Bringing You Up-To-Date

Now that you've seen an intro to the garden (for those of you new to it), I thought I'd take the opportunity to bring readers up-to-date on the goings-on. 

I've taken some cell phone pics and copious amounts of notes - probably more notes than anyone would ever want to read.  But those will come in handy for next season, reminding us of what we did and when, as well as keeping track of frosts and freezes, watering and worms, harvests and havoc.

The grand opening of the Blust Avenue Teaching Garden was held October 8.  It was well attended.  State and local dignitaries mingled with neighbors of the Teaching Garden, local business owners, garden volunteers, schoolchildren, and community members.

You can see the full video here.

We were fortunate, not only in the support from the community, but the weather was wonderful and frost held off until one week later.  The frost wasn't too bad, but the following day saw a freeze. Whew!  That was close!

The plants inside the hoop house, however, are still thriving despite the chilly temps outside.

Currently, the hoop house temps average 10 to 15 degrees warmer than outside.  This is the first year for the hoop house, so the winter crops are experimental.  Let's hope they do well!

We've seeded radishes, lettuce, spinach, kale, collards, Swiss chard, beets, pac choy, carrots, broccoli, and a variety of greens.

The outside greens still look good, even after several heavy frosts/freezes/brrr!

But our most exciting Teaching Garden development has been the students!!  Thanks to Culliver Reading Center for allowing us to share the garden with their students.

From kindergarten to high school, students seem to enjoy the garden.  They recently assisted - very enthusiastically - with planting oats as a cover crop in the raised beds.  I've never seen such industrious gardeners!  It was great to have them in the garden, and we look forward to many more visits.