Los Prados hospitality

Big thank you to Kyoko, Dave & Esra and other members of the Los Prados Community Garden for hosting a Master Gardener talk by Neil Heckman this morning. There's been a lot of talk lately about how to bring more community into the San Mateo community gardens and this was a great example. An informal count of 25 participants were on-hand to get practical advice from Neil. There seem to be more improvements happening at Los Prados between every visit - and GROW San Mateo will soon be leading the project to install a 3 bin compost setup at the garden (hopefully soon - stay tuned!).

Here are a few of Neil's tips from my notebook:

Important to think about crop rotation by dividing your plot into 3 different zones and planning ahead
Planting a cover crop in the fall helps to ready the soil for next year's garden
Try not to water in the sun, as the water droplets act as tiny magnifying glasses that can burn leaves
For fertilizer, try an emulsion of fish & bat guano (sold in most home improvement stores) by adding into a water can
Spring = nitrogen for leaf growth; Fall = potassium for fruit yield. Phosphorus for roots.
Good source of nitrogen: alfalfa pellets (sold at feed stores)
Yellow leaves: whole leaf yellow = needs nitrogen; tips yellow = not enough potassium
Plants bolt when they don't have enough water
For Cilantro, let it go to flower, then simply shake the plant once the seeds have dried - yielding self-seeding plants next year
Best to transplant: tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage, kohlrabi
Use Easter as a milestone to start growing transplants to be ready once the soil warms up enough

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