Spring Break! Woohoo! Well the kids are off at least. Just had a great week with them. This week we had some beautiful weather; sunny and warm. I decided to plant all of our Spring seeds with the children. Every kid except for one class was able to plant seeds in their garden. The garden is designed to be nutritional first and educational second. This simply means that I had a detailed planting guideline that the kids had to follow to ensure prductivity. The fun aspects of the garden are in the main bed too but are mostly concentrated outside the beds. We will be planting big pumpkins and sunflowers in super rich hills. I am using bits and pieces of many aggie styles but meeting all oregon organic standards. I borrowed some close planting techniques to limit evaporation from Biodynamic principles and I also did some companion planting.
So what did we plant? We planted peas, radishes, carrots, spinach, chard, nigella, onions and lettuce. They should all be harvested at different times and be out of our garden for Summer planting in May. The kids were so excited to plant. They were all smiles in the sun with seeds in their hands. I asked the kids to use some magic words with their seeds. Kids came up with some funny expressions for them. "GOOD LUCK SEEDS" was a big hit though. Each kid held seeds and prepared their seed bed for planting. Each kid wished their seeds good luck and planted them in rows. Now the kids are gone. I watered the beds and am hoping the rain will do the job until later this week. I am hopeful that there will be seeds sprouting by Wed. I am worried about slugs and deer (children would normally be on this list but they are on Spring Break so the seeds have some time to establish). I plan to kill slugs so lovers of sluggers beware. I manually remove them until it gets too crazy and use a organic and natural repellent for them (usually a cocktail of peppermint, garlic, chili oil, and hot sauce). For the deer, oh brother. I might use some repellents but honestly I am looking to just build a netting and raise it high enough above the plant to not bother them as they veg out and low enough so the deer cannot get their snouts under and chomp em down. It will be some row covers or bird netting raised up on bamboo. We got some more soil for the Silverton garden and some containers for the Multnomah, Washington, and Marion counties. I am building some NICHE container gardens for the local centers. I am building some vertical gardens to out of burlap. I will plant them with nasturtium, herbs, and flowers. The other containers will be for pot friendly plants like beans, salads, etc.
Next week we will be analyzing our garden. It will be an outdoor class. The kids will get to look at their seedlings, thin some areas, water, measure temp and size etc. It will be a great time for the bugs too as April is notorious with pests. It will be an outdoor exploration class. I am hoping to get the kids observationally overloaded (almost) so when they return to class they can fill their journals with an assortment of pictures and imaginations. We are also gathering the last supplies for some indoor plant starts. Just a heads up, American Center for Sustainability has completed their planting. They also just got published in two cover stories from Edible Portland and the Oregonian. Check them out on facebook or their website.
Enjoy the perfect planting weather...GOOD LUCK SEEDS!
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