Calling for Volunteers

On Saturday, May 29th, I'm going get some fencing materials together to get the garden protected from our night time visitors. Have I ever told you all how much fun putting up a fence can be? It's way more fun than painting a fence. That's fun, just ask Tom Sawyer. We'll also be putting up our newly finished garden welcome sign (which you can seen in the last post). Anyway, it's a great opportunity to come out, enjoy a sunny day (hopefully) and see what's going on in the garden. I'll make a big batch of lemonade. You bring yourselves, your families, maybe a picnic and your smiles. We'll get started at about 10:00 in the morning and finish up at 3:00ish.

Today's Garden Work

It was a productive day! Planting is just about done, the sign is done, and the weeds are mostly under control. Now we can work on maintaining and beautifying. Thanks to Peyton Walz for coming out to help with everything from planting and weeding to crowd control.

Another Rainy Day!?!?

I'm not one to complain about rain. . . really. It's good and we've needed it. But really? Does it need to be rainy every Wednesday?

Well, the heck with it, we're going out this afternoon, regardless. There's a lot coming up and I think we need to check it out!


On another note, tomorrow afternoon I'm going to a networking meeting put on by the Center for Nonprofit Excellence. It's being put on to bring together local school and community garden folks. It should be interesting. Did you know there's a new school garden at Buford? And one at Jackson Via? I'm looking forward to the chance to get together and share ideas.

Rainy Day

I'm always grateful for rainy days. I don't have to unroll 400 feet of hose when it rains. I missed getting out to see what was what in the garden today.

Still, we've needed the rain. So, after sending everyone home that I could, the rest of us worked on our sign. Thanks to Angelo for coming back with his enthusiasm and his cookies (peanut butter. . . homemade!)

I'm thinking about having a Saturday work day in a few weeks. After finding some rather familiar hoof prints near the garden, I've realized that a fence is going to be a necessity. With enough muscle, we can get one up in just a few hours. I'm thinking the last Saturday of this month, May 29th. Put it on your calendars. I'll make a big tank of lemonade.

Oh, one more thing! To everyone that was here this afternoon. . . I'm a big dummy. No, we didn't have green paint, but. . . what do blue and yellow make?!?!?!?

4th Grade

Yesterday, Ms. Demaio's 4th grade class got to head out to the garden to plant some beans they'd started in class.

From the X-Files

There were a couple of kids who recognized this yesterday afternoon. One came up to me asked why I was cutting the aliens apart. I could barely keep a straight face.

Planting the Three Sisters

Corn, Beans, and Squash
Truthfully, we didn't plant the beans, yet. They need to wait a few weeks until the corn has sprouted so they have something to climb. The squash, pumpkins in this case, provide a living mulch that helps the ground hold water and helps keep weeds down.

Thanks!

Thanks to Kirsten Howard for bringing in tons of material for us to use for making signs.






Also, Thanks to Angelo for actually crawling into the water barrel to fix the spigot. I'm sure he's glad I didn't have my camera handy.

Finally, thanks to Leroy. Since the beginning of the school year he's produced two large tubs of "compost" to help us build up our soil. Plus, we love reading to him.

Edible Schoolyard

Here are some videos from one of the first modern school gardens. It was started in 1995 by Alice Waters (Chez Panisse) at the Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Berkley, California.

Part I
Part II
Part III

You can learn more about the program here.

This Coming Wednesday

Hello everyone,

This Wednesday we'll be finishing up our planting. We'll be getting potatoes, onions, tomatoes, peppers and melons put into the ground as well whatever else hasn't found a spot. During the week we'll be getting seeds into the flower and herb beds that didn't do so well with being transplanted.

In the following weeks we're going to have a bunch of smaller projects on which we can be working. We'll need to build a fence to keep stray soccer balls out of the plantings, make nicer markers for the beds (nicer than the popsicle sticks we have so far) and build a scare crow. Of course, we'll need to keep everything watered and weeded.



If anyone has any spare scrap lumber to make signs, we can use it. In particular, The most useful scraps would be pieces of 2"x2" or 2"x4" as well as pieces of 1"x 6". Also, if anyone has any left over paint (interior or exterior, latex based, the brighter the better), primer and paint brushes you're looking to get rid of, I think we can use those as well.



We've also started a writing contest in my homeroom class to see who can come up the best design for a welcome sign for the garden. Look for the winner sometime in the next few days.