WE GOT A GRANT!!

Above you can see the pumpkin/sunflower plot lined up. The "GROUND POTS" are made by digging into existing soil and filling the new hole with rich compost and manure. The original soil is then mix in around the top to form small hills. Ground pots are great for anything that needs constant moisture, heat, and nutrients so does well with squash, pumpkin, tomatoes, and peppers.

Oh yes we did. We just got a grant today. Thank you to SOLV and their Project Oregon grant. SOLV is sponsoring our conversion of the Silverton Plot into the children's learning and nutritional garden. We will be removing Himalayan Blackberry (an invasive species here) and all the litter from our site. The ground is soft now and most of the blackberry just needs to be root balled. Basically, Blackberry spreads into thick mats of spiny madness...imagine the scene at the end of snow white with the dragon and the brambles. Blackberry spreads by seed and by root. We have to dig up the root and sever the central "ball". We have approximately 50 to remove from our site. They have been clipped and look pretty bad already so I think we are on the way to a blackberry free garden. We have a litter problem that I have sourced to our Neighbors and their parking lot. Loads of litter blow in and are trapped along the fence line. To help keep Oregon clean and respect our site, we are going to be removing all of the trash. Most of it can be collected along the fence line. Feel free to pick up trash as you see it. The garden will appreciate it. After our major clean up, I hope to share the pictures of all the trash and the garden as it stands to our neighbors. Thanks to SOLV, our neighbors, and all our volunteers. Dates to be announced soon about the volunteer clean up day. Look here for more information.


Things to think about: Right now it is time to start thinking about your spring and summer garden plan. All the seed companies are packaging that 2010 seed and around here if you don't jump on ordering early, you won't get those prized NW producers. What will you be planting? Where will you source you seeds from? Where will everything grow? When and where will you start your seeds for transplant? We have a plan to grow most of our crop by direct seeding. This is what is important for the kids, getting them directly involved with the cultivation of food. The kids will be out planting and monitoring their seeds in early spring. We have some deer problems so we are entertaining some funky kid creations and other green techniques to keep em off our seedlings. Any one have any ideas? The children will also be participating in transplant care. Some of the plants we will grow will have a higher success rate if we grow them into healthy plants before planting them in the ground...tomatoes, peppers etc. The kids will help grow these indoors and harden them off outdoors before transplanting.