The July Education Day is Coming Up!

The Thompsonville Community Garden will be hosting its July Garden Education day July 5th at 3pm. This month's topic is:

"Learn How to Help your Plants Through the Stress of Summer"

The UCONN Master gardeners will teach members the best ways of helping our garden through the (hopefully) hot summer months. They will also talk about pest management, which we know is a topic among gardeners in our garden.

The education day should last about an hour.

We hope you can make it!

June Garden Education Day

The first education day of the 2009 Growing Season will be Sunday, June 7th at 3pm.

During this first educational session our University of Connecticut Master Gardeners will be discussing:

How to have a successful vegetable garden using compost and perennials.

Marty will discuss the importance of having a compost pile near the garden, how it is used in gardening, what to put in the compost pile and what to keep out of the compost pile.

Jennifer and Trish will discuss how perennials tie into a healthy garden by attracting beneficial insects, deterring pests and adding color and multiseason interest to the landscape. We will discuss what it takes to maintain the compost pile and the perennials throughout the growing season to make them a permanent structure in the garden year after year with minimal work.

Come join us and become a better gardener. Knowledge is power!

May 2009 Gardener of the Month!

Congratulations to Jamie Burnside, the Thompsonville Community Garden May 2009 Gardener of the month!

Jamie sent us the following about her very exciting gardening method:

"Hello T-Ville Gardeners! It's very exciting to be gardening with all of you this year. You may have noticed all the string lines marking off spaces in my plot (#29). Those strings are marking off spaces of one square foot each, which allows me to plan ahead for what will grow in each square. Some vegetables take up more space below the soil, such as carrots, and others take up a lot of room above the ground, such as Tomatoes. By marking off the squares and planting this way, I hope to be growing a beautiful checkerboard of many varieties of vegetables. The good news is, with all the space planned out, there is very little room left for weeds!

This method of gardening is detailed out in a very user-friendly book called, "All New : Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew. You can also check out his terrific companion website to the book at www.squarefootgardening.com

Thanks so much for honoring me by choosing me as the gardener of the month. It's very humbling, as I am a brand new member of your community. I hope to become friends with many of you and I'll surely enjoy mingling with you all on garden days.

Here's to a happy and warm gardening season! May all your flowers bloom, all your bugs be few, and all your harvests great! "

Jamie Burnside

Thanks Jamie, we hope your gardening experience is a good one!

Thanks to UCONN Master Gardners and the Town of Enfield

From Left:Katie Bednaz, Jennifer Brantley, Trish Safner and Marty Sienko

Special thanks goes out to our University of Connecticut Master Gardeners, Marty Sienko and Trish Safner who, along with Master Gardener Intern Jennifer Brantley, have helped members with planning their garden plots, designed flower beds and have aided members on proper gardening techniques.

Garden members would also like to thank Katie Bednaz, Assistant Town Planner, for her great work. Katie has been our "go to" person at Town Hall, helping us make purchases and schedule help from the Department of Public Works.

Keep up the good work!

Planting Day Success

Planting Day 2009, held on May 30th, was a great success! Over 35 members of the garden participated, planting a variety of vegetables and flowers. Members planted the traditional favorites including tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and squash. Other members tended to their garden beds thinning out radishes, beets and pea plants. Members were aided by expert Master Gardeners from the University of Connecticut. They provided great advice and guidance to members. Thanks Marty, Trish and Jen!

Thompsonville Community Garden members also planted a new flowerbed on the east side of the garden that will produce beautiful flowers throughout the summer and fall. Special thanks to the members who helped create the other new flower bed, with rock garden, towards the western edge of the garden!