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NeWSNORTHAMPTON COMMUNITY GARDENrJULY 2018CJULY INSPECTION /RAGWEEDWALKTHROUGHSunday, July 15 is the date forour annual Ragweed /WeedWalkthrough.What’s wrong with ragweed? We doour best to get rid of ragweed,because so many gardeners aremildly or seriously allergic to thepollen of Ambrosia artemisiifolia,common ragweed; it can spoiltheir pleasure of being in andworking in the garden.Ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia)Our goal is to eliminate as muchragweed as possible before itflowers. Please pull up anyragweed plants you find in yourown plot(s). Keep an eye out forragweed growing in public spaces,and pull that up, too. Onceragweed has flowered, its seedswill continue to ripen even after itis pulled up. Because ragweedseed remains viable for manyyears, you should throw floweringragweed in the dumpster – not inthe compost. If you don’t knowwhat ragweed looks like, see thephoto on this page.If you were sidelined by the recentscorching weather, please get outnow to pull up any ragweed in yourplot.On Sunday, July 15, inspectionteams will walk through the Gardento check plots for ragweed. Whenthey find plants in a plot, they’ll tagone or two samples with red tape.Avoid that red badge of shame, andget rid of the ragweed now!Inspection teams will notewhether your plot has: 1) a lot ofragweed, 2) lots of weeds, or 3)unmowed grass and weeds at theedges; they’ll also check for 4) avisible, legible plot sign (a sign is apositive thing!).If your plot needs attention, youwill receive an e-mail or a phone callto confirm that you are stillworking your plot. SNORTHAMPTONCITY WATER BANAfter a very dry spring, the cityhas enacted a water ban onnon-essential water use.The ban does not affect water useat the Garden. However, we allshould continue to help conservewater — especially when there’salready a water ban in effect.5T2018 GARDENCALENDARRAGWEED WALKTHROUGHSunday, July 15FALL CLEANUP DAYSaturday, October 6FALL INSPECTIONSunday, October 14LAST-CHANCE INSPECTIONSunday, October 28GARDEN COMMITTEEMEETINGSThird Monday each month@ 6:00 p.m. at the Rec. Dept.at JFK Middle School(or in the Garden during nice weather;call to confirm)Please pay careful attention tothe handling of hoses and to thecondition of all hoses and spigotsthroughout the Garden.Report any leaky hoses/spigots/sprayers to Water Manager, TomBassett (shawbass@comcast.net) immediately so they can berepaired. SWHY THE COMMUNITYGARDEN COMMITTEERECOMMENDS THAT YOUNOT TILL THE SOIL INYOUR GARDEN PLOT.First, what is tilling? If you plow afield, if you rototill a garden, if youuse a shovel to turn over the soil
NORTHAMPTON COMMUNIT Y GARDEN NEWSin your plot, you are tilling. Whathappens when you till?1. Weed seeds that lie below thesurface are exposed to sunlightwhen you turn over the soil. It’sestimated that 5000 weedseeds per square foot may befound in your Garden plot. Not allof them will germinate when youturn over that square foot, butmore than enough of them will.Rototilling gives you the falseimpression that it will make yourplot weed-free. In fact, while itturns under the surface weeds, itexposes many more weed seeds,which will start germinating in acouple of weeks, and you are backto Square One with weeding. Anadditional problem is that, if thereis any witch grass (aka quackgrass), rototilling will chop up theroots into tiny pieces, each ofwhich will produce a grass plant.And there is witch grass in theGarden.Photograph by Priscilla Touhey2. Weed seeds and witch grassrhizomes are not the onlyresidents of the sub-surface soilin your plot. There is also a diversecommunity of microbes (bacteria,fungi,.) which plays an importantrole in maintaining essential soilfunctions. There is now increasingevidence that tilling (whethermechanical or by hand) isdisruptive to this community, themicrobiome. The result is adecrease in the availability ofnutrition and water to yourplants.3. Soil is a massive repository forcarbon. Tilling brings about therelease of sequestered carbon.Both covering your plot withcompost and planting cover cropsincrease the stored carbonReducing our carbon footprint,thus combatting climate change,is surely a goal for all of us.We need to look for ways ofgardening that increase theamount of carbon our soil holds,at the same time keeping weeds incheck and nourishing themicrobiome. The regenerativeagriculture movement is exploringtechniques to help farmersaccomplish this. At a level forcommunity gardeners, anexcellent resource is WeedlessGardening, by Lee Reich (WorkmanPublishing). You could order a copy,check your local library, or look fora Garden workshop on weedlessgardening, to be announced soon.We’ll perform weedless magic on avolunteer’s plot and trace thesuccess of the method throughthe year.Check out an article in theDecember 3, 2017, New York Times:“Soil Power! The Dirty Way to aGreen Planet,” by Jacques Leslie.