Garden Feast

Youth, mentors, parents, and staff gathered yesterday for a delicious garden feast!

We used veggies from our garden and supplemented our bounty with produce and meat from local farmers.

Everyone got to decorate her/his own tortilla pizza with such ingredients as: tomatoes, peppers, onions, eggplant, zucchini, squash, mushrooms, carrots, okra, herbs, sausage, and cheese.

We also made veggie pasta salad and baked apples! 

The event was a fitting celebration of the end of the summer/beginning of the new school year. It also served to connect seed to table as we shared food we had grown from seed ourselves!

With our abundance of  tomatoes, peppers, and okra, families were also able to bring fresh food home.

We hope everyone involved in the garden this season has learned, grown, tasted, and enjoyed during our agricultural acts together. Our efforts are small, but we continue to believe in the power of rippling goodness to bring about positive change.

  

Keep G.R.OW.ing, harvesting, sharing, and eating!

Horticulture Camp

We were very proud for one of our outstanding youth, Josh, to participate in the first horticulture science summer institute at N.C. State! Josh spent a week with other students from across the state learning about vegetables, flowers, fruits, landscaping, permaculture, college possibilibies, job opportunities, etc. Aspiring horticulturists went on field trips to area farms, participated in hands on experiments and activities with local experts, and found time for socializing and fun too!

Josh has been very active in our garden program this season. He came weekly to plant in the greenhouse this spring and has helped in our gardens and at the market this summer. He also  confidently presented a powerpoint about our work in the greenhouse for a grant reception! We are tremendously excited to see a youth with such an interest and commitment in horticulture! And with a pun totally intended, we hope that our little gardens have "planted a seed" for Josh and other youth as they continue on their journeys. We hope that participants will be inspired to seek careers in agriculture, have their own gardens, or simply have a better understanding of where food comes from.

Congratulations to Josh! We are so proud of you!

Neighborhood Gardening

In June and July, students in our summer neighborhood garden have been enthusiastically gardening twice a week.

They have been busy planting, watering, fence building, and weeding. They have harvested and tasted broccoli, cucmbers, cabbage and about two cherry tomatoes.

We are patiently waiting on more crops like peppers, corn, zucchini, and melon!

In addition to gardening, the students have participated in activites related to nutrition, art, culture, safety, and health.

These are a few recent pictures of weeding and tomato staking.

We are very excited about the energy surrounding this little garden space!

GROW art

Our sign is up! Now folks passing by will know our name: G.R.O.W. (Garden Ripples Over Wilkes)!

Special thanks to Nancy and Mary for sharing their talent and time! Also thanks to Roy for putting the sign up in the garden! And of course, thanks to the youth who helped collage the back and put on the finishing touches!

Our garden is beautiful, but the artwork adds a new creativity to our space!

First Market!

This week we harvested veggies and brought them to our first market! Okra, peppers, beets, carrots, kohlrabi, kale, collards, chard, basil, rosemary, zucchini/squash, and cucumbers!

We sold or gave away most everything!

We had a great team of youth to help harvest, wash, set up, sell, and clean up!

For our first market, we did really well. It was a great learning experience on how to make our produce presentable, interact with customers, describe our veggies, keep track of records, etc.

We hope to continue to be at the Smoot Park Market from 3:30-5:30 on Tuesdays! Stop by and check our our produce and meet our young gardeners!

Crop Mob!

The gardens continue to evolve through our colletive efforts, and especially through nature's efforts beyond our control. With June's abundant sunshine, okra and peppers are growing. Green tomatoes are appearing. Squash are hidden treasures to be found.

A recent crop mob of 4H youth gardeners and our own Communities in Schools folks combined forces to accomplish a great deal in the garden! Areas of high weeds were covered with cardboard/newspaper and mulch. Spring plants were removed to make way for new seeds. Thirsty plants were watered. The garden is really taking shape thanks to our volunteers!

Soon, we hope to add a much anticipated art piece to our garden! So stay tuned!

Summer veggies!

Summer vegetables are gradually making their way into the ground! Tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, melons... Most of which we planted this spring in the greenhouse! Its exciting to see plants grow from something so small! And, it will of course be wonderful to start harvesting fruit from these plants!We are putting our artwork to use as we label our crops with colorful signs!

And we have a little bit of several different crops ready to eat: broccoli, kohlrabi, peas, peppers, and okra!

Last week, we added a third garden to our efforts! This garden is within a neighborhood and youth join us twice a week for gardening and activities. In a short period of time, we planted cabbage, broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, melons, squash... and also planted seeds for corn, sunflowers, and other flowers! Many hands can make the work go by tremendously fast! What we didn't have space for in the garden, the students enthusiastically brought home! It is very encouraging to see the youth so excited about gardening! Pictures from our new garden will be coming soon!

we have a mailbox!

introducing... the G.R.O.W. mailbox!

there should be a weekly to-do list inside. so folks can stop by to spend some time in the garden at their own convienence, check off the things that have been done, make suggestions, etc.

we hope this will encourage visitors beyond our scheduled worktimes!

Garden Art!!!

Yesterday, despite threats of rain, the weather held for a beautiful afternoon in the garden!

We partnered with a local artist - Nancy Canter - to make colorful vegetable signs!  

We spent time planting some summer vegetables, flowers, and herbs including tomatoes, peppers, okra, marigolds, nasturtiums, basil, and rosemary!

