Great Kids go to Great Kids Farm

Great Kids Farm is being recognized for their work by the Baltimore City Office of Sustainability and our 5th graders are going to the farm for an urban farm experience, to help them celebrate, and to pick-up some fall transplants for their garden.

The canoe garden is showing all kinds of signs of life with the recent seed plantings and our swiss chard and chinese cabbage transplants are really taking off.

Tomorrow it is fall and we wish we had a tractor...

Swiss chard, radish, chinese cabbage, mustard greens, white onions, yellow onions, garlic, shallots, hairy vetch, and crimson clover. That is the current list of what is planted or waiting to be planted for the fall. We are very excited about our fall and winter garden, and at least this year it will be more cover crops and soil improvement than food production. We are mindful of the health of our local watershed and the Chesapeake Bay as well as our ability to produce healthful food into the winter and starting again in early spring.

We are adding a new signs to the gardens which will read - "You will see signs of the Chesapeake Bay in our gardens, but you won't see signs of our gardens in the Chesapeake Bay." So, whether it is soil run-off or nutrient run-off our eye will always be toward protecting the health of the bay and water quality within Herring Run in working our organic teaching garden.

We recover items from the Bay like the bottoms of crab bushel baskets, crab pot buoys, and watercraft and turn them into educational elements for our gardens. Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Herring Run watershed Association would be so proud of us (actually they are!).

Just an aside - actually a wish list aside - we are looking for an old tractor for our property for experiential education. Preferably more of a shell of a tractor, not running, etc. Bigger than a lawn tractor, much smaller than a combine. Call Mrs. Primm if you might have something workable - 410.485.2102. We are a 501c3 and your donation may be tax deductible.

The Garden Club in the garden

Tomatoes, peppers (hot and sweet varieties), Indian corn, cabbage, string beans, cucumber, and basil are what came out of the garden today, harvested by our 5th graders. Pretty much the same list was harvested on Monday.

The Garden Club spent the morning weeding, exploring, planting, and watering. We planted Swiss chard, cauliflower, and Chinese cabbage as transplants. We also planted by seed a few small rows of kale, mustard greens, and a heirloom radish dating back to pre-1865. The radish is supposed to be ready in about 29 days – we will let you know what happens. We used some coffee grounds with our transplants and seeds and we are curious to see how that may affect the plants. All of our plants today went into the canoe garden.

I visited the fine folks at Meyers Seed Company today. I picked up some crimson clover seed and hairy vetch seed that we plan to use as our cover crops this year. I love the idea of a winter rye or winter wheat, but I get carried away and let them go to seed which would be counter-productive for our small raised beds. I also picked up garlic and white and yellow onion sets to over winter. Yum.

Rain in Baltimore, Sun at Monticello

Mrs. Buckley's son Brandon and I left the rains in Baltimore on Friday morning and traveled to the 3rd annual Heritage Harvest Festival at Thomas Jefferson's homestead in Charlottesville, Virginia. Organic gardening, sustainable living, hierloom seed saving and sales, and hierloom tomato tastings were some of the highlights of the day. We made sure to buy some cool weather crop seeds from the Southern Seed Exchange booth that we will make sure the 5th grade gets to add to their fall and spring garden.

I also purchased a book "100 vegetables and where they came from" by William woys Weaver that I will pass on to the school once I finish reading it.

Brandon and I also spent time down in Lynchburg, Virginia (about 60 miles south of Charlottesville) and went to their town farmers market. The farmers market had many great fruits and vegetables from local farmers for sale. We bought and ate the biggest and tastiest Honey Crisp apples we have ever had. I wish I would have bought more than I did! I met a wonderful woman here in Lynchburg that is going to send pictures of her garden to our 5th graders and read our blog.

Look up the festival to see the many exciting presenters and vendors present who also make their products available online.

I've heard another harvest has occurred in GSB's Organic Teaching Garden and I can't wait to hear about it!

What a week!

The 5th grade harvested with Mr. Michaels and Mrs. Primm on Friday. Tomatoes, basil, beans, cantaloupe - that is right cantaloupe!! It has been dry the last few days so I stopped by to water today and discovered our timer for our drip irrigation system had been broken off at the spigot. I had to re-rig the system and water by hand. I have to order a new timer and we will hand water until a new timer comes in.

There are so many new tomatoes to harvest, as well as peppers (as big as my fist), cucumber, and cayenne peppers. Everything is just so beautiful and plentiful right now. I found a white sweet pepper today and another cantaloupe or two.

I have Swiss chard for the canoe garden and cauliflower - which we need to get in sooner than later.