— Mimi Teghtsoonian SPRODUCE DONATIONSFOR THE SURVIVALCENTERIf you have a surplus in yourgarden, consider sharing it withneighbors in need! TheNorthampton Community Gardencoordinates donations of freshvegetables to the NorthamptonSurvival Center throughout thegrowing season.JULY 2018YPAGE 2Donations from your plots at theCommunity Garden may be left inthe bins behind the tool shed onMondays and Thursdays, before9:00 a.m.Butterfly and echinacea by Ariel ShapiroIf you’d like to volunteer to deliverdonations to the Survival Center(on Prospect Street, across fromthe YMCA), please see the signupsheet on the bulletin board.Successful trips qualify for 1 hourof Community Service.Send your questions to DonationsCoordinator, Jim Frank atmijknarf65@yahoo.com. SHERB GARDEN IS OPENIf you’d like to volunteer to helpcare for the herb garden (towardyour Community Service hours)please contact Betsy Yount atjnbyount@gmail.com. Workconsists mostly of weeding,watering, and harvesting fordonations to the NorthamptonSurvival Center. Thank you, BetsyYount, for coordinating this. STHEFT IN THE GARDEN— PLEASE BE AWATCHFUL NEIGHBOREveryone’s gardens are lookinggreat, so a few passers-by seethat as an opportunity to comeinto the Garden to take things
NORTHAMPTON COMMUNIT Y GARDEN NEWSthat don’t belong to them.We’ve had several reports ofentire plants being dug up andremoved; and flowers, garlicof hours you have worked. It willtake just a moment to complete.People who receive postal mail onlywill receive a short Work Hoursform by mail.Thank you for making the Gardenwork! SMOWERS AND CARTSTomato by Noa C.W.scapes, and strawberries havebeen picked.Please keep an eye out forsuspicious activity in your areaand report it to your GardenNeighbor or anyone from theGarden Committee. If you seeoutright theft, call the police. SHOW TO LOG YOURSERVICE HOURSThere have been questions abouthow to record the hours you workfor the Garden. This year we aretrying to go as digital as possiblein recording community servicehours. (We realize that there arestill some people who do not usecomputers or e-mail, but at thispoint, most community gardenersdo.)If you receive regular e-mailannouncements from the Garden(sent by Northampton Parks andRecreation Department), you’llfind a section in the messagewhere you can record the numberThank you to everyone who signedup for mowing shifts and for thegreat work you’ve all accomplishedthus far with only one operablemachine! (Some of you even usedyour own personal mowers!)All the mowers are now back fromthe service shop, and we’ll have afull “fleet” for the mowing team touse — with four tuned-up, gaspowered machines and three orfour push reel-mowers.Please remember that the gasmowers are locked for safety andthat only trained volunteermowers may use them.Send any questions to MowingManager, Blaise Bisaillon, atbbisaillon@yahoo.com.We also have a brand new bicycletire pump, so the tires on thecarts and wheelbarrows can befilled by whomever is on weeklycart duty. STHANK YOU!The Garden Committee thanksthe following people (and more whowill be mentioned next time)who have taken on coordinationduties this year. They devote lotsof time to the Garden!TOM BASSETT,Water and Hose ManagerBLAISE BISAILLON ,Mowing ManagerLINDA BISAILLON ,JULY 2018YPAGE 32018 Inspection ManagerJIM FRANK , Survival CenterDonations CoordinatorLANA HELEMS ,June Inspection LeaderPETER PAYNE , gardener,woodworker, and picnic tablebuilder, for all of his service as amember of the Garden Committee,and for his continuing help in theGardenPoppies by Noa C.W.The PHOTOGRAPHERS, PAINTERS,and ILLUSTRATORS who suppliedthe art in this newsletterBETSY YOUNT,Herb Garden Manager SSAVING THEMULBERRY TREELast year we ran into somedifficulties because the DPW, whois in charge of turning over ourcompost piles near the mulberrytree (near the back road), whosaid that the tree was in the wayand that their equipment couldnot navigate around the tree. Thesolution to the problem, in theirmind, was to cut it down. Word
NORTHAMPTON COMMUNIT Y GARDEN NEWSspread through the garden, andmany folks were not happy withthis decision. Many emails ensuedand some gardeners visited thetree warden and the DPW toexpress their concerns andopposition to the killing of thiswonderful and historic tree. In theend, a decision was made to movethe compost pile, rather thancutting down the tree. Those of usthat fought to save the tree wereoverjoyed, and on June 28 lastyear we had a picnic under themulberry tree to celebrate. Wetied ribbons around the tree tocelebrate the outcome.Do you know the historicsignificance of the mulberry tree inour city? The following informationcomes from Marjorie Senechal, aNorthampton historian, whoshared information with thegarden committee last year whenwe were trying to save the tree.The city seal is literally ringed withmulberry leaves and silkworms!And that’s for good reason. From1832 to 1936, Northampton madesilk, and silk made Northampton.The Community Garden treeprobably dates from the earliestyears of the city’s silk industry, whenSamuel Whitmarsh planted mulberrytrees to feed silkworms on and nearthe banks of the Mill River where theCommunity Gardens now stand, andbuilt a factory to unwind thecocoons and twist them into thread.His spectacular failure was a gift tothe nascent egalitarian NorthamptonAssociation for Education andIndustry, which was looking for aplace to live and a means to live onthat did not depend on