Summer and Beyond

Hey everyone,
Just letting you guys know that I'll be here all summer and that I'll be doing my best to work with Dr. Cawley to make sure that the garden stays in pretty good shape. I've had a great time with all of you in ENVI 200 and hope to see you in Appalachian Rocks & Waters :)

Hope you killed the exam & have a great summer!

Stephen

P.S. I'll try to keep pictures upof everything growing!

Hmmmm. Good Friday...... A nice gentle rain today--warm and steady: everyone planted a lot of their seeds yesterday in the (dry, warm) afternoon, and even dared a few hot pepper and tomato plantlets. We were told that PR was going to have one of their photographers make an appearence for this fine planting day--but we never saw him/her. Thats ok this time though, since we had a skilled envi photographer in our midst too, just in case. These things will tend to happen occasionally.

Still, No photos from me personally today--perhaps some will get posted though--hint, hint.

In my neck of the woods (Pennsylvania), the old-timers always said that we needed to get our peas planted in by Good Friday--those plus onion sets, and some radishes were always the first in the ground. Down here south in Salem, the season always seems a little earlier--according to my family up north, they still have snow in the north hollows right now...

Then everyone went their separate ways for Easter Weekend. I wandered up to the garden this morning to check things out. Erics okra plants looked a little chilly, i admit--but the tomato plants are all looking very chipper, and the few chili de arbols and cayennes have bounced back with the warm rain. Mike's already appears to have a full crop of peppers ready for the picking......

If it gets cold, i will try to go up and cover things.

First pea plants and onions are up--Colin's radishes will need to be thinned sooner rather than later. And we have a new addition: at least three brave gardeners must have planted beets a week or so back--thye have now begun to make an appearence.

Meanwhile, Charles and Daniel did yomans (2 yomens?) work in getting the chicken-wire fences around the EC apple trees. It is worth reporting (most happily) that the other four or five missing stakes are also now in the ground, and the wire-cages all attached, and so ALL of the little trees are caged, and wont run away... (photos to follow when there is better light)

Loud lauds to several of the gang, and particularly to Mike and Stephen for doing a lot of the loading of materials into the truck to carry over to EC--and to Colin for helping with filling the water bins.

And to the lot of you for helping sort out an'Alta Mons set of seeds from the seedbank holdings...

A quick additional note specifically to Michele Duck, who has been following our blog from Britain: We continue to much appreciate your input. Happy Easter! Letsee, I agree, I just dont think you can really grow okra there--at least not unless you start it inside, like at....... say, Christmas time! Its a North African kinda thing--and it Really likes long seasons and Extremely hot days. I think we mostly only have it here in Virginia because Thomas Jefferson made pretty extensive trials of it at Monticello as "quite the exotic." ........Speaking of our various heirloom exotics in the seed line--presumably if you talk with the kids some, maybe we can do some seed exchange--i bet we are holding at least a few things that might do well with you.......

APPLES, APPLES, and more APPLES with ENVI 260

SMOKEHOUSE APPLE

HORSE APPLE

YELLOW TRANSPARENT

BUCK MT. LADY FINGER

For those of you that don't know... the ENVI 206 Class has been setting up apple orchard around the valley. We were very busy. We got over 15 different type of Apple varieties for many different locations and clef grafted them to the root stock. As of today, 04/18/2011, we have over 80% success rate. WHICH IS GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lots of Rain this weekend! And good spring rain that is warm, and should sprout things quickly. (On the other hand, the grass will need to be mowed again soon as well!)

So, while we are waiting for the first of the sprouting, lets have another glance backwards--these photos are of our first food-waste-to-compost project back in..... 2006. We have not done that yet this year--anyone interested? we have about two weeks left in the active semester--if a couple-three people want to help set up a small demonstration plot, please talk with dr cawley!

Anyhow--so in 2006 we did our first food-waste project--notice how small our official student garden was back then--only 6 foot square! Still, that small spot was 3 feet deep when we began, and five of us moved and composted 1700 pounds of food waste from the commons. We interlayered it with shredded paper and cardboard from the (then volunteer Earthbound) recycling efforts--added five pounds of red worms (they actually did most of the work), covered it with a soil/live compost layer, and then tarped it to keep the moisture in.

It worked beautifully. And quickly too.

Garden networking @ POWERSHIFT!!!

I am going to Powershift this weekend!!

Powershift is an awesome conference for youth around the U>S to network, share ideas, become informed and to organize to move our country towards a sustainable future!

Check it out HERE

I will be attending the following workshops:
~ How to Create a School/Community Garden
~Communicating for Change With your Dinning Services

I will also be hearing from key note speakers:

~ Lisa P. Jackson, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator
~Honorable Al Gore
~Van Jones


Ultimately I am very excited and enthusiastic about sharing our progress, success, and problems encountered with those who are just starting, as well as to obtain some awesome advice from those with established programs so I can envision the future goals of our garden and plan for success.

A BIG thanks to the Sociology and Environmental Studies Departments of Roanoke College for supporting my attendance to Powershift :)

Planting!

Hey everyone! Just wanted to share some pictures from when Kyle and I went up to plant some seeds in the garden. Can't wait to see everything start growin' soon!

Weather

Hey guys, just wanted to give everyone an update about the weather regarding planting seeds. I checked the monthly forecast this morning and it looks like the lows won't be getting below the upper 40's so everyone should be ok to plant all of their SEEDS. It would be a good idea to hold off on transplants at this point in case an unexpected cold front rolls through. I just finished planting and the garden is still looking great! Everyone's strawberries are looking healthy, but no signs of any other sprouts yet!