The Gardener's Home
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The Gardener’s Home A Publication of Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Hunterdon & Somerset Counties Welcome to Our First Issue The Gardener’s Home is a joint venture of Rutgers Cooperative Extension (RCE) of Somerset and Hunterdon Counties. Much of the information for the articles will come from Rutgers New Jersey Agri- cultural Experiment Station’s Cooperative Extension, the mission of which is to educate and improve Volume 1, No. 1 July 2011 the lives of people in the community. Hunterdon and Somerset County RCEs each offer a gardening helpline, which is very active from April through at least September every year. Questions asked by the public and answers provided by Master CONTENTS Gardeners will appear often in this newsletter. Extension Offices 2 The Gardener’s Home will contain articles on a variety of timely topics written by Rutgers Master Gar- deners and Extension Horticulturists. Information will be based on sound horticultural practices and Seeds-to-Salad: For Students 2 unbiased researched information. Whether it’s about trees, shrubs, vegetables, turf, or other popular topics, we won’t steer you wrong. 3 Seeds-to-Salad: For Parents We hope you will enjoy reading The Gardener’s Home as much as we will enjoy writing it. Great Tomato Tasting 3 Joe Gyurian Hunterdon Helpline Happenings 3 Master Gardeners at Somerset 4-H Fair Dragonflies 4 Hunterdon 4-H Fair 4 Come to the Somerset County 4-H Fair long way from the roots? Do all plants grow in from Wednesday, August 10 through Fri- soil? Do any plants eat meat? Gardeners’ Tips 4 day, August 12. This fair is organized by the Come and find out the answers from the Rut- Somerset County 4-H Association and the gers Master Gardeners! Take the Sunflower Viburnum Leaf Beetle 5 4-H youth development of Rutgers Coop- Quiz! Look at different root systems! And find erative Extension of Somerset County. The Composting Class 5 fair highlights and showcases the year-long out about the Secret Life of Plants! projects of the participants of various Visitors to the exhibit will have the opportu- Somerset Helpline: Wet Spring 6 clubs. It will be open from 10:00 am to nity to discuss their gardening issues with 10:00 pm, and is located at the 4-H Fair Master Gardeners at the tent. Information on Brown Marmorated Stink Bug 6 Grounds, North Branch Park, Milltown the Master Gardener program, and the To- Road, Bridgewater. mato Tasting event at Snyder Farm, Hunter- Winter Injury 7 don County to be held on August 31, will also Among the many kid-friendly exhibits is be available. Summer Gardening 8 Somerset’s Rutgers Master Gardener tent. The theme this year is “The Secret Life of By Marylin A. Hulme, Master Gardener Master Gardener Contributors 8 Plants.” How do plants know how to grow and where to grow? How do tree leaves get Your County Helpline Offices 8 their food all the way up in the canopy, a Cooperating Agencies: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and County Boards of Chosen Freeholders. Rutgers Cooperative Extension, a unit of the Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, is an equal opportunity program provider and employer. Contact your local Extension Office for information regarding special needs or accommodations. Contact the State Extension Director's Office if you have concerns related to discrimination, 732-932-5000 x584. The Gardener’s Home Page 2 Rutgers New Jersey SEEDS-TO-SALADS Agricultural A Master Gardener Program for Elementary School Students Experiment Station Imagine a summer’s day in a sunny give the strong seedlings room to grow. http://njaes.rutgers.edu school courtyard with trees, grass, and But sometimes it is hard to let the vegetable beds. It is full of students, smaller ones go. If there is extra parents, teachers, and guests celebrat- space in another bed, you transplant Rutgers NJAES Cooperative Extension of ing Salad Extravaganza! them. As the weeks pass, you watch HUNTERDON COUNTY your crop grow and look after it. Some- http://www.co.hunterdon.nj.us/ What is Salad Extravaganza, you may times the root crops, like radish and depts/rutgers/rutgers.htm ask? It is the final act in a play that beet, grow so quickly they start coming 908-788-1338 starts in the spring. Think of the proc- up out of the ground. If the weather is ess as a five-act play. really warm, the lettuces start to grow Rebecca Magron tall really fast. Gardeners call this In Act I, you, third grade students, plant “bolting”. You then cut the lettuces Horticultural Consultant your vegetable beds. Each one of you back. & Research