Yes, it is the time for Harvest Moons, Fall Planting, and time for the Fall Camarillo Community Garden’s Meeting.

Come out this Thursday evening, September 20th and join us at 7:00 p.m. in Room 3 of the Community Center.

Fall Peppers is a post from: Community Gardens Blog

Stay tuned for website updates!

Map to the Baptist Church

Summer at Camarillo Community Gardens is a post from: Community Gardens Blog

The theme this year is simply “Healthy Living”.

Earthday Camarillo will again feature activities for all ages, including environmental, community, and educational booths, art and craft vendors, an expanded food selection, the Camarillo White Horses, belly dancers, and live entertainment including Charles “Wsir” Johnson, Mariachi Gallos de Oro, and The Sloppy Joes. Children’s activities include bounce houses, craft activities, storytelling, and a costume parade.

More information is available on the website at www.earthdaycamarillo.com. Updates and schedules will be posted as they happen.

This grassroots event is organized and funded by Camarillo Community Gardens, with support from Pleasant Valley Recreation and Parks District and the City of Camarillo. Sponsors include The Acorn, Camarillo Recycling, Corn of the Sea, Nopalito Native Plant Nursery, LLC., So-Cal Self Storage, and Team Nissan.

Earthday Camarillo 2012 is a post from: Community Gardens Blog

Read the full article here: “Second Site Sought for Community Garden”

Camarillo Community Gardens In the Star is a post from: Community Gardens Blog

Rick is asking the Ventura County residents to help him collect more specimens for a paper he is currently writing on this find.  He expects that these specimens may well end up in either the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco or the American Museum of Natural History in New York because of the importance of this discovery.  Your work will become a part of entomological history!

Please refer to the image of the spider to help you identify any possible finds. Rick has noted, “The spider is chocolate brown in color and some females lose A LOT of the light marking on the abdomen.”

Toward this end, Rick is asking Ventura County residents willing to help him, to please:

Have a few amber prescription containers on hand.

Search in your yard for this new spider:

• under plastic patio furniture
• in the indentations under garbage cans
• under potted plants that are raised off the ground
• under picnic tables

If you suspect that you have found the spider, use a stick to carefully maneuver the spider into the amber prescription container.

Please place a piece of paper towel in the container so the spider has something to hold onto during transport but also enough space to move around some; perhaps a piece that doesn’t exceed 1/3-1/2 of the size of the container.

Please mark each specimen container with the following:

• Date and yard location of find
• Complete house address of find
• Your name and phone number

Please mail your live spider within one week or so of its collection, keeping it out of the heat in the meantime.  A padded envelope would be helpful.

Please send your specimens to:

One further note from Rick:  “the mature female is as large as a black widow and therefore, is large enough to inflict a bite; however, the effects of the bite are minor.”

New Spider Discovered in Ventura County is a post from: Community Gardens Blog

There are bobcats living in the barranca just past the condos. First, we had one, then it took a mate, and now there are 2 half-grown bob kittens roaming the hills.

When the first one showed up, we had coyotes, rabbits and squirrels, but not a single house cat on the hill. The adult bobcats have tangled with the coyotes who leave the area alone now. Caring for the kittens has reduced the adults’ range this last year, and the impact on the local rodents has been dramatic.

The bobcats has reduced the quail population considerably, but now we have gone from being over run with rabbits and squirrels to being almost rodent free. A biologist recently said the way you judged bobcat presence was the lack of jack rabbits

An adult bobcat ranges a mile or more in any direction, but the kittens only venture less than a mile. After eliminating everything except the gophers, I expect the kittens to be showing up at the garden along with their parents to help out with the squirrel and rabbit problems.

Another natural predator that should be familiar to you in the garden is the falcon.

We are lucky to have a pair successfully nesting in the area. After creating a more meadow-like yard, open to the sky, the falcons have spent a lot of time working my garden and orchard areas.

Together with the red-tail and red-shouldered hawks and resident owls on patrol, our rodent problems are greaetly reduced.

Now, if they would just work on the gophers…

Garden Predators and Antonio Garden is a post from: Community Gardens Blog

Plant Your Garden And Grow Cash for Camarillo Community Garden!

Buy your garden seeds from Renee’s Garden Seeds and 25% of the order value will be donated to Camarillo Community Gardens.

Here’s how it works:

Simply go to www.reneesgarden.com and choose from the wide selection of seeds for heirloom and gourmet vegetables, cottage garden flowers and culinary herbs, special seed collections and great kitchen garden cookbooks.

At check out, just enter the code FR442A in the coupon code box on the checkout page, and that’s it!

Renee’s Garden will send a year-end check to Camarillo Community Garden for 25% of all orders who use this fundraising code. Code expires December 31 each year.

This is a year-round, on-going fundraiser, so order regularly for spring, fall and holiday gifts. Spread the word to your friends and family!

