A very mowed garden

The pollinator garden received a huge haircut today in preparation for fall crops, weed clean-up, and strawing the strawberries.  I love eating fresh strawberries off the vine on September 27th.  That is what an ever-bearing plant will do for you!

The raspberries have not arrived yet.  I am already looking forward to harvesting raspberries next fall.

Yesterday we had two contractors stop by to give us pricing for a new fence around the outdoor classroom and pricing for tiered amphitheater seating where the forsythia currently reside.  The fence will mainly be split-rail and will have one panel of 6' just like by the P.E. space.  There are some grants we will be pursuing and maybe some targeted fundraising to bring this project to fruition.  An outdoor classroom with such rich resources is such an incredible opportunity for the students.

There are monarch butterfly caterpillars on the milkweed in the pollinator garden.  Stop by to watch them munch.  As I was mowing and weeding, I also found an empty Corona bottle and a few empty chip bags in the pollinator garden (without pollinators on them), but I don't remember planting those seeds this year.  Lucky me!

Many new sprouts

How exciting,  there are many new seedling showing their lovely new green heads at the farm.  Old seed, new seed, in-between seed - everyone is showing off.

Even better, more cool weather and over-winter seed came in the mail today.  The fennel and dill, as warm weather as they can be, should produce enough to help the late season butterfly caterpillars eat up.

Stop by and see!

Like it hot!?  Peppers are still coming in!

Care about Belair-Edison and GSB? Volunteer in the garden and on the farm and contribute to education at GSB and help improve quality of life within B-E.  Come see Mike.

See ya' sweating in the garden!

Eating soon,
Mike

Hello cool weather and cool weather plants!

I just finished ordering a whole lot of excitement for the Green School farm and pollinator garden!  As far as the farm goes, we have lots of new greens and root crops growing.  I have also ordered more greens, garlic and shallot sets, and some quick (as short as 30 days) cabbage, as well as fennel and dill for our butterfly friends.

We are developing the gardens by the sides of the 5th grade classroom steps which lead up to the pollinator garden.  We have 8, yes 8, new fall bearing raspberry plants on their way.  We will also be planting spring bulbs with pollinator and butterfly friendly perennials within that space.  Remember that space by the steps used to be full of invasive plants and non fauna friendly plants and shrubs and (ouch) barberry.

Kindergartners were out today and saw tiger swallowtails and black swallowtails in the pollinator garden.  There is a black swallowtail caterpillar living on the fennel on the farm and one living in kindergarten eating GSB grown fennel!

Have you heard about the awesome horseradish Mrs. Primm made today!?  Yowzaa and yummy!!!!  We will be freezing most of it.  Bring on the pit beef sandwiches!!!

We do what we can...

Frederick County Fair

Chickens and goats and sheep and horses and mules and pigs and rabbits and corn and whoopee pies and 4H and corn dogs and the midway and tractor pulls and, and, and...

you should go!

Horseradish

What an exciting E3 Friday.  The Goldfinch group had a very productive day at the GSB Farm.  Our group's kindergartners, 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders harvested a lot of horseradish.  If you were inside the school after 10:30 you would have seen the baskets full of horseradish root on the table in the foyer.  So exciting!  As a 1st grader boldly stated as he was yanking on a long horseradish root through the garden, "We're going to get you horseradish, you can't get away from us!"  I love it.

While the youngsters were wrestling horseradish our 4th and 5th graders were planting fall crops where the corn had been growing inside the fence.  Earlier in the morning a group of 5th graders cleared the plot and readied it for planting.  Then, during E3 Friday, students planted carrots, peas (thanks Kira!), sugar-snap peas, and radish.  We divided their bed in half and planted seed from 2009/2010 in the left half and 2011/2012 in the right half so we can later compare germination rates/success.

After E3 Friday, I cleaned up the horseradish bed, added manure and compost and planted spinach.  In early October we will over seed  cover crops in these beds to winter-over.

