Getting ready for our festival (Save the date: June 16th)

We're speeding along towards early summer but the 80-90 degree weather makes it feel like late June! Our plants are happy to oblige and are already filling out nicely in the bright sunshine. We've been weeding and getting things looking pretty in preparation for our 3rd annual opening festival in the garden, so save the date and join us from 3-6pm on Saturday, June 16th for food, kid's activities, music and a tour of the garden.

Here's what we've been up to:

Framework for this year's Fairy Garden

Happy plants love all this sunshine

Weeding, weeding, weeding!

Hope to see you all on June 16!  Until then, here's a great site with a similar mission: helping kids connect with nature in their area http://www.naturerocks.org .  They have some great downloadable resources including activity guides and a nature treasure hunt.  Print one out and have some fun in nature with your favorite kid!

Happy Memorial Day and a big thank you to all those that serve peace and keep us safe, happy and free. ~Marykaye

Coming right along

Thanks to gorgeous weather and a perfect mix of sun and rain, things are coming along nicely in the garden.  We continue to mulch and prepare beds, but many plants are also making their way into the ground.

This season it's tomatoville in the garden and some of the players we'll enjoy meeting include Paul Robeson, St. Pierre and St. Marzano, along with the cheeky Garden Peach, Ivory Egg and Isis Candy.  We know how to party in this garden! ;)  Other delicious additions will include Cumin, Sorrel, Celery, Anise and Stevia, all of which should be very interesting for the to kids taste and watch growing.

The pace is lovely and we get a lot done, but we also enjoy the time together with friends.  Many a problem is unwound and new solutions uncovered, all while weeding or laying out mulch under a beautiful blue sky.  

Here's what's been going on this week:

Chris contemplates a tomato plant.  Which one will this one be?

Awww, baby rainbow chard, our signature vegetable!

Lovely vistas and images abound every day in the garden

This is the lovely Pam of Pam's Creature Care, by the way.
(You may have heard of her)

Fairy ring still life, the first of many.  (We'll need a time-lapse photo).

The garden is a lovely place for an impromptu gathering.

(We do that a lot). ;)

Many helpers make light work

But you have to take time to play!
(And nothing beats a big pile of dirt).

Hope you have plenty of meaningful work AND time to play this week.  Wishes for a happy Mother's Day for all, including our beautiful Mama Earth!

~Marykaye

Earth Day 2012

Happy Earth Day!

What could be a greater blessing for the earth than rain on Earth Day?  Our plots were getting pretty dusty so this must be a welcome gift to the soil.  We're hoping that all who had celebrations planned were able to move them inside or enjoy them with a little rain gear and a hot drink.  More about some of them at http://www.earthday.org/2012 

Even on a rainy day there are so many fun activities to bring Earth Day inside. Painting coffee cans to plant with fresh kitchen herbs,  creating a recycling station for yourself or a neighbor or reading a great book about Earth Day with your favorite kid.  Another way is to explore a bit of the webisphere for all of the creative ways that gardens are blooming and nurturing children.  You can find a great resource here at: http://www.kidsgardening.org/groups/gardening-our-way-vermont  

So get cozy, breathe in the cool, fresh smell of rain and say a little word of gratitude for this big beautiful planet.  Let's keep it healthy and safe for generations to come.  :)

Happy Earth Day!

~Marykaye

Spring is in the air

It's been feeling like Spring out in the garden. There's still a chill in the air but we're enjoying the glorious sunshine even on the breeziest of days.  We've been out here for weeks but the cooler weather reminds us that it is still just early April with time to dream up a fabulous season.

Our progress so far:
We've been planting more potatoes and onions along with preparing beds for the tomato seedlings that are currently snoozing on cozy windowsills.  A few radishes have even made it into the fresh cool earth, a bit hardier than some veggies in case of frost.  Most exciting of all, we laid out the pattern for this year's fairy ring along with walking paths and a kid's play area near the back of the garden.  We'll plan to plant in expanding rows to increase yield and to include an area for the adults to congregate and stage produce as needed.  As always, we enjoy our time together with tea and treats as much as the gardening. :)

Here are some pictures from this week:

straw mulch keeps prepared beds ready and waiting for planting

outline of the fairy ring

you can see us from the road by the new PSECU building

looking good!

rest is as important as hard work in the garden :)

Starting seeds indoors is another great way for kids to connect with the earth so feel free to bring your seedlings out to our garden for them to plant when they are ready!  You can also check out our "Events" link for more details of this season's schedule or scroll down the right side of the page for a quick list of dates.

Happy planting!
~Marykaye

We're back!

