The Julia V. Morris Centennial Garden is about 1/4 acre nestled between the Boys & Girls Club and the Sky Valley Food Bank on the corner of Village Way and Sky River Parkway in Monroe, WA. Produce grown at Julia Morris Garden is donated to the Sky Valley Food Bank next door. This year, the Garden donated 3000 pounds of produce to the food bank.
We use environmentally friendly gardening techniques. We add flowers and herbs to our garden to help manage the insect population. We use compost as fertilizer. We grow fresh, wholesome, healthy produce that is alive and highly nutritious. We push the limits, break the rules and try new things. There are several experiments going on right now.
Gardening classes are being taught at the garden. They will be held most Saturdays starting at 10am. Classes are being offered free as a public service to the community and will be held rain or shine.
Each class starts with a tour of the garden. This way we get to watch how things are growing, check out our experiments, keep an eye out for any problems that might develop, see how well our plan is going, observe maintenance that may need to be done, etc. Then the class will be taught. Tour and class will probably be about an hour. Then the hands-on fun begins. If you would like to play in the dirt with us, dress appropriately, bring your own hand tools and expect to have fun!! Gardeners of all ages are welcome.
See what is coming up next by clicking here. Garden Class Info
click here for directions History of the Garden 2008
Special Guests bring MAGIC to the Garden
The Julia V. Morris Garden is operated by the WSU, Snohomish County Master Gardeners and gardeners of all ages from Monroe and surrounding communities. Produce harvested in the garden is donated to the Sky Valley food bank. There is MAGIC in the garden. It is a place of love and sharing and generosity, a place to learn and make new friends. Join us in the garden.
For more information on the garden or classes or to volunteer, contact Monica Novini (360) 793-8757 monica@monicanovini.com
Spam filters keep email from some servers like yahoo and hotmail from reaching me. If you don't get an email response, please call me.
our purpose
The garden serves several purposes. First, we use innovative, earth-friendly gardening techniques to grow an abundance of chemical-free, nutritious produce which we donate to the Sky Valley Food Bank. Equally important is giving the community the chance to get back in touch with nature, the soil, the growing process, the harvest, to see where food comes from. Gardeners of all ages, races (and all that stuff), and skill levels are welcome to join us for workdays or classes. We will be teaching about food gardening and the benefits of growing your own food. Responsibility for the earth and your environment will also be emphasized.
GARDENING
TECHNIQUES
companion
planting Some plant combinations are known by ancient
garden sages to grow happily together. There are others that do not get
along.
Lettuce with radish – lettuce is supposed to make radishes more succulent and tender (not my words, that’s what the book says!)
Cauliflower with celery – the celery is supposed to repel the white cabbage butterfly
Onion family and aromatic herbs are supposed to repel white cabbage butterfly and other bad bugs. Herbs are excellent companion plants in a vegetable garden. Most of them have qualities, like smell, that discourage bad bugs either by masking the smell of the surrounding plants or by just smelling “bad” (to the bugs anyway).
Herb flowers attract beneficial insects like a magnet. Good bugs pollinate flowers in the garden. Herbs also attract bugs that eat or otherwise destroy bad bugs. More on that when we get to a bug class.
Herbs are also full of antioxidants and vitamins and they are just plain good for you. They add flavor to your food and beauty to your garden. There are herbs all over the garden.
crop rotation is a practice which helps to prevent soil from becoming contaminated with crop specific pests and diseases. Plants affect the soil in which they are grown. Different plants take and leave different nutrients in the soil. Corn, a heavy feeder, likes to follow peas because peas leave nitrogen in the soil in a form readily available to the corn.
Members of the brassica family (cauliflower, brussels sprouts, etc.) should not be planted in the same area more than every third year to lower the incident of brassica specific pests and pathogens.
Intensive gardening requires more planning than row gardening. Intensive gardening allows plants to be planted closer together getting more crop in a smaller space. The soil MUST be healthy and alive, loose and friable to support such a method. Some examples are:
Growing vining or running plants like beans or cucumbers up trellises. This leaves more ground to plant other crops.