We also recognized Josh who has done a tremendous job in the greenhouse this spring. He presented our seed starting project in front of a room full of people last month and expressed what he has learned quite eloquently. Thanks for all your hard work, Josh!

  And thanks for your creativity and participation, artists and gardeners!

Spring continues

Here's a few recent pictures from our gardens!

Plantin' taters!

 Mulching

 Growing brassicas (after a spring shower!)

  Peas and radishes!

Tomatoes, okra, flowers, and herbs patiently waiting to be transplanted!

With a combination of what we've grown in the greenhouse and a generous donation from the Community College Plant Sale, we're planning a planting afternoon next Tuesday! Hopefully we'll get some delicious summer crops in the ground! The planting day is in conjuction with an art activity made possible by the Cultural Arts Council to make signs for the vegetables.

Look for a colorful blog coming soon!

Spring planting

A successful planting day in the garden!

Grapes and blueberries added to our little orchard!

New beds composted and prepared for planting!

Roots and greens direct seeded!

Isles mulched!

Thanks to our gardener volunteers young and young at heart!

Future Fruit!

We seem to be starting a small fruit orchard in our gardens! We have acquired strawberries and blueberries through a generous donation from the cooperative extension. And, we recieved a few grape plants from a local gardener! Of course, these plants will teach us patience as we must wait until next season to enjoy their delicious fruit. But, they will make a great addition to the gardens in seasons to come!

To plant the strawberries, we drilled holes in old shelving for drainage and filled them with soil and compost. We also interplanted some spinach and borage, which are compatible companions with strawberries.

We've planted some peas near the fence for climbing purposes! And, planted radishes in the same bed so the peas don't get lonely!

Our beds are taking shape. Waiting to accomodate new seeds and plants. We've got a cold frame full of a second succession of the cabbage family crops. And, we're hoping to seed some carrots and lettuces soon! Stay tuned as the garden GROWs!

New Space to GROW!

We have our first plants in the ground! Transplants we planted from seeds that made their way from greenhouse to cold frame to garden! Kale, kohlrabi, collards, and broccoli! The plants exercised much patience, waiting for the fields to dry out from recent spring rains. But, they are in their new homes now and appear to be happy!

We are working the soil and building each of our raised beds as we go - making new spaces for new plants. Bit by bit. Piece by piece. This week we are also hoping to transplant some strawberries and direct seed some peas and radishes. Mmmm... Delicious!

Sunflower Wisdom

Nature has something to teach us. Always.

Last week, she spoke through sunflowers. The sunflowers we planted in the greenhouse had grown rapidly, towering over other tiny seedlings. But recently, the sunflowers looked as if they were stressed out. Exhausted. Roots reaching for more space, more water, more something.

So, we transplanted them in a deeper flat with more room to spread out. And we moved them to a place sure to get ample water from the watering system. And within a couple of days, the sunflowers looked better than ever. Growing tall, confident, beautiful. Acting more like themselves again.

And how often to we find ourselves - or others in our lives - stressed out, exhausted, needing more space and care? And how often do we slow down, to assess what we or others need to be healthy and whole? And then, how often do we actually take simple action to care for ourselves and others?

Listen to the sunflowers. They offer us lessons in compassion and simple acts of kindness. Compassion for ourselves, our friends, our neighbors, our coworkers, our families.

In other news, our first plantings - broccoli, kale, collards, kohlrabi - have been patiently waiting to enter the garden. They've been hanging out in our new cold frame, which provides a transition space between the nurturing greenhouse and the harsh reality of life in the garden. (So maybe the cold frame is a bit like college... an inbetween prepration for the "real deal"?)

Once our fields dry out a bit from the recent downpours, we'll sprinkle them with nourishing compost, rake our beds, and provide new homes for our plants and seeds. Spring is moving along!

Imagining Fields of Color

Life is happening in the greenhouse! Our first set of seeds are growing, growing, growing! In addition to those first cabbage family plants, we've planted herbs, edible flowers, tomatoes, peppers, okra, and eggplants! It is tremendously exciting to see new life springing forth from tiny seeds. And, it's additionally exciting to imagine our gardens full of colorful plants soon!

Last week, the staff (and family members!) of Communities In Schools pitched in for a clean-up morning in the garden behind our office. Leaves were raked. Briars were pruned. Fences were cleared. Soil was turned. Compost was flipped. And all of our spirits seemed uplifted by our time in the garden. We were reminded the joy of being outside, getting exercise, and accomplishing something good, together as a team.

In the coming weeks, we are looking forward to those Springtime miracles in our little gardens, as we plant more seeds, wait, and watch, as nature turns brown to green and green to rainbows.

Autumn Bounty in March

Seeds that were planted last Fall have survived our mild winter and thrived! This week, folks have gathered under evening sunshine to glean leftover turnips and greens. Vegetables seem to be multiplying as we struggle to pick them all! But we're trying to salvage and distrubute autumn's bounty before we turn the soil for Spring planting.

Harvesting together lends moments for conversation and laughter. One common topic discussed is the best way to cook turnips.

Here's Jettie's Classic Method - Peel, chop, and cook turnips in water, letting the water boil down until turnips are mashable (like potatoes). Add fatback, butter, salt, pepper, and a bit of sugar to taste. Share and enjoy!

A few other turnip ideas:
Mash along with Irish Potatoes.
Roast with other root vegetables or by themselves.
Add to your favorite soup.
Cut thin slices and fry or bake turnip chips!

Know any delicious turnip ideas? Feel free to suggest some as we've got plenty to experiment with!