Wednesday, February 24, 2010

No more snow, or know more snow?

Well, here we go again - maybe. I really thought we would be able to get sugar-snap peas in the canoe garden, but we can barely see the soil for the snow from the last storm(s). I'm still hopeful that we will be able to get some peas going in early March. With any luck we will stay in the reasonable range for accumulation from this storm. The herbs are up in the grow room and if the mice don't beat us to them we can start to do some transplanting next week.

The CSA offers are starting to come in as well as the seed catalogs. There are so many cool local farms to support. Most likely what Mrs. Primm and I will do this year is support farmers at the farmers markets and Real Food Farm. Great Kids Farm will be offering a CSA also, so we will wait and see.

We planted a lot of spring bulbs along Cardenas Ave. and within the Organic Teaching Garden. I am very excited to start to see daffodils and crocus.

Come on Spring!!

Friday, February 12, 2010

50 +/- inches of snow and hungery mice

How do you think they do it? I don' t know.

We plant seeds, they sprout, they grow, we crack the micro-greenhouse to let things breathe, come back two days later to water - micro-greens eaten, potting mix dissheveled, lid in place!

UGGGGHHH!

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Historic Snow

Here around The Green School we had over 30 inches of snow. Interestingly, at the school itself the snow blew and drifted. So in some areas you could see grass and in others there were drifts toward 5 and 6 feet. We were joking with neighbors on Brendan Ave. that we will be seeing some piles still melting in May.

5th grade planted herbs this past Thursday. Many had already sprouted by today! I meant to write a list of what is up and what is not, but I'll try to do that on Tuesday.

For everyone that is concerned about Honey Bunny - she is fine and cranky. The school is warm and she has lots of food and water. She was in no mood to leave her cage - as she sometimes does, but a carrot seemed to be appreciated.

Be safe and enjoy this historic snow:)

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Chickens are coming, Chickens are coming!?

In partnership with Great Kids Farm, The Green School of Baltimore is scheduled to receive the first chicken coop built by Carver High School students, designed for durability and the enjoyment of chickens within the urban environment.

While we are months from actually getting chickens, we are hoping to look into some unique egg producing breeds that will be good for the land and space we have available.

Stay tuned for more information!

Cluck, cluck!!

Monday, February 1, 2010

More indoor Mesclun Mix

After tasting our mesclun micro-greens planted on MLK's birthday, our 5th grade gardeners planted about 8 more mini greenhouses with mesclun mix last Thursday. By Sunday morning the seed had germinated. They planted these mini green houses with fewer seed so we can try to grow bigger plants, and or transplant to a salad box. Our last mini greenhouses were quite overcrowded.

These experiments are also great practice in using these very small seeds. The lettuces especially are very small and dark. Once put on the wet potting soil you can't see them and feel like you should plant more - just to be sure...

We are experimenting with seedlings now to perfect our indoor seed starting practices for our hot weather crops. The mix we have now can be directly sowed outdoors or into our salad boxes. This mix germinates so well, and grows quickly and with relative ease, that we thought it would be a good starting point.

We will also be trying some herbs, annual and perennial, for both indoor and outdoor use. Some of these will have longer germination periods and grow at slower rates. Plenty of fickle, slow growing plants that may allow further study of the problems that can occur when starting seed indoors.