Pre-Order for the Plant Sale!

Every year, some gardeners at our plant sale find that their favorite choices have already sold out by the time they can make it to the sale. To remedy this problem, this year we are allowing gardeners to order plants from our plant sale ahead of time and pick up the plants Saturday May 14^th or Sunday May 15^th between the hours of 10am to 1pm at 3364 Oakwood in Ann Arbor. Because of the huge number of plant varieties available at the sale and the relatively small number of customers, we decided not to offer these plants through our Marketplace. If you are interested in ordering plants, this is what you need to do:

1. Choose the plants you would like from the  online list.
2. Send a letter to us naming the plants you would like and the quantities of each, along with your full name, e-mail address and a telephone number where you can be reached.
3. Include with your letter a check payable to "Project Grow" for your order. The plants are $3 each. Our address is: Project Grow · P.O. Box 130293 · Ann Arbor, MI 48113
4. Pick up your order on Saturday May 14^th or Sunday May 15^th between 10am and 1pm at 3364 Oakwood in Ann Arbor. These will be the only days and hours during which orders may be picked up.

To make this work, we ask that our customers follow a few simple requests. Please read these limitations carefully, and if you cannot meet these simple requirements, please do not pre-order plants, but come to the sale in person to make your purchases!

• You must pay in advance by check by May 1st. Orders that are received later than May 1^st or are not paid for will not be pulled and saved for you.
• You must come to the 3364 Oakwood to pick up your order. Orders which are not picked up during the assigned days and hours will be lost and you will receive no refund.

There is always the possibility of disasters and crop failures with plants, but we will try to keep the list up to date if this happens. The peppers were started in late February, the basils during the first week of March, and the tomatoes in mid-March. The plants will be large, in 3.5" plastic pots, and organically grown in organic soil mix and using only organic fertilizer. Whenever possible, the plants are grown from organically grown seeds saved by local gardeners.

2011 Potato Pledge

Last year we held our first annual Potato Pledge, and if you weren't involved, you might be wondering what the heck a Potato Pledge is.

Here's the deal. Project Grow will distribute 2# bags of seed potatoes to anyone who will sign the Potato Pledge and agree to grow the potatoes, delivering a percentage back to us at harvest time, to be donated to local food banks. As harvest time nears, we will remind the participants of drop-off locations via email. Project Grow will collect the potato donations weekly and transport them to local food banks.

You can pick up your bag of seed potatoes by driving through our "Potato Pit Stop", in front of  Downtown Home & Garden, on April 16th between 10 and noon. Just look for the checkered flags!  

Kids and taters at last year's harvest season Potato Roundup 

2011 Registration Update

Gardeners continue to register for 2011 using the new online registration system.  Despite a couple glitches, our impression is that the new system is easier to use than the previous one.

Project Grow has already sent out a second reminder invoice to all 2010 gardeners who had not yet registered.  Anyone who gardened last year and wants to retain their plot must register by March 15th or risk losing their plot!    

This rule has been in place for at least a decade, but has never been strictly enforced.  Previous Grow employees have even held tardy gardener's plots open until May and taken the time to telephone every gardener from the previous year who had not registered.  However, we simply no longer has the staff to do this kind of thing, so please help us and help yourself by registering now.  All you need to do is click here and register!

Seed Swap   

Winter Potluck 

Project Grow's winter potluck was held on Sunday February 27th, and longtime Greenview gardener Alice Telesnitsky hosted the event at her home.   There was a very large turnout, perhaps 25 people, but Alice was well prepared and everything came off beautifully.  The food ranged from Thai iced tea to carob-pumpkin cookies and everything else in between.

We had no business to discuss or issues to settle, so the atmosphere was very relaxed with everyone looking forward to spring.  We will try to hold another one of these potlucks in a few months.  Because everyone is busier, the summer potlucks are usually not as well attended, but Project Grow will attempt to have another one in early summer.  

2011 Classes 

Tomatoes and Peppers  

Saturday March 26th 10 Noon At Leslie Science Center Leslie House

The secrets to selecting, starting, and growing exceptionally delicious tomatoes and hot peppers, using organic cultivation practices will be revealed. Come learn about the best cultivars to grow and get tips to ensure a bountiful harvest. Project Grow Instructor: Royer Held. Class is free, although donations will be gladly accepted. For more information, call Project Grow at 734-996-3169.

