Our micro-greens have already sprouted. Planted on Monday, our mesclun mix seedlings had almost reached the top of their container by Friday. We could harvest them as early as the formation of their second set of leaves, but we are considering leaving them, thinning them and see how productive a 5"x7" container can be.
We have set-up a grow station for starting our salad boxes and hot weather seeds. It is hard to believe how close the growing season is getting.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
MLK Day of Service - Another GSB move toward food security
This year as part of our MLK day of service we completed three projects that are new to our gardens and student's at school and home ability to grow more food during the winter.
For our first project, parents built and added a bamboo trellis to our canoe garden in anticipation of our spring peas, and summer cucumbers and nasturtium. One of our parents has more than enough bamboo growing in her backyard so we harvested bamboo on Friday and brought it to school for our trellises. We will also be adding bamboo trellises to our raised beds once the designs are complete this spring.
Our second project was creating four salad boxes using the University of Maryland Extension's plans. They measure 15x21 and we will be starting them indoors under artificial lights to get a crop or two before moving them outdoors in the spring.
Our third project was recycling plastic grape tomato and salad boxes from the grocery store and creating mini-green houses for micro-greens. Students made and seeded their mini-green houses and took the home to grow.
The plans for the trellises, salad boxes, and mini-green houses were made available for all families to take home and experiment with.
For our first project, parents built and added a bamboo trellis to our canoe garden in anticipation of our spring peas, and summer cucumbers and nasturtium. One of our parents has more than enough bamboo growing in her backyard so we harvested bamboo on Friday and brought it to school for our trellises. We will also be adding bamboo trellises to our raised beds once the designs are complete this spring.
Our second project was creating four salad boxes using the University of Maryland Extension's plans. They measure 15x21 and we will be starting them indoors under artificial lights to get a crop or two before moving them outdoors in the spring.
Our third project was recycling plastic grape tomato and salad boxes from the grocery store and creating mini-green houses for micro-greens. Students made and seeded their mini-green houses and took the home to grow.
The plans for the trellises, salad boxes, and mini-green houses were made available for all families to take home and experiment with.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Micro-greens and Peas
We are very excited to get our growing season going this coming Monday as part of our Martin Luther King celebration and day of service. We will be demonstrating how to build and start salad boxes, build mini greenhouses out of reclaimed plastice tomato and salad boxes for microgreens, and building pea trellises for our pea gardens that will be planted in late February or early March.
5th grade students visited Real Food Farm's hoop houses yesterday. They toured the facilities, spoke with the farm manager and farm workers. Real Food Farm has been selling some of their produce at school. Last week they sold out in an hour and one half!
5th grade students visited Real Food Farm's hoop houses yesterday. They toured the facilities, spoke with the farm manager and farm workers. Real Food Farm has been selling some of their produce at school. Last week they sold out in an hour and one half!
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Happy New Year
Well, we've had about 2 ft of snow since I've last written and have been out of school since Friday December 18th. We had just harvested lettuce, spinach, fennel seed, carrots, beets, and radish before the snow came. We also put in the last of our cover crop seed, so we will be interested to see if that ever germinates. Amazingly all the snow has already melted away, but it is bitter cold today with the wind chill - about 11 degrees, brrrrrr.
As the seed catalogs start to arrive we are already thinking about the possibilities for the new growing season.
We hope everyone had a safe and relaxing holiday break!
As the seed catalogs start to arrive we are already thinking about the possibilities for the new growing season.
We hope everyone had a safe and relaxing holiday break!
Monday, December 14, 2009
March/April In December
O.k., that is where my head is at after a day of planting bulbs along Cardenas Ave. I am already looking forward to the daffodils and crocus poking their heads through the last grips of winter.
Boy, another few days of rain, just what we need! I know it will pay dividends later, but yes I am still complaining.
The leaves and manure are settling in nice, so maybe we will get the clover and hairy vetch in this week - we'll see what happens. Maybe if we are lucky it'll rain this week;)
Boy, another few days of rain, just what we need! I know it will pay dividends later, but yes I am still complaining.
The leaves and manure are settling in nice, so maybe we will get the clover and hairy vetch in this week - we'll see what happens. Maybe if we are lucky it'll rain this week;)
Monday, December 7, 2009
Backbone Mountain Food Farm
This past week-end two of our 5th graders visited and explored Backbone Mountain Food Farm in southern Garrett County which is an organic farm farmed largely by antique equipment and draft horse. The boys explored with the owners children on foot and by cross-country skis.
We adults were also fortunate enough to get to see their hoop houses, high-tunnel garden, mushroom operation, and many of the antique tools and draft horses. We are hoping to develop a relationship that will allow our students exposure to an organic farm that has a shorter growing season, at a higher elevation that uses many of our gardening practices such as: crop rotation, cover-crops, neighborhood plantings, and uses compost and manure.
It was fun to see a farm at nearly 2,000 ft above sea level covered in 6-8 inches of snow that was still producing greens, radishes, and carrots in their high-tunnel.
The farm is also a cross-country ski destination that also offers ski packages and lessons at affordable rates.
Thank you Backbone Mountain Food Farm for your time and inspiration.
We adults were also fortunate enough to get to see their hoop houses, high-tunnel garden, mushroom operation, and many of the antique tools and draft horses. We are hoping to develop a relationship that will allow our students exposure to an organic farm that has a shorter growing season, at a higher elevation that uses many of our gardening practices such as: crop rotation, cover-crops, neighborhood plantings, and uses compost and manure.
It was fun to see a farm at nearly 2,000 ft above sea level covered in 6-8 inches of snow that was still producing greens, radishes, and carrots in their high-tunnel.
The farm is also a cross-country ski destination that also offers ski packages and lessons at affordable rates.
Thank you Backbone Mountain Food Farm for your time and inspiration.
Friday, December 4, 2009
A dry window
Mike and Mrs. Hope (Chris), with the help of Mrs. Primm and the 5th grade class, FINALLY were able to get the manure and leaves into our gardens yesterday. Chris and I cleaned out the beds of old plant material and the 5th graders harvested the remaining beets, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, and fennel seeds (as well as one last scraggly ear of popcorn).
We then topped the beds with well composted horse manure and about 6"+/- of shredded leaves. We marveled at the amount of worm life in the beds and in the composted manure. We are curious to see how this combination of materials affects our pH and nitrogen levels.
We still have cool weather crops flourishing in our gardens and our onion and garlic sets are going crazy. We are planning on planting our spring bulbs next week along Cardenas Ave and planting our crimson clover and hairy vetch once the leaves get a good soaking (of snow?) this week-end.
We then topped the beds with well composted horse manure and about 6"+/- of shredded leaves. We marveled at the amount of worm life in the beds and in the composted manure. We are curious to see how this combination of materials affects our pH and nitrogen levels.
We still have cool weather crops flourishing in our gardens and our onion and garlic sets are going crazy. We are planning on planting our spring bulbs next week along Cardenas Ave and planting our crimson clover and hairy vetch once the leaves get a good soaking (of snow?) this week-end.
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