October 29th

Monday morning at Sanderlin was very pretty but quite windy.  I saw that there were some changes in the garden.  I noticed the melon patch was gone, and I dying to know how those melons tasted.  Also, I saw there were some new plants over by the fence as well.  The one looked like thyme, but I could not identify the other two.   Since we had no classes coming out, I would try to get some boarders up.  I cut up some bamboo for stakes, and several others roughly four foot long.  It was necessary to shorten some to make them fit, fit as well as they could.  I worked on the bed with the mustard greens, peas, beans, and tomatoes.  I used the existing wood to fasten some of the bamboo.  Once the boarders were in, I filled in spaces with mulch to help keep out weeds.

It was at this point; I looked up and saw Mrs. Johnson’s class coming out.  Opps!  The kids were very happy to out at the garden, so we decided to discuss to the class why I was putting up boarders.  I moved all the tools out of the way, and began to explain how the grass creeps into the beds.  I told them how the boarder works as a barrier to protect from the weeds, but also it works to protect little plants to grow stronger.  We then went into the garden to look around, and to harvest a cucumber.  Mrs. Johnson’s class asked about Ms. Olivia, and they were happy to hear she would be back when they came out again.  The class picked out a big fat cucumber, and we had them twist and pull it out.  The class asked if that hurt the cucumber.  Mrs. Johnson explained to the class that the cucumber would begin to die the minute it was pulled, and that’s why we must eat it soon.  We then wandered around the garden and stopped at the three sisters or this case the five sisters.  We talked more about companion gardening, and I explained that farmers will grow sun flowers right next to corn.  Sun flowers need similar conditions to grow, including soil temp so they should be planted at the same time.  Both corn and sun flowers grow tall, so they do not compete for sun.  Native Americans would plant sun flowers at the edge of three sisters, to act as a natural fence for the sisters.  I will explain this to Mrs. Johnson’s class when they come back next Monday, about these companions.  The class noticed a lot of bees in the garden today, so I gave details to them on bee keeping.  I described how keepers would drive north on interstate 95 during the growing season releasing their bees, so they would pollinate plants.  Then drive back south when the season wraps up to collect them.

Lastly, Mrs. Johnson’s class gave me a piece of Indian corn that they had been studying.  It was becoming a little moldy, so they gave it to me to plant in the garden.  I took off some of the kernels and planted them at the edge of the nucleus of the south garden.  Unfortunately, I left the cusp at the edge of that garden when I was leaving.  Again, opps!  I will show them were I planted the corn next week.   

I really wish this was my back yard! 

Wes

P.S. Weeded and watered!

Today was a slow and quiet day at Sanderlin. It was cloudy above and the air gentle and warm as I walked up to our sitting-stumps, where Derek was reviewing the last class's progress and considering where to most effectively direct our energy. We decided to prepare the peripheral beds for planting, and thus headed out to water, weed, and fertilize.

At this point, I consider myself a bit on an expert on weeding, because I initially found it so frustrating that I decided to study my technique until I could remove all inefficiencies. And quite honestly, as bizarre as this sounds, there are few things in my life right now that I find as satisfying as successfully extracting an battalion of interlinked grass seeds. (Grass seeds are these impossibly hard little nuts [resembling hazelnuts, in my eye] that link up with each other through roots that spread throughout the beds.)



The technique I was using is as such: I grab two hand shovels, thrust them down on either side of a weed, and gently cup the earth like I'm starting to toss salad. This has, I presume, a two out of three success rate of keeping the seed and root intact .... which still isn't good enough. I am experimenting with holding the convex metal back of a narrow hand shovel in my palm and guiding it with jabs of my hand, which has been somewhat successful; it's also important to moderately wet the beds. Maybe I should invent little gardening claws that you can attach to your fingers like classical guitarists do ... but I'll plan that elsewhere.

(Image: an battalion of the aformentioned variety; or, VICTORY.)

When I was done weeding, Noah came by and scattered fertilizer on the bed while Derek continued weeding and watering, and I moved on to other beds.

Finally a class of third graders came out, and we gathered at the stumps to review the previous week's lesson on bugs. The kids definitely impressed us with their memory, reciting and describing the various categories of bugs - the pollinators, predators, and decomposers. We then proceeded to teach on the water cycle, and the kids, at the end of the lesson, sang us a little hip hop song, and a few of them danced, really, really well. The kids all rounded up to see the celery game, in which we fill a cup with water, stick some celery in it, drop in some food coloring drops of their choice, and explain to them that the plant's transpiration will turn it (in this case) blue.

These kids inspire me. They are curious, articulate, energetic, and full of love for the world. When they were about to leave, one boy ran up and embraced me to say goodbye.

With love,
David

Preparing to Compost!

Hello Peace Patchers!

I am a student at Thurgood Marshall and for my Independent Research Project (IRP) I have chosen to design and build a three-bin compost system at the Sanderlin Edible Peace Patch Garden.  I am interested in learning about organic gardening and composting. The existing compost bin at Sanderlin was looking like it needed a fresh face-lift and, for such a large garden, the one bin system they had in place seemed undersized. I spent many hours researching different designs and settled on using a 3-bin system constructed from salvaged wooden pallets.  

