Beds to Rest and Starting Fresh

My name is Laura Harrison and I am the new AmeriCorps Farm to School Coordinator for OCDC. I am extremely excited to continue the efforts initiated by my predecessors, Jeremy and Kaitlin, and to develop some of my own ideas for the program.

For those of you who are visiting the blog for the first time, this is a place to share information, pictures, and updates about the gardens. Please feel free to post, ask questions, and give suggestions at any time!

As I begin my position, my main goal for the next few weeks is to get more acquainted with the gardens and the classes. I will be maintaining six garden sites from 2009-2011 at the Silverton, Settlemier, Cornelius, Linden, Jose Pedro, and Mulino schools and teaching nutrition and garden education at each place. Cipriano will also be added to the list this year, though due to space limitations their program will primarily consist of container gardening.

I was able to speak with some of the teachers and site supervisors recently and I got some great feedback and lots of enthusiasm which makes me even more motivated to make the program a success this year.

My discussions with the staff as well as information from my Oregon Tilth Organic Garden Class (thank you to Oregon Tilth for the generous scholarship), have given me some great ideas for lessons and as well as ways to improve the gardens.

I have lots of thoughts about what I want to accomplish this year and some of the goals I have come up with so far include:
-Develop garden programs at the Independence, Concordia, and
Gresham schools
-Increase family involvement with the garden projects
-Offer garden training for employees as much as possible
-Expand the Silverton site (more than an acre not being utilized!)
-Obtain fruit trees for the sites
-Get grants and donations for tools and materials
-Bring worm bins into the classroom (what kid doesn't like worms?!)

When I think about all of those goals at once I get a little overwhelmed as there is a ton to do and limited time and money! Being that it is fall though, I have some time to plan before the gardens really get going.

In fact the only maintenance that needs to be done right away is putting the beds to rest which is an activity I hope to begin next week at all the centers.

As I learned in my Oregon Tilth class, I will be planting cover crops to replenish the beds and prevent weeds from growing. I am choosing this method instead of mulching or composting because it will be nice to see the cover crops growing in the garden during cold winter months. I will post some pictures of the beds once the seeds are ready and in the group.

Before I end this post and get back to working on the gardens, I want to mention some wonderful donations we have already received. Burpee Seeds & Co., Home Depot, New Seasons, and Portland Nursey have all been very generous. I am truly thankful that the program is getting so much support from the community.

Looking forward to a great year!

Its hard to believe that 11 months have flown by since I started working on the garden project with OCDC. Today is my last day at the OCDC office and my Americorps term is officially over this Friday. The last activity I was able to do with the children at the centers was to harvest the garlic that we planted back in September; this was the first thing we planted in most of the gardens so it was a good wrap up for me. The children and I had fun digging the garlic up, cleaning it, and bringing it to the cooks for use in the centers' lunches. Some kids even took bites out of the whole garlic without even peeling it, they didn't even care that it was spicy, they were just so excited to harvest something from the garden. I will sure miss the little ones. This whole garden project has been such as positive thing for me and I have learned so much through my work in the gardens and with the classes. Based on all the feedback I have received it has been an equally positive experience for the children, teachers and staff at OCDC; I have been so pleased with the amount of support and gratitude I have received here.

The children have, without a doubt, been the most rewarding part of the program. Seeing them light up when they are engaged in the garden and get so excited to eat anything they have grown themselves makes me really believe in the value of the school garden movement. I believe the garden project will have a lasting impact on the children who have been apart of it. I hope these memories stick with them in some way and help them development a preference for healthy natural foods and a respect for their food sources.

Furthermore, the impact of the school garden movement extends beyond those who it immediately benefits, and address many of our society's most challenging and pressing problems. The local food movement is social justice, food security, nutrition, fitness, environmental and economic sustainability, and it is fun!
I am excited to see how the garden project here grows and expands in the future. There is so much potential and enthusiam here that I believe the gardens at OCDC will only continue to improve. Thank you everyone for such a positive experience.

Happy gardening!!!

~Kaitlin

Tomato trellising and building hoop structures

Our tomato plants are growing fast! Most of the plants have gotten big enough that some kind of support is necessary, so I have been busy trellising the plants when not working with the kids. At Mulino the tomatoes (as well as everything else) are growing so big so fast that I was hardly able to fit them into a trellis! We got our first ripe tomato today, which is not too bad considering we are still experiencing cool and cloudly weather at the end of July.

At Silverton, the deer are back. Over the winter and spring they only caused a mild disturbance, but during the summer they have been out in full force. Thus far our harvest out there has been pretty limited because the deer seem to come take a few bites of each thing the kids plant. Last week I decided to go ahead and build a hoop structure to hold up the deer netting in the summer, it will also work as a cloche over the winter, which is exciting because it will extend our growing season. The pictures are from our gardens at Jose Pedro and Silverton.