slaveproduced cotton. Sojourner Truthwas one of many fascinating peoplewho joined and called it home forawhile. The NAEI’s struggling silkthread business later became, in thehands of Samuel Hill, a thrivingsteam-powered enterprise that soldits products to Isaac M. Singer, whowas looking for a thread thatwouldn’t snap under the tensions ofhis new machine. Hill’s triple-twistedsilk thread passed that stern test,and Singer told Hill he would buy allthe thread Hill could make. Hillreturned home and persuaded thelocal village to rename itselfFlorence, as one day it would surelyrival its Italian namesake. And it did.Corticelli silk thread (named tosound Italian!) became the world’sbest seller — and Northampton’slargest employer.The mulberry tree in the CommunityGarden bears silent witness to thisrich history. Indeed it may haveactually witnessed it. It should beallowed to live its lifespan, givingpleasure and shade to communitygardeners, as it has throughout itslife.”It was fascinating to learn the thesilk industry was created as ananti-slavery initiative to developfibers not related to the cottonindustry, which was directlyrelated to slavery.From the “Historic Northampton”website comes this information:In 1842, members of theNorthampton Association ofEducation and Industry established autopian community organizedaround a communally owned andJULY 2018YPAGE 4operated silk mill. Those who weredrawn to this community sought tochallenge the prevailing socialattitudes of their day by creating asociety in which “the rights of all areequal without distinction of sex,color or condition, sect or religion.”They were especially united aroundthe issue of the abolition of slavery.Most were followers of William LloydGarrison. Sojourner Truth was amember of the community andvisitors like Frederick Douglass wereregular lecturers.Photograph by Priscilla TouheyYou can learn more atwww. historic- northampton .org / highlights /educationindustry. htmlMost of you know about thewonderful statue on Pine Streetin Florence, dedicated toSojourner Truth, who once lived inFlorence. You can learn more at:sojournertruthmemorial . orgWe saved this historic tree, and itis a very significant tree in thehistory of Northampton &Florence and in the struggle tocreate a better world in which “therights of all are equal.” Hopefully,this information will give you moreappreciation for this lovelymulberry tree which gives us thegift of shade, and also feeds usand the birds. Yes, the berries areedible. Enjoy them and thiswonderful tree that keeps ongiving. And may it also bring us
NORTHAMPTON COMMUNIT Y GARDEN NEWShope and strength to create abirder. “I inherited my love for thebetter world.entire process of gardening from— Linda Wallack S my father, who for many decadeshad a much-admired vegetable andflower garden in the Bay Statesection of Northampton.”Photograph by Priscilla TouheyMEET SOME GARDENCOMMITTEE MEMBERSBRIAN ADAMS gardens with hiswonderful wife Morey Phippen inplots H7, H8 and G8. With theirpea fence peace flags fluttering inthe garden breeze, you can findBrian mulching and weeding awayon those glorious sunny summerdays. Come by and say hi when hissweet potatoes are in beautifulbloom.STEPH VASILIADESMy love of gardening wascultivated in me, around the age of5, by my grandmother, and hascontinued to grow through thelast 20 years that I’ve beengardening at the NCG. I garden inher honor, to nurture my preciousconnection to her and the earth,to surround myself with amodicum of beauty this world hasto offer, and to feed my family andloved ones. My favorite crops toplant are garlic and raspberries!A Northampton native, BLAISEBISAILLON is retired afterserving 26 years as Director ofForbes Library. This is his thirdyear as a NCG plot-owner and hisfirst year as a member of theCommittee. He is a life-long avidA resident of Northampton since1970, LINDA BISAILLON isretired after 25 years as Directorof Special Education at SmithVocational and Agricultural HS.This is her third year as a NCGplot-owner and her first as amember of the Committee. Lindais a certified Master Gardenerwho says, “I love creating apollinator friendly garden.”LARRI COCHRAN is a certifiedhorticulturist, Master Gardener,Landscape for Life trainer, andphotographer. She gives talks andteaches workshops on topicsrelated to garden design,pollinator habitat design, andgarden photography.ARLENE AVAKIANI have been gardening for manyyears, but when I can’t control fleabeetles or when something Iplanted just does not thrive, I stillfeel like a novice. I love being able toask my garden neighbors foradvice and am very happy to bejoining the garden committee.BETSEY WOLFSON has editedthe Community GardenNewsletter since 2001. She tendsa plot of asparagus in G18, and shethinks everyone should grow garlic!— Arlene Avakian SSCENES FROM OURJUNE 2 “CLEAN PLANT”SALEPhotographs by Steph VasiliadesJULY 2018YPAGE 5
FOR THE SURVIVAL CENTER If you have a surplus in your garden, consider sharing it with neighbors in need! The Northampton Community Garden coordinates donations of fresh vegetables to the Northampton Survival Center throughout the growing season. Donations from your plots at the Community Garden