So cool!

Can't purge all pests

Seems that someone was angry, or needed a hug, or dislikes sunflowers, or goldfinch, or whatever because they broke off four mature sunflower heads yesterday.  Thankfully the left them where they fell so we can still make them available to the birds.

Sigh!

Go in peace my friend...

Bugs and onions and hots, oh my!

I had the opportunity today to rid the Farm of harlequin bugs by cutting down all of the greens from the horseradish.  The bugs that didn't make it into the trash bag with the greens are trying to find a new home.  Good luck fellas!

While cutting down the greens I found 15 or so yellow onions that I thought had been harvested earlier in the summer.  They are beautiful, smell great and will be quite tasty.  I also harvested many more hot peppers today.  I have cut them all up, bagged them and put them in the freezer for future use.  Yum and yowzaa!

The cutest baby cardinal was eating sunflowers today.  His attempts at flight and gaining seeds were clumsy at best, but most adorable.  The insect life is still amazing in the gardens.  From bees, to butterflies, to beetles and more.  Amazing to watch.

New Sprouts

I enjoy seeing brand new seedlings as they begin their new lives. Especially with a back drop of greens just weeks ahead of them!

New fall greens coming up!

Harvesting in the Sun

Today at E3 Friday the Goldfinch group harvested lettuce, mustard greens, corn, a very small eggplant, and peppers.  There was more than enough lettuce, mustard greens and corn for Mrs. Primm to make a very large salad and share it with all three lunches that eat in the Spice Dining room.  For students who like their greens tangy and with a kick this was the salad for them!  The peppers turned out to be too hot for tender palates.

We also did a lot of weeding, pulling of old hot weather crop plants, and preparing the soil for cool weather crops.  I planted another round of lettuce, and added a sprinkling of spinach and radishes.  All of the corn stalks inside the fence were harvested, set aside for drying, and will be decorations for the fall season.

Friendly insect alert! There was a huge praying (I so want it to be preying) mantis and a gorgeous black swallowtail at the Farm that we took pictures of.  So cool.

Another exciting addition to the blog is coming.  The Green School student newspaper for which Mrs. Butcher is Editor and Publisher that runs concurrently as an activity with E3 Friday will be starting soon.  The budding journalists are GSB students.  There will be a column devoted to the Farm and Garden written by GSB students.  That column will also be published here!  I can't wait.  Thanks Mrs. Butcher and GSB journalists.

Observing in the rain

I spent some time with 5th grade in the garden today as they carefully documented the garden as they saw it through their scientist lens.  It is always fun and amazing to listen to their conversations and answer their questions as they make their discoveries.

It did start to sprinkle right and the end and they soon found out that a farmer thinks rain is a good thing!

Wildflowers and butterflies

Kate and I spent a bunch of time on a 1,000 acre property on Lake Anna in central Virginia that is currently undeveloped.  At one point in time, from the mid 1800's to the early 1900's,  it was  a gold, zinc, lead, and a couple of other heavy metals mine and processing center.  Virginia was once the third leading gold producing state - then California and later Alaska happened!

The land is now naturally in a state of forest succession and provides opportunity for witnessing all sorts of flora and fauna.  We've seen deer and evidence of coyote and fox, many birds (and there just has to be turkey there) and a bear wouldn't surprise us.

This week-end, however, we enjoyed the many meadow wildflowers in bloom and the butterflies they attract.  There were also many different bees and flies and moths.  I love the diversity of a wild meadow and the plant life it offers in bloom at this time of year.  I'm not one, but it seems to me that a geologist would have a great time on the property.  I can't even stop pocketing rocks and minerals.

Unfortunately,  a huge (I mean like over 800 home sites and a golf course and equestrian center and marina) development is in the initial sale phase.

Until then it is our own little nature utopia.  The meadows there also inspire our thoughts for turning our little patch of urban living back toward a wild meadow!