 

 

 

 


My first task was to clear away all the debris, rocks, and trash from the existing compost pile and unload the old compost from the bin.  Every time I lifted a log or rock, a million little bugs went scattering around and we even saw a few spiders carrying egg sacks!  Yikes!












 

The old compost still looks good.  We placed it in a temporary pile nearby so that it can stay safe until the bins are constructed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I accomplished the clearing in two trips. Now all the debris is removed, my next task will be to collect more wooden pallets and prepare the surface area to build the  new three-bin system.  I’ll keep you all posted on the progress.  Happy composting!

 
 

Best regards,  CJ

 
 
 
 

Monday morning at Sanderlin garden truly felt like fall in Florida, more than comfortable in the shade and not completely melting in the sun.  Olivia and I began the day by surveying the fantastic job the Friday volunteers had done getting the garden into shape.  Also the grassed was mowed by the Monday’s earlier volunteers, and the garden just looked great!  Furthermore we realized that some harvesting could be done by the classes that day.

We began doing some weeding and watering, when it was time for our first class.  Mrs. Dillions kinder garden class is always full of energy, and they did not disappoint.  The seemed to retain some of the information from last week as far as predators, prey, pollinators, and I think it was Zach who remembered decomposers.  We began our water cycle instruction and the class was knowledgeable of precipitation, evaporation, even a little of condensation.  The Olivia taught them about transpiration, and where they seemed to understand some, it was this point where we really started to lose our crowd.  We asked if they could do their best to remember transpiration, and we moved swiftly into our celery experiment.   

It was then time to go into the garden and do some exploring.  We asked them if they saw any changes, and of course they notice the two melons getting rather large.  Also someone mentioned, “It looked like there were more plants”.  Then it was time for our class to do their first water.  The whole class held the hose, while Olivia instructed them where to spray. When the first one was finished, they would move to the end of the line.  The camera man did get hit with water some, but our fancy equipment was just fine.

I then brought them over to the cucumbers, and showed them the two that were ready for harvest.  They choose the one to pick, and pulled it. The class all got back into single file and proceeded out of the garden waving goodbye.  One child was chosen to carry their celery experiment back, and they were going to share holding the cucumber on the way back.  Each child pretended to munch down on the cucc, and they decided they were going to try it when the made it back into the class room.

Just a side note:  Mrs. Dillion returned her survey and we got a real kick out of reading it.  We may have a future Michael Jackson in our misted.

Everyone have a great week off.  Olivia, have fun in Tallahassee.

Blessings to all,

Wes

  

Big Work Day!

Hello again. This Friday, all of the Friday shifts worked at the Sanderlin garden because it needed some extra help. This was decided because there was no school at either of the schools on this Friday so no lessons would be taught to any students and there was some work that needed to be done at Sanderlin. There were a few beds that had not been amended yet and were in desperate need. On the last shift of the day Mary Kate, Noah, Robin and myself put the finishing touches on the newly amended beds. We began by planting black eyed pea seeds in one of the finished beds. Next, we finished off another bed that had been amended earlier by adding topsoil to it. We then moved to another bed where we planted carrots, radishes, peas, and sunflowers. While we were planting, Robin was hard at work watering all of the beds. The hoses at Sanderlin had a few holes in them so Robin kindly went to go get new hoses so we would not be wasting any water. Next week we will be teaching the students about the water cycle so we best not be wasting water while we teach about the water cycle and conserving water. The shift flew by as we finished our work in amazement of how one days work with everyones help can create a beautiful product. Good work and teamwork everyone!

Peace and carrots,

Mary Kate and Noah planting peas

Black eyed peas

Mary Kate and Noah adding topsoil 

Amy

Going Buggy for Bugs!

 This week in our garden we got to learn all about bugs, and why they are super important for our garden to remain healthy and thriving. Our students were not exactly thrilled with our week's topic, but they quickly warmed up to our creepy crawly friends after a few discoveries. Unfortunately it seems the bugs were in no mood for playing because we hardly found any.

 We did find that some of our cucumber is growing and that our watermelon looks better than ever. The children are exited for next week, and so are we! These kids are so caring and exited to learn that the rough Friday morning meetings and hot afternoon lessons don't even bother us. Can't wait to teach them more cool lessons about our garden!

Weeds, But No Bugs

As always at our early morning Monday shift at Sanderlin we were without kids to teach. Seeing all the work that needed to be done however, we knew we would have a full day nonetheless. We took a quick walk around the garden and noticed how much things had changed in just the last week. The watermelons were bigger, the radishes starting to come up, peppers turing red, new squash starts had been planted, and as always after a weekend of no volunteers, the weeds were abundant. We all grabbed buckets and made it our mission to weed as many of the beds as we could while we were there. After bending over for the morning, our backs needed a break and we turned our weed buckets into watering cans, and set off to give the vegetables some needed hydration. Although it was a cooler morning than usual it was still nice to cool down, and wash our feet with some nice hose water. There was still much to do in the garden, but weeding and watering had taken up our whole shift. It would have been great to have been able to teach the kids about bugs, but the garden clearly needed the work we put in to set it up for the rest of the week.