What Is Companion Planting?

Garden Members, even if you did not plan it that way, you are involved in a companion planting activity.

                 Raised bed gardening is "Companion Planting"

"WHAT IS COMPANION PLANTING?

1. How many days from planting to germination? This varies from plant to plant and the information is on the back of the seed packet. If you have purchased young plants, google it. Some plants may be planted in succession throughout the summer as long as you do the Math and allow enough days before frost. 

2. Make sure that you are being realistic in your planting choices.
a. How many days to you have from planting to harvest?

b. Is there enough time for the plants to produce before frost?c. How tall will the plant grow?
d. How much space will each plant require?e. Is it too late in the season to plant cold crop vegetables like lettuce, spinach, broccoli, etc.?  According to the Farmer's Almanac, this planting season has 201 days. The season started April 10, 2019 and frost is expected October 29, 2019. The Almanac is generally on target with the frost dates.

3. How much space does a watermelon require to produce? How many days from planting to harvest? (Watermelons need at least 80-100 consecutive days of very warm summer temperatures, at least 80 degrees Fahrenheit.) If you have 1 or more watermelon plants in 2 square feet, you are not being realistic. The same goes for cucumbers, squash/zucchini, cantaloupes, pumpkins. These plants grow on runners and require a lot of space

4. Are you planting tomatoes in with cucumbers? Have you read up on the care and culture of strawberries? Do remove any weeds growing outside of your box. Do participate in helping to spread the wood chips and mulch throughout the garden. Do use the garbage receptacles provided in the garden. The blue is for recyclables, not plant refuse. Do pick up and discard any garbage dropped by passersby and put in the recycling bin. Do help us keep the entire area clean and groomed.

Do remember that when the gray cans are filled, they must be placed on the curb in the 50 feet of space where motorists are not allowed to park near the stop sign on the corner of Lafayette Place and Genesee Ave.

DPW will pick up the Garden debris on Fridays unless they are called for "Special Pickup". DPW Workers will not enter the Garden to remove the garbage bins.

The Garden is under 24 hour camera surveillance.

Mother Nature's Calendar

The one calendar that man has no control over is the one that governs gardening.
The Old Farmer's Almanac predicts that in the 07631 growing area we gardeners have
201 days in the growing season.

The last Spring Frost has been predicted as April 9, 2018 and the first Fall Frost is predicted
on October 29, 2018.  That gives us 201 days of growing time if we are lucky. It does seem
that there will be little time to grow cold crop in this region as we will surely have a very short spring.

Garden Tasks by the Month: 2018 Growing Season

April 

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Community Garden Members: Please remember that your bed must be cleared, turned and planted by June 15, 2018.

We are looking for volunteers to help maintain the "Teaching Garden".
We also need Volunteers to help during Outdoor Classroom Activities.

"The Holy Land is everywhere." Black Elk

The Louie Bacoat Historic Community Garden has been in existence as a "Garden" longer than anyone alive can remember. According to "the Old Timers", including Mr. Bacoat's own family, 206 Lafayette Place in Englewood has always been a garden. According to the 1942 "Old Man's draft registration records, Louie Bacoat was already in Englewood, New Jersey. According to his family, he was a farmer in his native Darlington, South Carolina and was already continuing to farm in Englewood, NJ.

Mr. Norman Gainey joined Mr. George Owens and his brother Kenny in the garden in the early 1970s. Mr. Owens and his brother ceased to farm the land in 2012. The land lay fallow in 2013, because of the damage done by the bulldozer and subsequent flooding. The Garden could not be planted in 2013. The County and the Bergen County Parks Department answered our pleas for help in 2014. They brought in heavy farm machinery that tills deeply. They donated 3 tandem truckloads of topsoil and shared the services of some of the County Park's employees. These men were invaluable in the restoration and transformation of the Garden into what it is today. In 2014, Mr. Gainey helped us transform the traditional row garden into a Community Raised Bed garden before moving his family back to his native South Carolina. He helped us all embrace the concepts of water conservation with his signs that demanded we not water his beans. His ideas paid off when his beans were ready to harvest in 35 days without faucet water.

We decided to name the garden after Mr. Bacoat since he is the earliest of the caretakers that anyone remembers. It is evident that the Garden would have had a totally different future if Mr. Bacoat had not chosen to farm the land at 206 Lafayette Place in addition to the land where the current Third Street Community Garden exists. Dozens of residents born and raised in Englewood in Mr. Baciat's time have been interviewed about the garden. Everyone remembers Mr. Bacoat and his horse drawn wagon, the collard greens, knife and lawn mower sharpening and the lands that he maintained in the 4th Ward. Coach Evans remembers riding on the back of the wagon, as a child and helping out in return for collard greens delivered to his Mother as payment.