Gardening with toddlers at Mulino

The gardens at our Mulino center are growing really well and we have had a couple great experiences taking the toddler classes out to help me plant and water. The toddlers are just as interested and engaged as the preschool age children; they were a little more timid at first, but now that they have been to the gardens a few times they get just as excited planting, watering and sampling the garden produce as the older children do. Additionally, we have had enough radishes and spinach ready for harvest at one time that I've been able to bring it all to the cafeteria to use in the center's lunches. Here are a few pictures from our last garden activity:





The teachers at Mulino have also started a gardening activity on their own, which I thought was an excellent idea and wanted to share. They used a mobile table to make a sensory learning garden, where they planted beans, cilantro, carrots, and peas. Since the table is on wheels, they can keep it inside some of the time, so the children can watch the plants grow and so they may protect the plants from the cold when necessary, and they can move it outside when it needs sunlight and warmth. Many teachers at other centers have approached me wanting to know which vegetables they could grow inside and I have reluctantly replied that most won't grow well indoors, especially without a grow light set up. This mobile garden idea is a great way around that- the children are still able to get to see the plants change from day to day, while the plants are able to get what they need to be healthy and strong. This is a wonderful idea for a scientific learning gardens as the kids can closely observe and monitor the plants and then speculate as to how much sunlight they need.
I hope to see this idea catch on at the other centers; I think the children and the teachers would love having a mobile garden of their own.

Digging for Potatoes

Its hard to believe that its already Mid July, we are well into the middle of our growing season as well as our Migrant Head Start program, and I have only a few more weeks before my Americorps position is over. The garden project has taken a little different shape over the summer and our activities have been less structured- I show up during the classes outside and the kids come hang out with me, water the plants, plant new seeds, and sample the different vegetables. We have had all kinds of greens to sample: radishes, peas, strawberries, and everyones' favorite- carrots. Last week we had a great time at Jose Pedro- one of the teachers mentioned her class was making potato salad the next day with her class, which happened to be absolutely perfect because the potatoes were ready and I was going to have one of the classes help me dig them up. We harvested almost 30 little red potatoes from the one little corner of the garden. The kids loved the potato salad they made the next day. I was so happy the class was able to do this- these are the kinds of moments that make the school garden movement most worthwhile. The kids happily took part in every aspect of growing, harvesting, preparing and eating healthy delicious food, which I believe will help solidify their taste for healthy foods in the future. Here are some pictures from our potato digging adventure.

Making spinach smoothies on the last day at OPK

Well the Oregon PreKindergarten program is over at the centers, which means I had to say goodbye to the little ones I've worked with all year. I sure will miss them, they are so excitable and loving; it has been a blast getting to play & explore in the garden with them. There wasn't a ton of food ready from the garden. We ate some radishes, which most of the kids loved. The teachers and I heard all kinds of funny exclamations after the kids tried the radishes, my favorite being: "It has tapatio in it!, I like it!" We munched on some cilantro, lettuce and arugula, and the kids chowed down on the baby chard as I thinned it. The last day at each center I used the gift card donated from the Alberta Street Coop to make spinach smoothies with the kids. The classes loved helping making the smoothies, they all took turns measuring out the ingredients and laughed and laughed when we turned on the blender. Most importantly, the kids loved the drinking the smoothie and were excited about spinach (which they had also grown earlier in the year). We made this recipe at Cornelius, JP, Linden, Silverton & Settlemeier and the kids, with the exception of maybe one or two, just loved it and wanted more.

Here is the recipe I used:
1 c Orange Juice
3/4 c Pineapple Juice
3/4 c Vanilla soymilk (can use regular milk or yogurt)
2 bananas
2 cups fresh spinach leaves

more spinach smoothies!

Making smoothies at Cornelius





Making smoothies at Jose Pedro

Exploring the Jose Pedro garden

About to try a radish


Exploring


These pictures were taken by Salvador from one of the OPK classes at JP



We've got an unintentional mushroom farm at Jose Pedro- Inky Caps maybe?

Thank you Master Gardeners

I just wanted to say thank you to our master gardeners who volunteered their time to do garden trainings for the teachers at our centers. Elaine Smith of Marion County, Beret Halverson of Clackamas, and Tim Lanfri of Washington County came out between March & May to lead basic gardening classes and answer teachers' questions on caring for plants. They were all very interesting and informative, and came just in time for us to get to work in our gardens- Thank you!!!

Blueberry blossoms and baby plants

This was a great week in our gardens! It was sunny and warm so the kids at Jose Pedro, Silverton, and Settlemeier actually got to explore around outside and take time to look at all the plants we have growing so far. It was also warm and dry enough that the kids could water, which is definitely their favorite activity. The kids at Settlemeier had fun yesterday drawing the plants in their journals and exploring the bolting spinach and baby radishes I had thinned.