Growing lettuce in the shade of taller crops during summer months to keep it cool so it won't go to seed.
Root vegetables and leaf vegetables utilize different soil strata. The roots grow mostly underground, the leaf vegetables above ground. Growing them together allows two crops to grow in the same area increasing productivity.
Plant quick growing crops, like radish (28 days), using the spacing suggested on the package. Two weeks later, plant a second crop between the rows. When the new babies are needing space, it will be about time to pull the first crop. This works with lettuce, too. Give the first crop a haircut a couple inches above the ground. It will give you another harvest and give the second planting some space to grow.
succession gardening means keeping the soil planted. It takes some planning to keep the garden growing all season but the harvest is more bountiful. In early spring plant peas. As the sun warms and summer approaches, the peas will fade and you can plant the peppers. Possibilities will depend on the length of your growing season.
cover crops prevent soil erosion from sun, wind, rain and irrigation. They also feed the soil. Occasionally some soil needs a rest or improvement or maybe it is not needed for crops for a time. This would be a good time to plant a cover crop. Plants like clover, peas and other legumes add nitrogen to the soil. Till them in or take to the compost pile before they go to seed. Either way the soil has been improved.
compost is our fertilizer. We make our own and Bailey Compost donates truckloads. Most of the soil at Morris Garden is wonderful. We are working on the rest. We use compost tea to treat problems like mildew and black spot. There are no chemicals used in the garden.
raised beds are wonderful. We have several. There will be a raised bed raising party in spring. We will be using donated materials to build them. It will be interesting to see what we get and what we do with them. Watch the newspaper for announcements or you can email Monica and you will receive an email before the class.
seed saving is a good way to save money and know exactly what you will be planting. You will also have a pretty good idea what to expect from the plants that grow. Some seeds, like squash, however, are best bought from a reliable source. Squash has a nasty habit of cross pollinating (breeding) with any tom, dick or harry and ya never know what is going to grow.
Some of the things we grew summer 2008 are: artichoke, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, green beans, many different herbs, a variety of peppers, potatoes, variety of radish, many different squash (we never could figure out what some of them were), tomatoes, corn, cucumber, lemon cucumber, rhubarb, peas, carrots, parsnips, turnip, egg plant, tomatillos, kale, cabbage, several kinds of lettuce, flowers for wildlife and several edible flowers.
We like to experiment. There will be an increase in the variety of produce we will be growing in the garden. You will probably find things you have never heard of before. As new things get planted, they will get very informative labels.
This first year was pretty hectic. We started late, course everyone did, the weather was so crazy. Plants, compost, volunteer time, everything that came into the garden this year was donated. Plants were not all labeled correctly, some weren't labeled at all. Receiving 200 flats of plants at one time looked like an overwhelming task but the garden Magic came thru every time. Angels came when they were needed, the harvest, garden maintenance, class prep, etc. We continued to receive plants as garden areas opened up thru the season. Empty spaces were filled without plants being left over. The day our bounty outgrew the plastic bags we had been using, we got baskets from the annual rummage sale at the senior center. Too bad all the Magic wasn't recorded. It is a pretty long list.
Directions to the Garden
The garden is located at the corner of Village Way and Sky River Parkway in Monroe, Washington
Hwy 522 North to Monroe
Take the WEST MAIN ST. exit
Go thru the roundabout to Main Street/City Center
Turn right on Village Way, there is a car dealer on the corner
Follow the street past the library. Turn right on Sky River Parkway (big painted sign lots of flowers in summer)
Immediate left into Boys and Girls Club parking lot. The garden is on your left.
HWY 2 EAST INTO MONROE
Turn right on Kelsey (first light after the 522 overpass, Denny's on the corner)
Turn right on Main Street
Turn left on Village Way (no traffic light, brown, brick school on right side of street)
Follow the white picket fences to the brown picket fence. That is the Garden. Turn left on Village Way.
Immediate left into Boys and Girls Club parking lot. The garden is on your left.
Garden Home Page Class Information Garden History