Happy Leap Day

Have to write on the 29th of February. One only can do that every 4 years. So, how about all that rain today. My peas are loving it, but many had made their way to the surface and I had to recover/replant them.

I hope to start some lettuce this week indoors.

Get out tomorrow it is going to be beautiful!!!

Happy leap day!

Happy B-day to me!

Whoda thunk it?

Another 60* day

Another beautiful day. I planted a bunch of spring peas - 65 days until some pea yumminess!

First round of sugar-snap peas planted

I had the pleasure of being able to work the Urganic Teaching Garden today. I went through last year's bags of manure, and leaves, and compost, and leaf mold and added those tail ends of bags to spots that had no cover crops. It was crazy to see all of the critters that had found homes in those bags - worms, and centipedes especially.

I had some older sugar-snap pea seeds that I planted today from 2009 and 2010. I'm curious to see germination rates. I also have some early peas from 2011 to plant.

That spinach plant I have written about is thriving. Will have start to harvesting it, again!

GSB Field Day - Fun, Laughter, Nature

SO, we had this great field day this afternoon at GSB. In the park, 150 students enjoying a myriad of outdoor active activities, and the sunshine, and the warmth. By the by, in the shade it is 62 degrees.

Would you believe me if I told you we spotted a cabbage white and a small yellow butterfly (sorry don't know it yet) today on the 23rd of February 2012? Well you will also have to believe 25 1st graders because they saw them too.

How cool, so much better than shoveling snow!!

Last Spring Frost 2012

If you believe the last spring frost predictors then Baltimore's is as early as April 11th and as late as April 22nd. If you go with the 11th then there is 50% chance for light frost after that date and if you go with the 22nd then there is a 10% chance.

So, in go the peas and we can start our warm weather crops indoors anytime now.

Yee Haw!

Extinction is a big word

I give a lot of thought to what I do and how I give back to this world.

I recently watched a wonderful documentary about water and southern Louisiana, how the two are inseparable and all the unthoughtful damage man does to ecosystems in his pursuits; whether it is gas, or oil, or timber, or industry, or development, or natural resources, or whatever man fancies.

Much of the documentary's premise was that greed (or even better mammonism) fuels all decisions with absolutely no thought toward the future or sustainability, only to maximize profit here and now. It is much like all of our woes around the Chesapeake. We are inseparable from the estuary we surround. Yet we pollute it and pilfer it. As I write this, sewage is leaking from some pipe, or sediment is running off the land into some stream, that runs to a river and into the bay, or some greedy, unlawful waterman is poaching oysters, or striped bass. These are all of our problems and all of our fault.

That is why I give a lot of thought to what I do and how I give back to this world.

I sat through a wonderful presentation at the MAEOE conference on using bio indicators as ecosystem health markers. In other words, is the ecosystem around you healthy and balanced enough to support the living creatures that should be living there, from big to small to micro. If not what, are the changes that can be made to improve the ecosystem?

The presenter had taught at a high school in Virginia for 38 years. The school, when he started, was surrounded by forest, some of it older growth, streams and small farms. By the time he retired 90% and been developed and covered with impervious surface.

Yet there was still a strip of land that buffered a stream, harbored 100+ year old trees, and was a relatively healthy, balanced ecosystem. His thought was, “I can’t save the rain forest, I can’t save the bay, I can’t save the Potomac river, but I can save this tract of land and creek - I can save it for me, my students, and all the creatures that live and migrate through here, and for the future.

He and his students made it theirs. Their trees, their salamanders, their butterflies, their bees, their frogs, their owls, their fox, their creek, their clean water, their fish, and their healthy, balanced ecosystem.

And that is one thing I want to do at GSB. Our challenges are no different than the presenters and creating stewards and sustainability and a healthier ecosystem around the school is our responsibility.

The documentary is on Snagfilms and the title is - Sola: Louisiana water stories

Birds in the garden

We are looking to formally incorporate birding across activities at The Green School during the last half of this school year and into the future. Right here, in the heart of Belair-Edison we have many exciting species already, from a resident hawk that feeds on pigeons, to woodpeckers, to invasives like the asian sparrow.

One of my keen interests for our pollinator/native garden, Urganic Teaching garden and school and neighboring church grounds in general are doing things that attracts and holds birds (and wildlife, and beneficial insects, and of course pollinators).

Last year we planted patches of cone flower and black-eyed susan and were rewarded with goldfinches. Nothing like the bright colored birds to excite students about birds!!!

So, how excited was I to find an article in Organic Gardening about that very subject titled "The Best Birds for Your Garden - find out how to attract these beautiful birds and why"

I know the basic for attracting critters - good and bad. Food, water and harborage. I know from putting out the right seed in feeders one can attract certain birds. This article takes it a step further and teaches you how to keep them around and their benefits!

So, go to www.organicgardening.com and do a search for birds.

The day after, but Happy Valentine's Day

And another stretch of above normal temperatures.

This past week-end we attended the Maryland Association of Experiential Outdoor Educators (MAEOE, said "mayo") conference in Ocean City. Best one I've been to in years. If experiential and/or outdoor and/or environmental education is your bent check these folks out.

Kate has always wanted to cross country ski in OC and while it did snow Saturday it wasn't nearly enough to ski. We did, however, get to skate back to our hotel on black ice after the dance Saturday night in 30-40 mile an hour winds!

I'm so ready to plant sugar-snap peas, maybe this Friday!

Black History Month starts and Welcome to Springuary

February should be renamed Springuary - 68 at the airport, 71 degrees downtown Baltimore today.

As taken directly from www.baltimore.org/multicultural/black-history

Baltimore Black History:

Between 1789 and 1832, Joshua Johnson (also signed as Johnston) painted portraits of Baltimore residents. He is noted as the first prominent African American portrait artist. Some of his works depict a child holding a strawberry and, according to the 1814 Baltimore Directory, Johnson was noted as living on Strawberry Alley (although he is thought to have moved throughout Baltimore and Fells Point). The Baltimore Museum of Art and the Maryland Historical Society have some of his works on display.