onion mini-garden

Keeping all the kids engaged is easiest when we have one project that everyone can work on. Especially if it is something they can get used to (like thinning and transplanting lettuce), and can then see when others are having trouble and can offer help.

Based on this idea, before the 7 year-olds arrived on Wednesday I made a quick decision to build a little mini garden within the garden. All I did before the group arrived was stake out a little 6'x6' plot in a sunny part of the garden next to the peppers and the herb spiral. When the group walked in, we set to weeding and tilling the little plot. The group (about 20 kids) outsized their little garden somewhat, but the kids were generally pretty good about sharing tools.

Then we mounded five rows, and I measured out 6" across each bed where they would be planting onions.

There is a kind of balance between working on a task and experiencing the garden, the trouble is, because there are only two garden counselors (Olivia and I), usually only a few kids get totally immersed in the activity, and once they do they are full of so many questions that they take up our attention. I find I am more apt to focus my energy on these kids, because they will continue on their own when they feel confident, whereas the other kids who tend to hang around the path with the other counselors and talk need both encouragement and direction. Up until now I think we have done a good job though, once the motivated kids are involved in something we can shift our attention to the other kids.

What it comes down to is really just getting the other counselors involved. Right now it's pretty obvious that some counselors don't really feel comfortable doing much more than helping the campers stay on task, or just sit on the sidelines also. While we spend the first few minutes of each session asking campers about their experiences gardening, the counselors usually linger around the fringes. I think in the future we'll do more to orient the counselors to the garden so everyone can feel confident to make choices.

purslane?!

Plants are awesome, but the watering can is more awesome.

Until we discovered purslane, baby tomatillos we the most interesting things the garden was producing. The campers didn't really seem to care whether they were ripe or unripe (sweet or sour). Because we may have stressed the plants by moving them a few times, Jeff said they might be pushing out their fruit as quickly as possible. Even the ripest fruits fall off the vine no bigger than 2 cm in diameter.

Two days ago we discovered that our most pervasive weed was edible, and actually very healthy. After doing some research about common garden weeds, we googled "succulent weed" and instantly found pictures of the juicy looking red stem we'd been finding all over the garden. Evidently it's really high in omega-3's (higher than any other leafy green) and other vi and it tastes like watercress. (The campers pick it and eat it more eagerly then I've ever seen a kid eat something leafy and green).

Why don't people cultivate it? Well, you don't really have to, as each plant can produce up to 240,000 tiny seeds that are viable for years left in the soil. Some people don't know of the high nutrition they're throwing away by tossing purslane aside with the rest of the garden weeds. But I asked a chef in the Ross kitchen, and she says she often uses purslane in catering, adding it to salads. Yesterday I picked a bucket full and brought it upstairs with some fresh leaf lettuce and a bunch of chives. The chives I know will be used today with the beets, I hope the purslane finds a spot in the salad bar!

yay

rainwater-catchment system

Planning to install one of these by the CWB, can't wait! As long as Jim Knowlan gives us the green light that is... I don't think there are any zoning issues, it's such a simple system! And easily within our budget.

spiral from space

A google earth view of the garden and the Center for Well-Being some time last summer. It's obviously quite shady at this time of day, mid-afternoon? I think we have since removed a few more trees from the west corner of the site. (The photo is oriented with N^, E>)

Spring 2010: senior internship @ the garden

Every spring, Ross seniors get four wednesdays to work on some kind of project or internship. I led one on campus with about 7 other seniors doing work in the garden and some planning. This mostly entailed digging up (guess what?) stumps. We listened to music and the weather was generally good so it wasn't too bad...

I thought this picture of Fred with the powerwasher was pretty funny... We all took turns using it to get the dirt out of the roots of each stump so we could lift them into my dad's car. (This whole process makes us look like we hated the trees with a passion.) Now almost all the stumps we dug up are in his studio waiting to be transformed into sculptures.

Joy, camaraderie, blisters.

The view from the café last May..

pieces of inspiration

Back in April when I was doing some "last minute shopping," checking out Colorado College one last time (which, incidentally, turned out not to be my final choice), I visited their garden, which is located in the college president's back yard. It was clearly dormant, looking frostbitten, damp and yellowing like every garden does at winter's last gasp, but it was beautifully sloping and sprawling, Pikes Peak peeking through the trees at the periphery.

It appeared to have had a pretty lively and creative last season; the bare frame of a hoop house stood at one end of the garden, things had been planted in old tires and a beautiful doorway was woven together with sticks and vines. I pictured myself walking down the street to the garden in the morning before class... and it's always sunny in Colorado. I wondered how big of a role it played in the school culture during the spring and fall and who kept it during the summer.

I liked the balance of form and function--it seemed like it would be a great place to spend time in addition to being a productive space. There was a compost pile and a hammock, trees and open space, each element positioned in the area so as not to interrupt the function of the other.