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Three-Sisters Crop Is Thriving

The three-sisters crop of corn, beans and squash is thriving (see the feature story below.) On Memorial Day, 2011, we took some pictures to show you just how well the crop is coming along.

The food harvested from this plot goes to local food banks and we are trying this native-American technique wanted to see if we could make this plot more productive with less labor.

The corn has just started tasseling and the first few squash are ready to harvest. Looks like we're going have a nice corn harvest later this summer.

Click here for the photo album.

Planting the Back Plot (the "Pumpkin Patch")

The large unboarded plot where we planted pumpkins last Fall (now to be called the back plot) is being planted with what is known as the "three sisters". The food harvested from this plot goes to local food banks and so we wanted to see what we could do to make it more productive.

So exactly what are the three sisters? - they are corn, beans, and squash. The tradition of planting these three corps together came from the American Indians. Though they could not have known the science behind why these three vegetables are so synergistic, they never-the-less support each other very well.

Native Americans throughout North America are known for growing variations of three sisters gardens. The 2009 Native American dollar coin honored the three sisters companion planting technique on the back of the coin.

Corn like all grains (wheat and rice being the other two most widely grown grains) is an ideal combination of carbohydrates and proteins, the building blocks of good nutrition. Corn though is a heavy user of nitrogen, which is where beans are needed. Beans are legumes which mean they take nitrogen from the air and put it into the soil. In other words the beans supply the nitrogen that the corn needs to grow. Not only that, but corn has very shallow roots and a long stalk. These two factors make corn susceptible to falling over in strong winds. Beans on the other had are veining plants that use the corn stalk to grow (vine) on. The vines act like cables to help keep the corn upright in strong winds.

So what benefit does squash add? If you saw the pumpkin patch (pumpkins are actually a winter squash) you noticed how vast the plant was, covering every square inch of the ground. This characteristic of squash blocks out the light from reaching the ground, preventing weeds from growing.

So what do we get with the "three sisters"? - A great source of nutrition, a great source of nitrogen and support, and a great weed blocker; a demonstration of how we can use crops to support each other without a lot of work or chemicals.

Application of Beneficial Nematodes

On March 26, we applied beneficial nematodes to the entire community garden. Beneficial nematodes are typically used in organic gardening to eliminate the need for chemical pesticides to control a board range of soil-dwelling pests that damage vegetables gardens.

Beneficial nematodes are small (approximately 0.4 mm) natural predators that attack and kill soil-dwelling pests but are safe for humans, animals, plants and even earthworms. Nematodes target pests such as aphids, cutworms, mealy bugs, ants and basically any other pest that spends any portion of their life cycle living in the soil.

A healthy colony of beneficial nematodes also control fire ants and should be at least partially effective controlling the squash vine borer, particularly, those that over-winter in the soil.

Click here for details.

Successful Work Day

On March 12th we had a work day to prepare our gardens for spring planting. Much of the work done was clearing weeds both in plots and in walkways. I want to thank everyone for their help moving chips into the walkways to keep down the weeds. We will be planning a work day soon to finish removing the last of the weeds and putting chips in our walkways.

Updated: Three Plots Available

Three plots are currently available in the Acers Community Garden as of Friday, April 29, 2011. The diagram below shows the location of the available plots for this season. Please note that some currently-taken plots may become available later so we will update this diagraph from time to time to let you know. If you would like one of the plots, please click here use the contact form or call the church office during business hours.

Gardeners: Consider Topping Up the Levels of Your Soil and Wood Chips

If your soil is a little low, go ahead and add compost to the level of the top of the cedar box surrounding your plot. This will give your crops as much soil as possible for developing root zones. We had a truck-load of high-quality compost delivered and is here for the use of our gardeners. Please use it as you need.

Also, in the pathways around your plot, you might need to top-up with more wood chips. Each year, a certain amount of the wood chips will decompose. At some point the soil under the pathways will begin to appear and become muddy when wet. To maintain a mud-free pathway all around you plot, add another couple of inches of wood chips to the pathways on all four sides of your plot.Generally, each lane between plots will require two wheelbarrow loads and the ends will require one each.

We had a truck load of wood chips delivered for this purpose.

Before you add ant wood chips, pick any weeds or grass that have come up in the pathways around your plot.

Compost Processing: Recycling Organic Refuse From the Garden

Our three compost bins are located in the southeast corner of the garden. Discarded organic matter from all of our garden plots are collected in these bins. The digestion of material by the naturally-occuring fauna  living in the compost pile (bacteria, worms, etc.) will make all of the material into nutrient-rich organic compost that can be recycled into our garden plots enriching the soil starting next year.

Click here for details.

It's Better the Second Year!

In talking to Pam Smith (Director of Farmer Branch Parks and Recreation) she remarked that the Farmers Branch community garden did much better the second year. The reason for this is that organic gardening relies on microorganisms to generate nutrient which feed your plants. The first year, new soil (which is what we put in your garden) had very little time for the microbes to develop. This means that the organic matter that you put into your garden needs to be broken down by these microbes in order to have nutrients for the plants to use. You can get by this the first year by using liquid nutrients (fish emulsion for example) but that takes a lot of work and you need to do this frequently. The nice thing about going organic is, once you have enough microbes, the nutrients are somewhat self regulating. Another way to say this is that the microbe/plant relationship is symbiotic. So, the more nutrients that are used by the plant, the more the microbes produce. Once your garden gets going, it will be very easy to maintain.

The Story of a Winter Cover Crop

Acers Community Gardener (and member of Central Christian Church) Bill Anderton shares the story of his winter cover crop and the organic bed preparation he just completed. For a winter cover crop, Bill planted a 50/50 mixture of alfalfa and red clover for all of the traditional reasons for growing "green manure." However, he also had a strategy for using the deep roots of these two types of plants to penetrate the layer of heavy native Houston Black soil on which the raised portions of our garden plots were placed. The roots growing into this heavy soil layer will create channels for water and nutrients to enter this heavy soil layer plus the roots themselves will introduce lots of organic matter to speed up the lightening of this layer of soil. The goal was to create a deeper root zone for the coming summer vegetable crop.

Click here for the details.

Planting Schedule

With all the nice weather we have received, everyone is wondering when they can plant their garden. If you are talking about vegetables that can take cold weather (freezing) you can plant now. If you are talking about vegetables that can't take freezing, I would recommend waiting until after March 15th (last average frost date). Click here if you want to see what to plant and when.

Garden Newletters

Click here for past issues of the Garden Newsletters.

Dallas Area Planting Calendar

Don Lambert of Gardeners in Community Development has developed a planting calendar for this area.

Click here to download this planting calendar.

About Our Name

We have dedicated this community garden to honor the Acers family, Maurice Acers, Ebby Halliday Acers and Effie Elizabeth Acers. We acknowledge and hope to honor a critical link in the chain of Dallas gardens. From 1986-89 Maurice Acers headed the Advisory Council of Communities Foundation of Texas and it was his far-sighted leadership that resulted in the Communities Foundation providing land on which the first Asian Garden was built. Since that time, Communities Foundation of Texas has provided other tracts for additional gardens.

Today, we are proud to honor the Acers family name with the dedication of this land which we know will continue and sustain a wonderful legacy of the family's generous support of our city, our neighborhoods and our church.

Click here for details.

Contact Us For More Information

Click here to fill out our web submission form for more information or to reserve on of the plots in the Acres Community Garden.

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