What a glorious first day in the garden!  An early season is always great and we are out there more than a month earlier than last year.  It means more time to prepare the earth and an opportunity to plant many different waves of crops, season by season.  Right now is a perfect time to put in cooler weather crops that can easily withstand any frost we may still see before the end of May.  

This evening we spread organic compost, mixing in greensand & gypsum to create a comfortable home for some potato and onion sets.  (Favorite first veggies that are now a part of the 3rd annual Children's Rainbow Garden project.  Yea!).  A special thank you to Jill from Robertson Excavating for the donation of a dumptruck-full of organic compost.  Happy earth means happy veggies...

Here are some pictures from this evening:

Potatoes find a happy home

Huge pile o' compost

Glorious sunset

Usual garden shenanigans 

Regular hours in the garden will be starting again this week, so please be welcome to join us on Wednesdays from 6pm to dusk and Saturdays from ~10am to noon.  Kids and their favorite adults welcome! :)

In the meantime, check out these links for more creative ways kids benefit from community gardening:

San Diego school buses will become "Farms on wheels"

"School buses will be turned into "farms on wheels" to teach students in the San Diego Unified School District about nutrition and sustainable agriculture. The buses will travel from school to school and complement the district's Farm-to-School program."

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2012/mar/26/stringers-farms-wheels-program/

Greenhouse supplies vegetables for Minn. high school

"Students in a Minnesota high school are served fresh lettuce grown at a community greenhouse. Students say they can taste the difference between the fresh greens and the bagged lettuce they eat between harvests. So far this year, about 165 pounds of salad greens and other vegetables have been harvested at the greenhouse and served at the school. "We've never had a bad batch," said school nutrition professional Bonnie Nordmeyer. "How lucky are these students, to get lettuce from two blocks away.""

http://www.wctrib.com/event/article/id/91532/group/homepage/

          We have lots of fun things planned for this year's garden,
           so stop back for an updated list of events!
           ~Marykaye

Jerusalem Artichokes - Harvested!

Its insane to think we would be harvesting this morning after a few inches of snow, but it makes sense when you think of the Jerusalem Artichokes that we've been nurturing all summer. We had to make sure to get them out of the ground!
 
Jerusalem artichokes have nothing to do with artichokes or Jerusalem. In fact, they are native to North America and belong to the sunflower family.  They look like ginger root and their flavor will remind you of artichokes, water chestnuts, jicama, or apple. Sometimes they are called "sunchokes" and they are great addition to your fall menu. 
 
Jerusalem artichokes can be eaten raw, boiled, roasted, steamed or pickled. You can use them just about any way you would use a potato. They are great added to soups and  salads. Steam them and add butter and sage. Mash them like potatoes or celery root. Slice them raw and make a salad with beets, diced apple, carrots tossed with vinaigrette dressing. Make fries by cutting them into strips, tossing them with oil, sage, salt and roasting them for about 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees.

A cup of Raw Jerusalem Artichokes contains these power-packed healthy nutrients:

- Vitamin A
- Vitamin B1, Thiamin (Good Amount)
- Vitamin B2, Riboflavin
- Vitamin B3, Niacin
- Vitamin B5, Pantothenic Acid
- Vitamin B6, Pyridoxine
- Vitamin B9, Folate
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin E
- Choline
- Protein
- Calcium
- Iron (Good Amount)
- Magnesium
- Phosphorus
- Potassium
- Zinc
- Copper
- Manganese
- Selenium
- Omega 6 Fatty Acids
- Natural Sugars
- Dietary Fiber
- Carbohydrates
- Calories
- Natural Fats 
 
We have harvested an abundant crop of Jerusalem Artichokes - our first time growing them! They were really easy to grow, so try them in your back yard next summer. The plants grow like sunflowers and provide a beautiful flower toward the end of summer into fall. Enjoy!

Pumpkin painting and other plans

Cool, rainy days have us in the garden less frequently, but there is still plenty of garden-related news to share. Red wheat and oats are ready to be prepared for cozy autumn meals and we are still waiting for the Jerusalem Artichokes and sweet potatoes to be ready to harvest. We are looking forward to pulling and drying many of the herbs in the medicinal garden and we'll post more about all of that as it happens.We were so sorry to cancel our Fall Festival last weekend, but some of our garden members still had a chance to get together for a little pumpkin painting and lots of fun.

And if you are interested, here is a nice news item discussing how a garden is a great idea for communities struggling in a rough economy.

Click here for link.

Hope you stay cozy and warm but still make time to get outside to enjoy nature everyday. Have a great week!
~Marykaye