Vol 2-7
Our Garden Has Roots
Each of our gardens has given us so much during this growing season. Each plot has given the entire community so much. We've individually benefited from the meditation of tending to our plot, planting seeds, carefully tucking seedlings into the medium, watering with care, and harvesting the fruits (or veggies) of our labor. Our community has mused in watching butterflies flit across the plot of wildflowers, to the tippity top of the towering hollyhocks, as they rest on squash blossoms, or while they flutter through our CEGA award winning video. Our community has had a beautiful area to rest and listen to the sounds of summer; birds singing, cicadas chirping, and cars wizzing by in the distance. All of our garden plots have contributed to bringing a slice of nature to our concrete environment.
All 35 of our garden plots have been tucked in for winter. While they lay in wait for the 2022 growing season, not everything is completely dormant. Perennials and some root vegetables do amazing things all winter. Onions, shallots, garlic, turnips, and carrots are among the root vegetables with adaptations that allow for them to be planted in fall and harvested in spring. If planted properly, garlic can withstand temperatures as low as thirty degrees below zero, Fahrenheit that is.
To harvest garlic come spring, cloves of garlic can be planted 4" deep when the temperature is consistently around 50F in the morning. Mid-October is usually the ideal time to plant. Before winter's big freeze, the garlic cloves will differentiate into heads of garlic, and grow roots. Over the winter, when temperatures venture over 40F the roots will continue to grow and help with the survival of the crop.
Let's dig deeper into what is going on in the roots of perennials during the depths of winter. Perennials are able to sense the length of daylight is shortening thus activating a cascade of preparation for winter. The timing of these changes can be critical. With early frost or a late heat wave, the winterizing process can be disrupted.
One of the first changes made in the plant are the cessation of activity in the meristems and leaf primordia, areas designed to create new growth. No new leaves, branches, or stems will be grown. This is the start of their energy savings and storage.
Then, for most perennials, all lush and green tissues die off, leaving more hearty trunks, stems, and the network of roots to overwinter. We see leaves falling from trees, long grasses drying out, and flowers withering.
Some perennials compartmentalize the water outside of their cells to protect from destruction. These plants are those such as grasses that easily spring back to life come spring.
Other perennials build protection with a stockpile of proteins and sugars to lower the freezing point of the water in their cells. This is what you see in root vegetables and other bulbs.
Further still, some perennials employ a mechanism to create a change the composition of the fatty acids in their cell walls for more flexibility if ice does form.
Perennials handle cold weather by allowing the exposed parts of the plant to die. However, the roots survive the winter due to some unique coping mechanisms. Sugars in the roots of a perennial act as a kind of natural antifreeze by lowering the freezing point.
It will be exciting to pick our frost blanket in the spring, when days are growing longer and growing warmer by the day. It is likely that only the heartiest will have survived. To see hearty rosemary or thyme, garlic, or flowers ready to thrive will be a great start to the season.
Like our favorite perennials, the Garden Commission will continue to work over the winter so that the Imperial Towers Community Garden is ready to spring to life come spring. This will be our last newsletter of 2021, but we will continue our behind the scenes work with long range planning, ensuring our plots are winterized, signing up new gardeners, registering old and new gardeners with updated leases, coordinating with partners to open in the spring, and making sure we are well supplied for the coming season.
We hope you enjoyed the 2021 season and look forward to seeing all of you in the garden come March 2022.
CEGA Award
Representatives of our Garden Commission were invited to join in a local radio show highlighting all of this year's Chicago Excellence in Gardening Award Winers. The First hour of the 2 hour show is the segment on the Chicago Excellence in Gardening Awards. There and there are 3 categories of winners. A teaching garden at UIC-for cooking and gardening won their category. Also highlighted is a sustainable home garden in Bollingbrook where a homeowner turned their lawn and backyard into a garden for produce and natural habitat.
Our portions can be found around 6:25 and 50:00.
Good News
We are on Facebook!
The Imperial Towers Community Garden now has a moderated Facebook Group. We encourage you to stay connected to your fellow gardeners in this new group. It is a private group, but open to all gardeners. We are excited to foster conversations about plot care, inquiries for help watering plots, strategies for trellising, gardening fails, gardening hacks, and celebrating successes large and small. Join in the conversation and the fun:
Fresh from the Garden Recipes -
Shakshuka
A dish with origins in the Middle East, with variations across Europe and Africa, this dish is an amazing breakfast, lunch, and hangover cure. Use your canned tomatoes and warm your bones with this hearty vegetable dish. Enjoy it any time of day.
Ingredients:
28oz can plum (or diced) tomatoes
1 large yellow onion, diced
optional zucchini, eggplant, 14 oz can cannellini beans (drained)
1 red bell pepper, diced
8 eggs
½ cup feta cheese
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup chopped parsley
8 cloves garlic, chopped
1 ½ teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
Freshly ground black pepper
Crusty bread or pita for serving
Directions:
Heat olive oil over medium heat in a heavy 12-inch oven safe frying pan, skillet, or cast iron pan with tall sides and a lid. Add onion and red bell pepper (and zucchini, eggplant, beans if desired) along with the salt and some freshly ground black pepper.
Cover and cook about 5 minutes, stir occasionally, until somewhat tender.
Add garlic, cumin, paprika and pepper flakes and cook, stirring frequently, two minutes more.
Add tomatoes and salt to taste and simmer until slightly thickened, about 15 minutes.
Reduce heat to medium-low and, working one at a time, use a spoon to make a small well for each egg and crack egg into it. Cover pan and simmer until whites just begin to set.
Transfer theta a 400°F oven. The eggs should set in about 10 minutes. Start checking at the 5 minute mark.
Remove from heat and sprinkle with feta and parsley.
Serve with crusty bread or pita.
* if adding all optional ingredients, add extra tomato (fresh or canned) and double the spices.
Ask Rose
Dear Rose,
I'm already looking forward to gardening next year. Is there anything I can do to prepare for the next growing season over the winter?
Please help!
-Dreaming of Spring
Dear Dreaming of Spring,
A few things you can do:
Make a map- Consider aesthetic and companion plants.
Buy Seeds- There are all sorts of options out there for interesting varieties of everything we love. Check out Eden Brothers, Baker Creek, Annie's, or Wildflower Trading.
Propagate seedlings- Starting seeds indoors too early results in leggy, overgrown seedlings. Aim to transplant seedlings into the garden about a week after the last expected spring frost date. Make an estimate of the last frost date, or reference the almanac, and count backwards by six to eight weeks. That’s when you should sow your seeds indoors.
Cheers to successful growing,
Rose
Find more helpful hints for opening your garden on our Resources page.
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