A Note From Renee Shepherd

I am excited to be partnering with Camarillo Community Garden to grow cash donations for your new community garden through our fundraising program. Here’s a little background about my seed company:

At Renee’s Garden, I offer only the varieties that are very special for home gardeners, based on great flavor, easy culture and exceptional garden performance. This seed line is my personal selection of time-tested heirlooms, the best international hybrids and fine open-pollinated varieties.

I harvest and use the vegetables and herbs in my kitchen to choose the most delicious, and cut the flowers for bouquets to select the finest colors, forms and fragrances. Our varieties are tested and guaranteed for every major US climate zone.

Our individually written packets offer beautiful watercolor portraits, with personally written descriptions, complete growing instructions, a quick-view planting chart, growing tips, harvesting information and cooking ideas.

Inside you’ll find superior quality seed–the top germinating, reliable seed usually reserved for specialty growers.

Renee’s Garden is my practical way to spread the joy of gardening as a meaningful, productive and satisfying activity that connects us to each other and the earth. Please join me!

6060A Graham Hill Rd., Felton, CA 95018 www.reneesgarden.com

Renee’s Garden Sponsorship is a post from: Community Gardens Blog

The weather we have had the last two winters has been quite puzzling. We had La Ninas predicted but got El Nino rains. And 92 degrees days followed by 45 degree days. East Winds (or Santanas) followed by monsoons.

What we are seeing in our gardens is cool weather crops bolting from the heat, and warm season veggies being challenged by the cold weather. Here  are a couple of ideas for you to consider.

Grow your own shade to protect your cool weather veggies

Here is the quandary – most veggies need full sun, some veggies need shade. How do we get both? And how do we maximize our limited gardening space?

How about a grow-your-own shade system.

Shade Structure View From Above

I wish I could give credit for this idea, but forget where it came from. Shade structures from light wood frames and chicken wire or light mesh makes a sturdy support for climbing or sprawling plants. The supporting frame can be any convenient size, and can be readjusted to change the shadow cast.

The frames double the amount of growing space with a shade providing plant, given full access to the sun, and cool weather veggies in their own micro-climate.

Sprawling plants, such as cucumbers or peas provide shade and developing fruit benefit from being kept off the cold, damp ground.

Shade Structure Side View

Other early developing plants that needs support are determinate tomatoes. Try growing these on mesh and the fruit will hang out the bottom, waiting for you.

‘Determinant’ means the plant’s genetics have determined the number of tomatoes they will grow, and they grow them all at once.

These fruit heavily, suddenly, and tend to be early season varieties – which means they are in and out before summer really hits.

New Zealand Spinach is another possibility. This plant is not a  true spinach, grows rapidly, easily, and adapts well to our weather.

Ours was started from 1 packet of seeds in 1952. This plant has proved to be both drought and heat tolerant (although not at the same time).

New Zealand Spinach

This under-appreciated green is very high in nutrients, often 50% more than ‘real’ spinach. It gives a slightly spicy taste to recipes calling for spinach. The leaf is thicker than spinach and slightly fuzzy, giving it more texture than true spinach.

Another nice thing about this plant is that is doesn’t care if it is hot or cold – or both.

It grows quickly enough that you can adjust the light that passes through simply cutting it back harder or not. If let go, it forms a dense mat that covers the ground, preventing weeds. Any excess, with all the water and nitrogen it contains, does wonders for your compost pile.

Cool Weather Veggies to Grow in the Shade

Understory veggies that would benefit from the shade and cooler micro-climate include shorter lettuces  (such as the ‘cut-n-come-again’, mache mixes, or other baby lettuces) in front, with taller varieties such as Romaine, chard, or taller cabbage family plants (broccoli, cauliflower, etc.) placed to the rear.

The stair-step arrangement allows air and predators access to your plants, keeping them dry and free from bugs and diseases. Or at least, that’s the theory Our experience with aphids hiding in curled leaves shows the value of keeping areas open - watch that drama unfold.

The outlook is bright for predatory insects. The long wet winter has given us an abundant crop of predatory insect. An army of lady bug larvae was emerging in this morning’s warmth – and heading off to feed…

Remember when ordering seeds this year Renee’s Coupon Code that brings Camarillo Community Garden 25% of each purchase is FR442A – as we mentioned in this post on our new partner.

What to Plant When the Weather Can’t Decide is a post from: Community Gardens Blog

Saving Seeds

Now that we have been harvesting our crops, a number of people have asked about seed saving. Today I got a a copy of a new publication on seed saving. Although it is designed for teachers with school gardens, there is a bounty of really useful information included for everyone.

I have loaded the book onto our site, and you can read it by clicking this link: A Handful of Seeds – SEED STUDY AND SEED SAVING FOR EDUCATORS, by Tina Poles, Occidental Arts and Ecology Center. If you would like to save a copy to your computer, right-click the link and select ‘save as…’ from the pop-up menu.

As I said, this is meant for use in schools, but you will find everything from basic botany, parts of flowers named and explained, what (and why) are there fruits, essays on our major food crops and our food pioneers.

Saving Seeds is a post from: Community Gardens Blog

Garden Plot Waiting List is a post from: Community Gardens Blog