The Season Starts Again...

  To live, to survive on the earth, to care for the soil, and to worship, all are bound at the root to the idea of a cycle. -Wendell Berry

  One can still feel a bit of the cold from winter, the weather keeps jumping back and forth from hot to cold, unable to make up its mind it seems. Yet the length of the days are consistently getting longer and thus the sun is gifting more energy to the plants and us. Already quite a bit that was saved from last season is growing and near or ready to be harvested, including some cauliflower, lettuce, and some gorgeous (and very delicious) little tomatoes. We shared some of the tomatoes with the kids, and had reactions ranging from "delicious" to pure disgust with the flavor (I didn't much like tomatoes at there age either). One bright kid noticed the seeds in his tomato and decided to keep it so to plant the seeds later.

                     

   It was a lot of fun getting to see the kids I had spent so much time with last term, and while they can be a handful at times, I am really glad I get to spend time with them and see them light up with understanding of the cycles and workings of the garden. I also love that these kids love bugs almost as much as I do! This garden is a special place that grows a lot more than just plants, and I look forward to doing a lot of growing in this new growing season!

- Noah Schlager

Better than any argument is to rise at dawn and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup. -Wendell Berry

Day one of Spring 2012

     And we're off to another great semester! 

Today, we resumed our weekly work in the garden along with lessons and classes. I worked the very chilly 8-10am shift with Kate and Erin joined us to go over all of things that need to happen this week. Despite our nearly numb fingers and toes, we enjoyed the refreshing air and the irresistable beauty of the Peace Patch garden. Among the various goals for this semester, we discussed planting more fruit than we have in the past, as the kids are largely more excited about growing fruit than vegetables (no surprise there..). We also had fun tossing around ideas for dishes to make from the food we will eventually harvest....tomato and basil hummus anyone?

I always envy kids' superior resilience in the face of cold weather. Here's our beautiful group of kindergarten students, energetic and ready for time in the garden! 

Sunflowers growing in the Three Sisters Bed, looking lovely.

Just a few of the tomatoes growing on the very large tomato bush. 

Far left bed: Eggplant and Broccoli; Middle bed: Peppers, Parsley, Cilantro; Right: Cauliflower.

So excited to see the Eggplant coming in!

Our main task for today's shift...a newly planted bed of Garbonzo beans, Garden Beans, and Providers.

Kate assessing our class'slevel of science/gardening knowledge through  the classic red light-green light game.

I'm so excited to be back in the garden again this semester and to be a part of such an important and life-changing movement. I know the rest of the semester will only prove to be more exciting as we move forward with planting and working with the kids.

Until next time,

-Olivia

Finishing Touches

The Edible Peace Patch at Lakewood Elementary has finally become operational. After many hours of hard work by many ambitious volunteers, the Garden is ready for production.

Aesthetically, there is no comparison

And the same goes agriculturally.

These new beds will hopefully contain far more nutrient rich soil and will promote healthy growth among the various crops.

Even the sunflowers will have better soil, proper organization, and greater protection.

As we can see, they are taking it very well.

With all of the beds finished, sand sloped appropriately, and mulch spread, we were finally able to start planting.

This involved some careful note-taking in order to know what was where and the notes were then organized into a whiteboard chart for ease of use.

(left of bottom half nearest school and top following to the right)

Some of the crops, such as the tomatoes and some sunflowers, were left planted from the previous garden:

Others were transplanted in fresh new beds:

Collards,

Peppers (left), Parsley (right top), Broccoli (middle), Cilantro (right bottom),

Eggplant (left), Romaine Lettuce (right),

A few mystery greens (likely a form of Collards),

And yet others received drastic upgrades to their pre-existing homes:

Pineapples,

lets not forget about those Sunflowers.

Even the compost, mulch, and soil starter piles reaped the benefits of the renovation.

Some plants from the old garden were even able to be harvested in order to provide for future generations of superior crops.

The Edible Peace Patch here at Lakewood has sure come a long way, but the real exciting part is still to come.

Everything Coming Together

Even after lots of progress on the beds over the previous week, things were looking a little barren around the Peace Patch. In fact, the Garden almost resembled a mine for a while. Recently, however, things have been brightening up.

More renovation meant more supplies and we got a lot of it.

Some of the materials came from local businesses: shrimp, wood, topsoil, coffee grinds, etc.

And some of the materials came straight from the ground

After all the beds were caught up to speed with layers up through fish, mulch and topsoil, they were ready for shrimp.

On top of this were more coffee grinds, some good compost, seaweed, more mulch and topsoil, all stacked like lasagna with good topsoil from the old beds mixed between each layer.

We also spread/sloped the sand and spread mulch over it.

The pineapples were happy to have their home cleaned up

And a long trough was created in which to hopefully grow a wall of giant sunflowers.

We even moved the compost off of the fence to the far side of the Garden and built new frames for seven of the beds.

Luckily, on Wednesday and Thursday this week we had some extra help around the Garden.
A whole class of Eckerd College students volunteered at the Peace Patch and made a big impact in the volume of work we were able to complete.

Slowly but surely, the Peace Patch is coming together.

Transformation!

It is hard to believe it has been only a week since we started working on the Peace Patch Garden! This is what we walked into a week ago...

And this is what it looks like now...

It may not be as green as before but, the Garden is undergoing great transformations and we are all anxious to see the results! 

Here is a step by step of what we are doing to the garden beds. 

After digging out all of the beds to a depth of about inches 30 inches, they have all been lined with a thick plastic material to keep the water in the beds. 

Next, a layer of mulch was added and it was followed by a layer of logs. 

The logs were then covered by another layer of mulch

Next a layers of leftover fish parts! 

This layer of fish is also covered by mulch...

Next, all is covered by top quality, topsoil. But wait, it is not ready yet, there is more! Tune in next week and see what is happening in this transforming and happening garden. 

Holes

Today was a busy day in the garden for the peace patch will be getting a subterranean makeover. over the next few weeks we will be creating some new additions to the peace patch.  Though the majority of the changes will not be noticeable above ground we hope that the changes will be evident when the plants start growing.  Today we began the process of digging out the beds, we will be digging out the beds about two feet below the frames in order place cut down tree branches and trunks, mulch, coffee grounds, fish bones, and shrimp shells below the topsoil.  We completely excavated one bed and are almost done digging out two of the other beds.  Today we also harvested the collard greens much to the delight of the ladies at the front desk, harvested the spectacular sweet potatoes, and cleared off some of the other beds.  A solid start to the long list of things to do to get the garden ready for planting.

Andrew Porter
1-5-12