MSU Extension Tribal Extension

My name is Vicky and I'm a nine Indian community member. My dad used to say, feed my family. Feed my community because that's what food does, is gives us life, gives us that energy to move, energy to think, energy to keep ourselves strong. Because nobody's going to do it but me. Nobody's going to keep ourselves strong but ourselves. We actually have to tell creation, the money dues animals. We have to literally tell them, this is what we're doing, this is what we would like to have. We literally have to say that we put the tobacco in the ground. We need beans. We need those three sisters. We need the berries. We need everything as that garden place. I need food. I need this to help my family. My community give us that strength. Give us those roots. Keep those traditions, our stories and things that go with that back in the earth. Hello, my name is Rebecca Kranz, and I work for Michigan State University Extension as a Consumer horticulture educator. And I'm here to talk more about the plants that are going to be in your salad garden. One of my favorite gardens. There are two different types of plants that I'd like to identify in here. The warm season plants are going to be your tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. By warm season, they obviously like warm or temperatures, we wouldn't want you to plant those until the chance of frost is passed, especially for the tomato plants that you're going to receive. For the cucumbers, want your soil temperatures to be at least 65 degrees. For your cucumbers to be successful, it's nice to build up a six inch mound and plant again 34 seeds 1 " deep on top of those mounds. Keep your seeds thoroughly moist until they germinate. And then apply a three inch layer of an organic mulch, such as shredded leaves to help cut down on weeds. Reduce the operation of water as well. For your cool season ones, we have lettuce and carrots. By cool, they actually can be planted in soil temperatures that are 45 degrees. With the lettuce and carrot seeds, they are very small. You might find more success mixing them with some sand. You can more evenly spread those seeds around. Then be conscious of the depth because being so small, you only want to cover those with probably less than a quarter of an inch of soil. An eighth of an inch is even better. Make sure that you thoroughly moisten that seed and keep it moist. One way to have success is to cover your carrot seeds with a light board. And frequently look under there to see if they've germinated. And once they have then remove that board, the board helps to create shade and keep the small seed moist. For more information, please check out our Gardening in Michigan website on there. We also have our toll free Michigan Lawn and Garden hotline at 188-678-3464 run into issues while you're gardening or have a question on something. We have our consumer staff and specially trained master gardeners that are available Monday, Wednesday, Friday, nine noon, Eastern Standard Time. Or if you'd prefer to upload your questions photographs to our Ask extension. That's also available on our Gardening and Michigan website. Enjoy your salad garden.