NCG Newsletter - Issue 7

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Niles Community Gardens Still in 1st Place

Less than a month left to vote in the DeLoach Community Garden Grant competition!

Niles Community Gardens is still holding first place in the DeLoach Community Garden Grant voting competition. We are less than a month away from winning the $4,000 grant that will help the gardens reach even more people. However, we do not want to get too confident, so please continue to vote for us daily and tell all of your friends and family to do so too! You can go to deloachcommunitygardens.com to vote until August 6th, 2012. Thank you for your support!

Issue 7 July 2012

Helping others produce their own fruits and vegetables while learning how to live more sustainably in Southwest Michigan


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A Note from Mark The gardens are looking good despite the heat and lack of rain! Weeds can thrive in these conditions. It is very important to keep your plots weeded because vegetables compete with weeds for nutrients. Some weeds are edible and quite delicious, such as lamb quarters and purslane. Experiment by adding some lambs quarter to a salad or sauté some purslane for a delicious side dish to dinner. You can search ‘edible weeds’ online to find more tasty weeds and recipes.

Here are a few tips for the mid-‐summer garden:

-‐ Keep paths weed and grass free (you will be glad you did!)

-‐ Now is the time to mulch tomatoes with grass clippings that have not been sprayed with herbicide

-‐ Spread grass clippings that have been sprayed with herbicide on pathways

-‐ Continue to spray once a week for vine borers and squash bugs

Keep On Growing,

Mark Van Til Thank You! The Niles Community Gardens want to thank Chemical Bank for their financial

support. This kind of support has made Niles Community Gardens a success. We would also like to thank Rural King for their donation of string used to plot out

the gardens this year!

Hide not your talents,

they for use were

made. What's a sun-‐

dial in the shade?

Benjamin Franklin


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A soft answer turns away wrath, but grievous words stir up

anger.

Old Testament Proverb

Kid’s Corner - Have you ever tickled a plant? Usually plants don’t giggle when you tickle them, but one plant actually moves when you tickle it! Yes! This plant is called the Mimosa pudica and it has fern-‐like leaves and puffy pink flowers that look like they come straight from a Dr. Seuss book. Also known as the sensitive plant or a touch-‐me-‐not, Mimosa pudica is a native plant of South and Central America, but is considered an invasive species in other areas of the world. If you would like to grow the Mimosa pudica as an indoor plant, you can find seeds from seed catalogs.

Steps to grow Mimosa pudica:

1. Use a flower pot or make a small hole in the bottom of a 16 ounce

paper cup.

2. Fill the cup 3/4 of the way with soil and place 5 seeds equally apart on the soil.

3. Cover seeds with 1/8 inch of soil and gently water making sure seeds remain covered.

4. Place in a mostly sunny location with temperatures of 70-85 degrees.

5. You should soak them with a cup of warm water for about a day.

To learn more about Mimosa pudica go to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimosa_pudica

http://www.wikihow.com/Grow-a-TickleMe-Plant


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Ingredients • 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt • 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg • 2 teaspoons baking soda • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon • 3 cups sugar • 1 cup vegetable oil • 4 eggs, beaten • 1/3 cup water • 2 cups grated zucchini • 1 teaspoon lemon juice • 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Directions Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large

bowl, combine flour, salt, nutmeg, baking

soda, cinnamon and sugar. In a separate

bowl, combine oil, eggs, water, zucchini and

lemon juice. Mix wet ingredients into dry, add

nuts and fold in. Bake in 2 standard loaf pans,

sprayed with nonstick spray, for 1 hour, or until

a tester comes out clean. Alternately, bake in

5 mini loaf pans for about 45 minutes. Recipe courtesy Paula Deen

Show: Paula's Home Cooking

Episode: Weekend House Guest

Zucchini Bread Recipe


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-‐ Ipsum

Voting for the Deloach Community Garden Grant Voting started March 6th and continues until August 6th 2012.

Go to http://deloachcommunitygardens.com/ and click on the Niles Community Garden video. Type in your email address and name to vote!

Remember, you can vote every day!

Find Niles Community Gardens on Facebook!

Share with us! If you have any stories, jokes, poems, recipes or anecdotes you would like to share in our

monthly newsletter, please send them to Sarah Markley via email at [email protected]

or via U.S.P.S. at 2625 Holland St, South Bend, IN 46619

If you are not on our email mailing list and would like to receive our newsletter, please send your email address to Sarah Markley via email or U.S.P.S. (address above).

Garden with us!

If you would like to volunteer in the gardens or on special projects, or if you haven’t gardened with us but would like to, please email Mark Van Til at [email protected] or call

at 269-‐815-‐5034.

We could use some committed gardeners at Ferry Street garden.

Support us!

To make a monetary donation, please make checks payable to Niles Community Gardens and mail to:

Niles Community Gardens PO Box 304

Niles, MI 49120

NCG Newsletter - Issue 7

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