Associate takes care of your own vegetable. It could be different kinds of lettuce, Act IV - Harvest Day! Lots of fun, hard Hunterdon Helpline beets, Swiss chard, a variety of onions, work, and excitement! You pull up your PO Box 2900 radishes or that slow starter—carrots. muddy beets, radishes, carrots and 6 Gauntt Place, Bldg. #2, Lower Level These cool weather crops do well in the Flemington, NJ 08822 onions, and then wash them. You har- spring. vest and rinse the lettuces and Swiss 908-788-1735 chard. You pile all your vegetables up In Act II, you learn about what your on a table and gather ‘round for a seeds need to grow. To germinate, they Photo Op. You are proud of your har- http://www.co.hunterdon.nj.us/mg.htm need some warmth (sun), water (rain), vest! The parents take everything to Hunterdon Helpline Hours: and space to grow. You hope it will be prepare the Salad. By now, the beds Monday through Friday sunny, so that the soil warms up to are looking pretty empty except, per- 9:00 — 12:00 help the seeds grow. To find out if the haps, for some onions and the Swiss Monday & Wednesday soil is warming up, you use a soil ther- chard, which will continue to grow all 12:30 to 3:30 mometer, sticking it down into the dirt. summer. But your job of growing the As for water, you check the rain gauge vegetables is done. Rutgers NJAES Cooperative Extension of which records the rainfall both in inches and in millimeters. Act V - Salad Extravaganza! SOMERSET COUNTY Then you report the re- The celebration of your har- http://somerset.njaes.rutgers.edu sults to your classmates. vest! You are ready to eat this 908-526-6293 If the vegetable beds are delicious, fresh salad that you not very warm, there is have grown. You have invited Joe Gyurian little you can do except everyone who helped you grow wait for another week. If Horticultural Consultant the salad: your parents, your there is too little rain, you teachers, Master Gardeners, can water the seeds, and community members. It Somerset Helpline swinging the watering 310 Milltown Road feels like a big party in the Bridgewater, NJ 08807 cans back and forth to a sunny courtyard. The salad count of five. looks delicious, mixed up in baby pools. The bags of croutons are wait- 908-526-6293 x3 Act III provides your vegetable seed- ing. You sing your “Garden Song”–and lings with space to grow. You weed and then it is time to eat. You have grown http://somerset.njaes.rutgers.edu/ you thin. First, you have to learn what a so much that you invite the rest of the garden weed looks like and make sure you get school to share. Congratulations to you Somerset Helpline Hours: out the roots. Because Swiss chard all! Another successful Salad Extrava- and beets have red stems, it is easy to Monday through Friday ganza! You take your bow! 9:00—12:00 find the weeds and pull them out. On- ions are also very different. But some- By Marylin A. Hulme times it is hard to know which plant is a In this publication, Rutgers NJAES weed—you have to ask your parent, Certified Master Gardener may be teacher, or the Master Gardener. You shortened to “Master Gardener”. learn that you must thin your crop to The Gardener’s Home Page 3 The Seeds-to-Salad Program: Information for Parents The account of the Seeds-to-Salads ganza are constantly astounded at munity support helps to obtain dona- program (written for students) is how often their children go back for tions of tools, mulch, seeds, and based on the one at Old York School extra helpings of their salad. They have plants. The school and the Master in Branchburg. This vegetable grown it, they know what is in it, and Gardeners provide some funding. All gardening program is closely aligned they take pride in the results—and they the stakeholders at Old York School with its third grade science curricu- enjoyed the doing of it. have created an exemplary model of lum, so that it becomes the practi- cooperation to make this program so cum accompanying the bookwork. A program like this succeeds only if it successful. Its purpose is not just to teach chil- is well supported at the school level dren the rudiments of gardening and with leadership from the principal and Other schools involved are White- botany, but also to enable them to the teachers, and with practical in- house School, Readington Township make the connection between grow- volvement in the garden from the par- and Clinton School, Clinton Town- ing nutritious food and its arrival on ents. The Master Gardeners act as ship. the table. The third grade classes planners and advisers, with occasional spend one period a week in the gar- help from the Somerset County Horti- By Marylin A.