The purpose of this website is to educate the public by providing useful information about sustainable gardening and also to provide news and information to our Rhode Island Master Gardeners. The information keeps changing, so visit us often and contact us if you have any questions or need some specific information.

Open House at URI Demonstration Vegetable Gardens URI Master Gardeners will hold an open house at their Vegetable Demonstration Garden at East Farm on Saturday, August 9 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. This free event is designed to give visitors practical information on how to design, build, plant, and maintain a successful vegetable garden. Master Gardeners will be on had to give informal mini-talks on such topics as irrigation, soil preparation, proper tools, seed starting, organic growing practices, pest and disease controls, and proper harvesting and growing methods, including container gardening. Four chefs, including professionals Normand J. Leclair and Bruce MacDonald, will give demonstrations using fresh produce and a Master Gardener Information Kiosk will be set up to answer gardening questions. In addition, free pH soil testing will be offered (bring about a cup of soil taken from various parts of your garden or lawn). Rain barrels will be on sale for only $70! This event is one of several free educational outreach programs provided by the Master Gardener Program which is funded largely through plant sales in the spring and fall. There are no plant sales at this open house. East Farm is a 70-acre experimental research facility located off Route 108 0.5 mile south of the main traffic light on Route 138 in Kingston.

Register now for the Rhode Island Master Composter & Recycler Program, sponsored by the URI College of the Environment and Life Sciences Outreach Center. Register today.

Become a RI Tree Steward...click here for more information.

Read about new developments in INSECT REPELLENTS...click here

August Garden Chores and Tips August is the time for looking ahead to autumn...and to begin planning for next year. You are probably still harvesting zucchini, tomatoes, and cucumbers, but in the first part of the month you can put in new plantings of peas, lettuce, spinach, beets, cabbage, and kale. Seeds need to be planted deeper than you did in spring as the moisture level in the soil is lower. Your crops will also benefit from an extra application of nitrogen fertilizer about halfway though the maturity cycle. And, although the performance of your second plantings to be as good as crops planted in May and June you should be able to get a decent harvest before the first killing frost of fall. Here are some tips and tasks you may find helpful for this month: Take a good look at your garden. Is your perennial garden overgrown? Do some plants need to be relocated because they are too tall or the wrong color for that particular bed? Take notes so you can correct the problem. Don't depend on your memory because by the time catalogs arrive in January, you may have only a vague idea of what this year's garden was like. Remove foliage from early garden crops to promote healthier plants and remove annuals that have finished blooming for the season. Aging foliage can harbor plant pests and diseases. If you plan to do some landscape planting this fall, now is a good time to decide on the plants to use and how to arrange them. Autumn is also usually the best time for moving and dividing perennials, especially garden irises and daylilies. Add new bulbs to your design at the same time and order your spring-flowering bulbs now. You may notice a talcum-like powder on a great many ornamentals this month, especially roses, phlox, and lilacs. That's powdery mildew, a fungal disease that increases with high humidity, but while it is unsightly, it causes little damage to plants. Applying a fungicide now will keep the disease from spreading. It will not, however, get rid of the problem. If you prefer not to use chemicals, thin the plants to improve air circulation and lessen shade; water early in the day, avoiding water on leaves; reduce nitrogen applications to avoid excessive, late-season growth; and pull mulch away from roots and stems. Late summer/early fall (August 15 – September 15) is the best time to establish a new lawn seeding or overseed an existing lawn. Keep deadheading perennials to encourage a second flush of bloom. Annuals also need to be deadheaded to encourage continuous bloom. Continue to actively weed the garden. Water rhododendrons deeply once a week since they are starting buds for next season's bloom. Also, immature holly and pyracantha berries may drop if the plants are water stressed. Raise the mower setting to cut the lawn higher so it can better withstand hot, dry weather of the mid-summer garden season. Also, be sure to mow the lawn before going on vacation and if you will be gone more than two weeks, arrange to have it cut while you are away. Avoid deep cultivation in the flower beds because loosening the soil under the hot, dry conditions reduces water uptake by increasing loss of soil water and damaging surface roots. Take cuttings of favorite annuals or sow seeds in pots for winter flowering indoors; coleus, geraniums, impatiens, wax begonias, and fuchsia root easily. Many plants in the flower border make excellent house plants over the winter, including begonia, coleus, geranium, and ivy. If they are already being grown in containers, it is a simple matter to bring them indoors. Start moving them in at night when the temperature drops below 60 degrees F and locate the plants where they receive sunlight equivalent to what they received outdoors for optimum bloom. At the end of the month prune raspberry bushes, waiting, of course, until the harvest is over. Prune out the old canes to make way for the new ones. Do not fertilize at this time as this encourages new growth that will only be killed by fall frosts. Having garden problems? Call the Master Gardener Hotline Monday to Thursday, 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m., at 1-800-448-1011 (only in Rhode Island)...March through October. Contact Us

In a POISON EMERGENCY call 1-800-222-1222. For more information visit the Regional Center for Poison Control and Prevention, serving Massachusetts and Rhode Island. RI DEM Emergency Response 24-hour number for spills or emergengies: 401-222-3070