Chicken Chat with Chicken Champion, Peter Thomason

Saturday April 30th 9am-12 Noon

Have you considered keeping backyard chickens but were concerned you just didn't have enough information to do it responsibly? Peter Thomason has championed local efforts to legalize urban livestock and promote sustainable urban living. Each spring he  graciously opens his home and mini farm to us to provide a close-up, hands-on primer in keeping city chickens. Class fee $20.

Registration for classes with fees is required and can be done from our website.  

In addition, Project Grow will again be holding our Bees, Up Close and Personal class with instructor Laura Kadwell, although the exact date and time are still in the air (as it were), so keep checking the Project Grow website for more details.

We will also be holding some food preservation classes, once our gardens start producing things to preserve (probably August), so continue to check the website later in the summer for classes on canning, lacto-fermentation and other fun food preservation projects! 

Discovery Gardens for Children and Seniors 

Our Discovery Gardens are the ideal place for children and their families, seniors and the physically challenged to come together and enjoy growing together in more ways than one!

Wonder Sprouts is a summer camp for kids aged 3-12. Each Sprout gets their own child-accessible raised garden, water, compost, tools, seeds and the assistance and instruction needed to grow a thriving garden of their own design! Volunteers and the Site's Coordinator organize weekly garden-together sessions, schedule regular crafts and activities as well as monthly pot lucks and even help keep your Sprout's garden watered when they can't be there.

Wise Roots is a gardening program for senior citizens that offers raised beds at different heights along with regularly scheduled volunteer assistance in an inter-generational setting. Monthly pot lucks and a festive, family atmosphere make this a refreshing place for gathering and sharing.

Both Discovery Garden locations have a limited number of Easy Access beds for the gardener with limited mobility and offer the same physical assistance and camaraderie of the Wonder Sprouts and Wise Roots programs.

The Discovery Gardens are located at the Leslie Science & Nature Center and County Farm Park. Both locations provide easy parking and plenty of other family-friendly activity. Raised beds cost $50 for the season (or $80 for 2). You can access our online application by clicking here.

Green Thoughts on Green Onions

by Kirk Jones

Winter is the time to grow onions from seed, and mid-March is actually getting pretty late to start them. Fortunately, if you forget, or don't feel like starting onions from seed, you can also grow them from onion sets. You see onion sets everywhere around this time of year. Onion sets are those little, tiny onions, (smaller than a dime) that you can plant as soon as the ground can be worked.  Each tiny onion sprouts and grows into a full size onion by late summer or fall.

Sets don't offer the variety of seeds. Fedco offers about 15 different onion seed varieties, and that isn't even counting leeks, scallions or shallots. With sets you are usually limited to either yellow or red. Of course, when it comes to onions, except for size and color, I have a hard time telling one kind from another anyway. But, I like to grow them because they are fairly easy, not bothered by many bugs, and store well. A couple years ago I grew a bunch of yellow storage onions and didn't end up buying any all winter.  Obviously a long way from growing all my own food, but it's something.

One of the cool things about onion sets is that you can also use them to stay supplied with terrific fresh scallions. I first read about this in Eleanor Perenyi's book Green Thoughts and have since become addicted to set-grown scallions. Here is how to do it, according to Ms. Perenyi:

I associate them with those icy days in early spring when the seagulls, alighting on the tower of the Congregational church, howl with laughter to see me venturing into the kitchen garden once again. To this derisive accompaniment, I scrape a little ditch, kneel, and from a paper bag extract a couple of dozen onion sets which, business-end down, go into the ditch and are covered lightly with soil. They are the first things to be planted; the peas come next, then the lettuces. But, the onion sets will sprout, before anything else, and when they are five or six inches high, I pull them out. The rotted remains of the set slip off like a dirty glove, and there is a silky scallion, needing only to have its white roots nipped off with a thumbnail then and there to make what is to me a heavenly treat. Freshly pulled scallions taste so unlike the specimens found in even the best markets as to qualify as a different vegetable, so delicate is their perfume, so mild their flavor.

So, pick up a bag of onion sets next time you see one and try growing some scallions. It's not only fun but really cheap thrills - I got a bag of 80 sets at Meijer for $1.39.

Garden Pictures Still Wanted

We received some great pictures of Northside and Matthaei and have put those up on our website.  If you have any pictures from your garden site that you'd like to share, just send them to Kirk@GoodScentsGardens.com and we will get them on the website ASAP!