Gardening Opening

The community garden is now open! Here are a few photos from today.

First Planting of the Season

Compost

The compost from last year's garden plants is used to help fill the new garden beds.

The Countdown Begins!

The garden before planting later this month. . . Soon the beds will be bursting with life!

Soil for New Garden Beds

The Art of Gardening students pose in front of the load of soil they must haul across the parking lot in wheelbarrows to fill our new garden beds.

More Grilling and Planting

Sal and Raffa grilled today while Mateo and Jahmiya planted a round of San Martzano tomato seeds. The rest of the crew policed the area. On October 2 our big soil order arrives and we will work to fill the new beds and top up the existing ones.

Grilling in the Garden

As our Community Garden expands, so does our sense of purpose. Thanks to our new grill and covered deck area, the students in The Art of Gardening have a chance to do some cooking, have fun, and begin to make a stronger connection to the food we grow and eat. Jordan and Jamhiya were up first. Each day for the next couple weeks, student will make a vegetable marinade, learn how to cook using a gas grill, and serve the rest of the class up with some good eats!

Location:Miami Shores, Florida

Arthur's Blog Entry #1

As the class progresses, I will turn over the blogging duties to the students in the class. Here is Arthur's first entry!

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In the early, wee hours of track 1 on a tuesday, our brave gardening pioneers went down to the community garden. Their objective? Maintenance. Hillbilly accents and gardening gloves at the ready, our students went to work. Four hours of labour were completed within a mere thirty minutes, thanks to the ruthless efficiency with which our aspiring gardeners exterminated the invading weeds. After this great endeavor, our gardeners went to town on the gravel, with their rakes of justice. Long story short? Awesome start to a day.

--By Arthur V.

Location:Community Garden

Transplanting

The Art of Gardening class began transplanting some of the tomato seeds we germinated in the classroom. They mixed the soil themselves--a combination of compost, peat moss, and vermiculite.

Location:Community Garden

Preparations begin!

Preparations for the 2012 - 2013 growing season are beginning. This year, the upper school will feature The Art of Gardening, a Humanities class. The class has 16 students. Here are a few who have just finished stringing up the garden grid in one of the 4 ft x 16 ft beds.

Last Post... Until September

Though the official garden closing took place last Friday, a few things needed tending. So. . . this is the real final post, and the garden is now closed until September. (The lone bed with plants in the video belongs to Chris Hayes. It is filled with native, perennial plants that attract butterflies.)
By for now, and thanks for following our first season!

- Posted by Scott using BlogPress from my iPhone

Golden Trowel Award

The 1st annual Golden Trowel Award was awarded to Margaret. Her funky garden square produced loads of tomatoes and eggplant, and she cared for her plants consistently throughout the entire season.




- Posted by Scott using BlogPress from my iPad

Manure

Today the guys did a great job positioning the sixty-four 50 lb sacks of manure in the garden. They will mix it into the main garden beds over the next few days. The manure will break down even more over the summer and we will totally eliminate the possibility of root burn due to excessive nitrogen.

- Posted by Scott using BlogPress from my iPad

Garden Flower

Though our gardening season is coming to a close, the beauty of the garden endures... This is a picture of one of the flowers in Jill's garden bed.




- Posted by Scott using BlogPress from my iPad

Nick's Trailer

We were rained out today, so Nick made a cool movie trailer for the garden using a horror show motif.

- Posted by Scott using BlogPress from my iPad

Movie Trailer Project

The students made some cool mock movie trailers about the closing of the garden. Thought I would post a few.

- Posted by Scott using BlogPress from my iPad

Removing the SFG Grids

In other parts of the country, planting is beginning, but in South Florida most people stop vegetable gardening due to the powerful sun, heat, and heavy downpours during the rainy season.

Here, the students remove the string grids that served us well all season. The grids helped us organize our planting space and are a key feature of the square foot gardening technique we use throughout the Community Garden.

- Posted by Scott using BlogPress from my iPad

Leo's First Carrot

Leo pulls his first carrot!

- Posted by Scott using BlogPress from my iPad

Carrot Harvest!

The LAS2 students harvested a load of Italian-style carrots today!



- Posted by Scott using BlogPress from my iPad

Beginning of the End

As the growing season nears its end, the guys clear a garden bed.

- Posted by Scott using BlogPress from my iPhone

Tomato Stakes

The tomatoes are really producing, so the guys started staking them this morning.

- Posted by Scott using BlogPress from my iPhone

Green Bean Harvest

The guys harvested about ten pounds of organic beans today!

- Posted by Scott using BlogPress from my iPhone

Monarch Caterpillars

The monarch caterpillars return to Chris Hayes' butterfly garden!

- Posted by Scott using BlogPress from my iPhone

Spring Cleaning

The guys relaxing after sprucing up the garden prior to spring break.




- Posted by Scott using BlogPress

Clean Up Time!

Daniel helps clean up the garden after yesterday's storm--a great way to earn a school service hour!




- Posted by Scott

Monarchs Return

The monarch butterflies have returned to Chris Hayes's butterfly garden!




- Posted by Scott using BlogPress from my iPhone

Pulling a Carrot

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Radishes!

Zack and Alec harvested three one-gallon bags of organic radishes today!



- Posted by Scott using BlogPress from my iPhone

iPads Invade the Garden

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Peas

A few Garden Club members build a trellis for the peas using thin, bamboo poles.

- Posted by Scott using BlogPress from my iPhone