Thank you to the Kiwanis Club of Silverton for donating two wonderful blueberry plants for our Silverton center. I can't get over how beautiful blueberries are in bloom and the kids are, of course, really excited to have blueberries growing in our garden.





The end of April means that we can really get started planting now, our main limitation at this point will just be space. Beets, carrots, potatoes, herbs, chard, spinach, radishes, lettuce, and edible flowers such as borage and nasturiums are all okay to sow outdoors at this point and we've got them all germinating already.

We have also have master gardeners come to some of our centers to give a presentation on basic gardening for the teachers. I think they went great! Many of the teachers are so enthusiastic about gardening and just had some questions on the basics like when & how to plant and water. This gave them a way to get some questions answered for free, thanks to the Master Gardener Program. Thank you to Elaine Smith of Marion County and Beret Halverson of Clackamas for your wonderful presentations! At these presentations I gave out packets of seeds and little packets of fertilizer I mixed for the teachers. For those who might want to make this organic fertilizer again on your own, here is the blend that I used:

5 parts Alfalfa/Linseed meal
5 parts Soft Rock phosphate
5 parts Mineral Mix (from Naomi's Organic Farm Supply)
4 parts Lime
1 part Kelp meal

I think this is a good basic organic blend that, mixed with some compost and soil, will help anyone get started. If you are really serious about wanting to establish a garden at your home or school I would consider getting a soil analysis to know precisely what nutrients your land will need to be productive. Information on how to take a soil sample and where to get it tested can be found here:

http://smallfarms.oregonstate.edu/soil-testing

Planting in space suits & garden overhaul

The last frost date should be any day now, which opens the doors for planting all kinds of new things. The last few weeks, however, have alternated between sunny, warm (well warmer) beautiful days, or hail, dark clouds, and rain. I have still managed to get some nice days planting in our nice new garden beds with the kids. So far in our gardens we have garlic, peas, radishes, cilantro, potatoes, flowers, chard, and carrots growing, all of which the kids planted themselves. We also planted some bare root strawberry plants which were donated by the Noble Rot restaurant's rooftop garden (a big thank you to them- the kids are so excited about strawberries!).

As is the problem with many school garden programs, the growing season doesn't correlate with the school year so I have been struggling to get some food ready for the kids to eat before the end of the Oregon PreKindergarten Program in mid May. I am still on the look out for some more starter plants donations so we can have a little more ready in time for the kids to eat. But nonetheless, the kids love planting and watering as activities in themselves and I love seeing them light up when we get to play and engage in the garden. Most of the kids recognize me at this point and it makes me laugh when I come in the classroom and hear them shout 'Its the GARDEN LADY!' or sometimes I just hear them yell 'GARDEN!' or 'PLANTS!'. Below are some pictures of some of the kids from Linden when we planted carrots last week, make sure to notice the space suits they came out to the garden wearing. :)





Meanwhile, the grass out at the Silverton gardens has been slowly taking over all winter and I have been fighting a losing battle trying to keep it at bay. Also, the continual rain on our clay soil has caused the ground to sink in some places making the garden beds look very unlevel. After deliberating for a while on what to do about this Carla and I decided to do a complete overhaul of the beds. We shoveled out all the soil, leveled the ground, and put a weed barrier underneath the beds, all just in time for getting a delivery of soil to refill the beds this week. Whew! It was a lot of work, but it will save even more work for future gardening seasons at Silverton.

Thank you Portland Nursery!!!

I would like to give a tremendous thank you to the Portland Nursery. They donated a second bag of seeds, this one even more generous than the first. This donation was enough for me to send seeds to every one of our centers. Where as before there were 6 gardens I have been working on and 2 more at other centers around the state, thanks to this donation I had enough to send a generous package of seeds to all 25 centers which means we will have some kind of gardening project or growing experiments at each one! This is very exciting news for our Garden Project! Thank you Portland Nursery!

Exploring Potatoes

The kids are on spring break this week, but before they left I got a chance to plant some flowers and chard at some of the centers. I also brought in some potatoes that Carla donated, which had been sprouting at her house for a while- many had sprouts about a foot long already. This was great activity for the kids, I explained that the potato itself can be a seed, and that if you bury all but the top 2 or 4 leaves that roots will grow out of the stem, helping the plant drink more water and become stronger. The kids loved being able to touch and look at the sprouts growing out of potatoes. I brought in photos of what the plant looks like above and under the ground as well as some that were harvested and cleaned, which most of the kids recognized. The children are all really excited about growing flowers, I really hope some will bloom before the end of the Oregon PreKindegarten program in May. Here are some pictures of the kids at Settlemeier:

Container gardening & journals at Silverton

Container gardening at Settlemeier

While its still rainy and cold outside we have been doing planting indoors of some hardy plants and then bringing them outside to the garden. The kids get more and more excited about planting, the more familiar they get with it. If there is any doubt about how to get kids to eat healthy, I am convinced that the answer is to have them grow the food themselves. These kids are completely ecstatic about things like garlic, radishes, spinach and cilantro. More than anything, the kids love to water the plants. Its a good thing the containers drain well!

