a bit provocaXve as well! So here is something to think about sprinkling into your p-‐patch or home garden, and hey, it’s organic too!
How To Use Pee In Your Garden!
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5 Ways To Use Pee In The GardenOkay, I’ve convinced you! You are ready to drop trou’ and add your liquid gold deposit to your garden. But how do you pee in the garden in the most effecXve way (and without gejng arrested for indecent exposure in the process!)?
1. Compost AcceleratorIs your compost pile cold? A liZle long on carbon and low on nitrogen? Pee, poured or – ahem – directly deposited – on the pile can start to speed things up and add moisture. If you are nervous about using urine directly on your plants, incorporaXng urine into a compost pile is the way to go.
2. Dilu8on is The Solu8onDilute fresh urine at a 4:1 raXo and apply to the root-‐zone of corn every two weeks or as needed. (Some people say corn, being a grass, can handle ferXlizaXon with straight urine. Proceed with cauXon.)
Dilute fresh urine at a 10:1 raXo and apply to the root-‐zone of fruiXng plants like tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, or to leafy crops like cabbage, broccoli, spinach and leZuce every two weeks or as needed.
Dilute fresh urine at a 20:1 raXo and water in to the root zone of seedlings and new transplants.
3. The Straw Bale SprinkleWhen Straw Bales are used for gardening, they must be “condiXoned” or parXally broken down / composted before use. This is accomplished with the addiXon of a very high nitrogen ferXlizer. Guess which free, Bud Lite-‐hued high-‐nitrogen ferXlizer I’d recommend?
4. Deep Mulch Direct Applica8on If you thickly mulch your woody perennials, cane fruit and fruit trees with a high-‐carbon material like leaves or woodchips, you can apply your urine straight onto the mulch, which will absorb and moderate the straight shot of nitrogen in your pee.
5. That Asparagus Smell!If asparagus makes your pee smell funny, take revenge and pee on your asparagus! Nutrient hungry, deep rooted, perennial and salt-‐tolerant, asparagus might be the ideal crop to ferXlize with pee. If you grow your asparagus under a thick layer of carbonaceous mulch, like straw or wood chips, use the Direct Mulch Direct ApplicaXon technique, otherwise dilute 2:1 if your asparagus is in the sandy soil it prefers, or 4:1 in heavier soil. Apply throughout the growing season, along with a good source of potassium, like bone meal, in the early spring.
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Fall and Winter OptionsFall and Winter Gardening opXons: Please remove all non-‐organic material (tomato cages, trellises, etc.) and choose one or a combinaXon of these opXons to help with weed suppression and protect your soil from the winter rains. Tending the soil in the cool season pays you back in the warm!
OpXon #1: Grow winter crops such as garlic, onions, kale, etc.
OpXon #2: Plant cover crops: Cover crops are also called green manure because in the spring you dig them into your soil and they feed nitrogen and provide organic material as they decompose.
OpXon #3: Mulch /Sheet Compost to protect and build bare soil.
Overwintering Planting Tips
You can sow a couple of types of plants now that will "overwinter" or grow slowly in your garden through our chilly, wet winter. Try salad greens to provide winter vegetables and cover crops to build your soil.
■ Salad greens can be sown from late September into the first weeks of October; don't plant too soon because small plants (1 or 2 inches tall) overwinter beNer than larger plants. Look for varie$es that are specifically noted as winter crops. This includes many Asian greens, chard and spinach varie$es.
■ Cover crops can be sown now to provide nutrients and organic maNer for next year’s garden.Try a cover crop mix of rye, vetch and clover (available at nurseries) or, for a later plan$ng (un$l early November if the weather stays good), try fava beans.
Overwintering plants have unique soil fer$lity needs to help them survive the cold and thrive when spring arrives. The goal is balanced growth throughout the fall and early winter. Don’t provide too much nitrogen because it produces fast growth full of water, which makes plants more suscep$ble to frost damage. In the spring, top-‐dress the soil around the plants with a high-‐nitrogen organic fer$lizer or composted manure to spur faster spring growth.
http://seattletilth.org/learn/resources-1/almanac/september/covercrops
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A Vibrant Community Gathering Place for Magnolia Manor Park
The P-‐Path Trust is the fiscal sponsor for Magnolia Manor P-‐Patch. Through advocacy, leadership and partnerships, the P-‐Patch Trust expands access to community gardening across economic, racial, ethnic, ability and gender lines. We promote organic gardening and build friendships, laughter, partnership, play, and community through gardening. We seek to break urban isolaXon by providing opportuniXes for people to garden together, learn from each other, and develop a greater sense of neighborhood leading to a more enjoyable livable urban environment.
To con(nue to be updated about exci(ng announcement, events and opportuni(es, please update your contact info now. Simply follow the link and fill out this form: hNp://magnoliamanorpark.org/mission/links/update-‐contact-‐informa$on/
If you were forwarded this and wish to unsubscribe, click here: unsubscribe. Thank you.
Magnolia Manor P-‐Patch, 3500 28th Avenue W., SeaZle, WA 98199Mail: 3628 28th Avenue West, SeaZle, WA 98199
Find us online at: hNp://magnoliamanorpark.org/ and
hAps://www.facebook.com/friendsofmagnoliamanorpark Like Us on Facebook, and plan to aAend our events and community mee8ngs.
If you would like to contribute ar$cles, photos, videos, or news items for future edi$ons of the newsleNer, send an email to Karen Andersen at [email protected] with your contribu$on. You will receive volunteer hours for your $me. The next deadline is October 25th for the Nov/Dec edi$on. Include the words “FMMP News” in the subject line of your email. Thank you!
“Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.”
~ Dwight D. Eisenhower ~
Please pass the peas...
