Hopeful Hints of a Healthy and Happy Harvest...

What a perfect way to start the week: The Edible Peace Patch is flourishing! The lettuce is green, tall and abundant, standing proudly in its bed. The dill in the herb garden is towering over all of the other herbs, but the cilantro and other herbs in the spiral are catching up fast. The bush beans and squash have flowered, providing a few more colorful blossoms throughout the garden, in addition to the beautiful flowers thriving pollinator garden. The collards and kale are large and plentiful. The radishes are ready for harvest! Flowers are popping up in the trenches and all of the remaining dead sunflowers have been chopped down. The stalks of the deceased flowers have been used to stake the tomatoes and pole beans, which are in need of some support as they shoot up rapidly in their garden growth.

As a consequence of the glorious Spring weather, the longer days and increased hours of sun exposure, not only are the fruits, veggies and flowers growing fast in the garden—so are the weeds! Patches of green witch grass are begging to be pulled up in and all around the beds. The amaranth, though not a weed, has been popping up in several of the beds, as well as in the pathways, and is slowly being removed by hand and transplanted along the fence line.

The weather, not to “jinx” us, is starting to work in our favor! Everything was excitedly hydrated this morning, as the morning shift provided a serious saturation. The compost got churned today and it is looking amazing! We’ve built a lot of good, internal heat in the middle, excellently balanced layers of leaves, food scraps, etc. and both piles are full of worms, isopods and other life. Unfortunately, some non- garden-friendly-grubs have been discovered this week, but with a close eye, the students and gardeners can walk through and pick them out of the garden, performing some hand-maintenance that will surely do the trick.

The butterfly bushes arrived in time to be planted with the classes. Today’s first graders used their 5 senses to make observations on how much the garden has transformed since their last visit. One of the afternoon classes planted some fresh, healthy pineapple tops into some trays of water to soak and take root before they are re-planted into the ground to replace the dead pineapples. (Two of the older, rejuvenated pineapples are blossoming!)

If all of the love and loyalty provided by the students, children, and sunshine continues in its present course, we’ll all share a bounty of delicious organic goodies and aesthetic pleasures at the Harvest Festival in a few weeks! In the meantime, we’ll continue to see, hear, taste, smell, and touch the garden’s progress!