Soil at Jose Pedro!

Thank you to Tim Iba and John Vuylsteke for getting soil into our Washington county garden beds! The bed at Jose Pedro is filled and almost ready to be planted in just in time for spring. Next week I will amend the soil and we'll be ready to go!

Spring is almost here!

Spring is around the corner, which means that our we'll be able to start planting in our gardens soon! I am definitely looking forward to it. I have been doing indoor garden related activities with the kids at 5 centers this winter, making garden journals, sprouting seeds, planting spinach in containers indoors, making drawings of vegetables to turn into signs for the garden. We've kept busy but I'm sure the kids will really enjoy getting outside and getting their hands dirty, I know I will.

Beginning of March we'll start with peas, spinach, radishes, and arugula. I'm hoping there will be a fair amount of stuff to harvest by the end of the Oregon Pre-Kindergarten program in May. Then come in the Migrant Head Start kids who will really get to enjoy the fruits (and vegetables) of our garden, summer is when we get to grow and harvest all the warm weather plants that people love so much: tomatoes, peppers, etc.

Heres a short list of the some of the things you can start planting in your garden:

End of February:
Peas

Early March:
Cilantro
Parsley
Arugula
Radishes
Turnips
Spinach
Swiss Chard
Snap Peas
Snow Peas

Under Cloche:
Beets, Lettuce, Broccoli, Cabbage

Late March:
Potatoes

Sow indoors to transplant:
Tomatoes
Peppers
Celery

This is of course by no means a comprehensive list of what can be started. If you have any questions about this or what varieties of the crops to plant, feel free to post a question or you can consult Seattle Tilth's 'The Maritime Northwest Garden Guide', which the best planting calendar I've found and has been indispensable in planning OCDC's gardens this year.

Happy Planting!

THANK YOU!!!!

We have received an incredibly generous amount of donations this year, without which OCDC's garden project would not be possible. Their donations will help ensure that our garden program will be successful this year, and that our children will have plenty of fresh produce to grow and eat all year round. On behalf of the teachers, staff, and especially the children at OCDC, I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to the following business for their support.

Al's Garden Center:
A coupon for 12- 4" vegetable plants, which we will use as soon as it warms up

High Mowing Organic Seeds:
50 packs of assorted high quality vegetable & flower seeds

Home Depot:
Two coupons for $25 off, which we used for containers for the centers

Johnny's Selected Seeds:
24 packs of assorted high quality vegetable & flower seeds

Portland Metro:
4 compost bins for our sites in Clackamas and Washington counties

Portland Nursery:
73 packs of assorted high quality vegetable & flower seeds

Territorial Seeds:
73 packs of assorted high quality vegetable & flower seeds

Wilco:
A $75 gift card, which we will use on much needed garden supplies and soil amendments



Thank you so much for your contribution. We are so excited to put these supplies to use this garden season. Stay posted for more updates on OCDC's garden project!

How do seeds grow?

Its the new year! now that the irregular holiday schedule is over and I am done with most of the preparatory work for the year, I will be out at the centers doing garden lessons on a regular basis. While it is still too cold to start planting, I'll be doing indoor garden related activities designed to help the kids understand the lifecycle of a plant and where food comes from. Here's a couple of the plans I have in store for January & February:

Make a garden journal- to reflect on what they learn through the year

Seed sprouting- to observe how a plant grows: what it looks like, how long it takes

Indoor planting herbs- observe more on how plants grow, what they need to thrive

Books- We just got some great new preschool appropriate garden books for the centers, that will help familiarize the kids with new fruits and vegetables as well as help them spell, count, and read! These big beautifully illustrated books will be great rainy day activities for the kids. These are the ones we will be using:

Eating the Alphabet: Fruits & Vegetables from A to Z, by Lois Ehlert
From the Garden: A counting book about growing food, by Michael Dahl
Growing Vegetable Soup, by Lois Ehlert


At Silverton we've already done the sprouting activity and the kids have had a chance to reflect on it.
All that is needed for this activity is a ziploc bag, some seeds and some wet papertowels. I used leftover cover crop seeds and soaked them the night before to help with germination. The teachers and I helped the kids with this activity so some of the baggies are neater than others. As the seed sprouts the kids will get to observe what the roots look like and how long they take to grow. I figure this is a good activity to start off a new year of the program. I'll post more pictures as we take them