July 23, 2008

Smart Home Garden Docent and Groomers Update

Please check the up-to-date schedule and please sign up for shift openings for the rest of the year:

Up-to-Date Schedule

Shift Openings

It has been a while, and I have been missing you and the Smart Garden. I was away on academic vacation studying landscapes in Italy. Very impressive and inspirational, but most of all - eye opening. It feels great to be a part of the greening world. All of you should feel the same.

Thank you for your patience while I was gone. I had a chance to visit MSI on Saturday and the garden is looking fabulous. A few parts are struggling where the soil is poor, but overall it looks great. You are all doing a fine job!

Please be informed that our Secretary, Julie Perteet, will be taking over the scheduling for Smart Garden shifts. She can be reach at 773-233-0476 or by email at <perteet@sbcglobal.net>. Please make note of Julie's email address. Please inform her if you need to cancel a shift. She has also been notifying you of your upcoming shifts a week in advance. This seems to be working out well.

Groomers:

Lately, the major duties for groomers has been watering (deeply) and weeding. These will continue to be the top two duties for the next two months (due to hot weather and poor soil). Please water the EarthBoxes during every shift - they are designed to keep rainwater out and dry quickly when producing fruit. We will also need to stake tomatoes and lay down a fresh layer of wheat straw mulch over the next two weeks.

Docents:

You are doing a fine job! Keep those visitors engaged. The script remains the same. If you have suggestions please email them to me. Remember to leave demographic records on clipboard. I collect them every other week.

EMERGENCY CREW - OPENINGS OVER NEXT WEEK:

As always, we appreciate what you do for Extension!

UPDATES ALWAYS LISTED ON BLOG AT:

http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/cook/blogs/eb150/index.html

Thanks,

--
Nancy Kreith
Extension Program Coordinator
University of Illinois Extension
3807 W. 111th Street
Chicago, IL. 60655
office: 773.233.0476
fax: 773.233.0910
cell: 708.567.6101

Posted by Nancy Kreith at 12:23 AM | Permalink |

July 21, 2008

Smart Home Event: Bug Bash: July 19

Saturday representatives of companies and organizations supporting the Smart Home including the University of Illinois Extension had informational displays and exhibits at the Museum of Science and Industry.

The University of Illinois Extension brought its popular "Bug Bash" to the event. Stations included Sort a Bug, Wormania, the Insect Petting Zoo, the Monarch Butterfly and Butterfly Crafts, Insect Face Painting and Ask a Master Gardener.

Nancy Pollard, Extension Educator Horticulture developed the Sort a Bug Activity which teaches kids: What is an Insect? Susan Grupp, Extension Specialist Environmental Science developed the Monarch butterfly display with specimens of the different stages of the Monarch's life cycle.

The Insect Petting Zoo was very popular with giant millipedes, tarantulas and Madagascar hissing cockroaches.

Chicago Master Gardeners also manned an Ask a Master Gardener table with gardening publications and the latest information on the Emerald Ash Borer.

Posted by Ron Wolford at 12:04 AM | Permalink |

July 19, 2008

Smart Home Garden Report: July 15

Today was a busy day in the garden. We had a group of students from Campos High School in Humboldt Park touring the Smart Home and stopping by the garden to learn about earthboxes. Teachers and students at the school are planning an Urban Agriculture project in Humboldt Park. The students learned how to prepare and plant three earthboxes.

The imported cabbageworm is still around, but we have removed many of its favorite plants like kale, broccoli and cauliflower. Right now we are keeping them under control by picking them off the plants.

I brought some shredded newspaper to add to the worm bin. While adding the moistened paper bedding to the bin, we noticed several white baby worms that look like very tiny bits of string.

Most of the garden is doing well. Everything has taken off with the recent wet weather and warm temperatures.

Posted by Ron Wolford at 1:12 AM | Permalink |

July 13, 2008

Smart Home Garden Report: July 12

We nearly received an inch of rain at the garden Friday night. This was the first decent rain we have had in over a month. Most of the storms have gone north or south of Chicago.

With the recent warm weather a lot of the veggies have really taken off, especially the vegetables and herbs in the earthboxes on the Museum steps. We removed some of the flowering kale that was infested with the imported cabbageworm and planted sweet corn and zucchini. The imported cabbageworm attacked our collards, kale, cauliflower and broccoli. We removed the kale, brocolli and cauliflower since they were past their prime and we will remove the cabbageworms by hand and hit them with Bt, Bacillus thuringiensis, a non-toxic control that paralyzes the digestive system of the worm and it dies in a few days from starvation.

Hector, our garden cat was back. He was a lot braver today. He hangs out near the sewer grate in the garden and will dart into the sewer when scared. If he is not in the sewer, he hangs out in the parsley along the north wall of the Museum. He must be very hungry because he happily lapped up a puddle of my V-8 juice that I poured on the concrete slab in the garden.

We harvested a few golden zucchini today and some of the parsley. We do have a few peppers starting to develop. We have caged a couple of the tomato plants and will be putting up additional support for the tomatoes this comimg week.

We had our first sighting of a celebrity at the Smart Home on Saturday. Bill Nye, the Science Guy, toured the Smart Home. He was at the Museum for a lecture.

Posted by Ron Wolford at 2:20 PM | Permalink |