It is now a Community Garden on City Land that is overseen by the DPW and ran by the Life Long Learners of the Louie Bacoat Historic Community Garden Membership. We are a learning institution and embrace all who share our love of the land. We are also asking that the site be designated a Historic site and preserved as such in perpetuity by the Englewood City Council. 

On December 15, 2015, the City Council (Resolution (#254-12-15-15, page 7 of 9) resolved to place the Louie Bacoat Historic Community Garden on the Recreation and Open Space Inventory (ROSI) for a period of 5 years. This is a database maintained by the Green Acres Program of the State of New Jersey. This database includes municipal, county and nonprofit parkland encumbered by the NJ Green AcresProgram. It is our goal to have the site officially recognized as a place of Historical significance. 

The African American Advisory Committee will recognize the site as Hallowed Ground on February 18, 2016 as part of the Black History Month Celebration. Join us in accepting this honor. 

Place: One Bergen Plaza , 5th Floor - Hackensack, NJ
Time: 6 pm

The Garden is definitely a site filled with African American Memories. We agree with the concepts made immortal by the Indigenous people of the Americas, “all ground is Hallowed” and should be treated as such by humans. The Earth and the Sea are the Source of all life and must be revered and nurtured as such. There is only one PLANET. We must all nurture and care for it, because there is no Planet B.

  

Members of the Community have come together in support of the garden. 3,514 people from all over New Jersey have given their support by signing a Change.org petition. This petition asks that the City of Englewood designate the Louie Bacoat Historic Community Garden an historic site. We all fear that if this is not done the bulldozers will return and the garden will become an "impound parking lot" as was the plan.

Update: The Louie Bacoat Historic Community Garden was on the December 15, 2015 agenda. Gardeners were officially given permission to Garden there as is documented in the minutes from that meeting.

Mother Nature IS in Control

Last year, this time we had collard greens that looked like the one in this photo. We donated to the Annual Thanksgiving Dinner at 111 West Street. We will not be able to do the same this year because our cold crop growing season was seriously shortened by, shall we say, climate change. Regardless of how one feels about the issue, down here on the ground where things are growing or not growing, we witness the difference. As a result of the seriously hot and dry weather as compared to the cold crop season of 2014, our growing season was shortened. There will not be any giant collard greens to donate this year. The large greens in the Louie Bacoat Historic Community Garden were planted early summer and somehow survived the hot summer months. The few families that have these greens will no doubt use them in their own Holiday meals.

It  was a long, very hot and very dry summer. Weather researchers say that it was one of the hottest and driest summers in 90 years. We purchased 2 flats of collard greens. My friend planted hers right away. I did not. It was clear that the plants were being attacked by cabbage worms and it was too hot to plant them out in the open garden. I kept them in partial shade and hand picked the worms off. I used a safe homemade insecticide. I pampered them until the prolonged hot spell was forecast as coming to an inevitable end. The greens in the photos below can be eaten, but it would mean picking before their time. They are barely infants with the small number of leaves.

What my farming Dad referred to as an "Indian Summer" or unusually warm weather into December could change that, but dare we wish for it?

We shall see what we shall see.

Louie Bacoat Historic Community Garden's 1st Annual Harvest Festival

Hello.

Welcome to our blog.

The Louie Bacoat Historic Community Garden

Fall Harvest Festival Video  

October 31, 2015

A STEAM Education Project

We have come a long way as a Community of Life Long Learners working towards a common goal 

in harmony with Mother Nature.

Garden of Hope

Bergen County Parks System 

brings in the big machinery.

The harrow disc made it possible 

for the blades to go deep.

Not Deep Enough

Percobility: The Rate of Absorption 

of Water into Soil

Paying it Forward ---- The Path

2-3-4, Open the Door

Howard Haughton stopped by
just in time to be put to work

Howard is currently President of
the Englewood Board of Education

We want Howard to have a second term on the School Board.

Under Howard's leadership, we have seen a definite
change in the School Board.

For the first time in a long time
Parents, Community Members
and Teachers have been
treated with dignity.

Under Howard Haughton's leadership, the conversation
has changed to include education.

We like the change in landscape.

Englewood New Jersey Residents.

This Tuesday November 3, 2015 

Election Day

Vote columns 2, 3, and 4

to open the door

of opportunity for our children.