Today, we planted broccoli, white carrots, some purple beans & more radishes!
The garden is beautiful! I forgot to take picture but I will next time. The arugula is DELICIOUS!
Feb 27th 2012
03-04-12
Last Monday, Feb. 27th 2012, A group of people from all over the US, (I’m not sure if they are scientists.. maybe teachers?) came to New Vista to check us out because we are working toward becoming a greener school with help from the Earth Task Force (ETF). The ETF is a group of about 17 students and 3 staff members that put on green events for the school and spread green awareness. The ETF set up a tour of five different stations in and around the school for the group to see. The five stations were; the girls bathroom, the vending machines, the solar panel graphs, the compost pile and the garden.
In the girls bathroom they were shown our low-flow toilets ETF purchased with the money they received from a green school grant.
At the vending machines they were shown our old vending misers. Vending miser’s are a product that helps saves energy and money by automatically turning the vending machines off at night. When New Vista was doing a bit of re-modeling ETF pushed for new vending machines with vending misers already built in. When we received those vending machines, ETF decided they would donate our old vending misers to another school in the community.
In the study center/library, we have a computer monitor that constantly shows how much energy is being produced by the solar panels on the schools roof and how much is being used by the school at the same time. Our graphs are usually green which means we are producing more energy than needed.
The next stop is the compost pile outside. Around New Vista the ETF has placed compost buckets for students and staff to put apple cores, orange peels and any leftovers from lunch in. Compost buckets are also placed in the bathrooms for paper towels only. At the end of every week the buckets are emptied into our compost enclosure. Weeds, grass clippings and other organic materials from the garden are also added the the compost.
Last but not least we showed them our garden. Even though I am not personally apart of the ETF, I spoke about the garden because it is my culminating project. Reyna, a one year ETF member joined me, and we explain that the garden had been started as a CAP (Community Adventure Program) classes action project in 2009 and was created not only to raise awareness for local food and its importance but also to support the pollinators; that’s why we plant both food and flowers. The guests were excited to hear nutrient rich soil from very own compost pile goes straight into our garden! We were thrilled to tell them we were able to hire a mentor for the garden to keep everything on track for the years to come. I also explained what my culminating project consisted off and what my hoop houses were doing. Our guests asked many questions like;
Does your school also keep bees to support the pollinators?
- No, the ETF did think about starting a hive but it was hard to find the commitment and proper care, BUT we do have a New Vista senior, Mattie Pomeroy who is learning how to keep bees and starting a hive for her culminating project at a different location.
What are you planning to grow in your hoop houses?
- Let’s see, carrots, lettuce, beets, arugula, spinach, turnips, onions, leeks and sweet snap peas!
What do your hoop houses do?
- They pretty much extend my growing seasons, I will be able to put seeds in the ground in about a week, and putting seeds in the ground in March in Colorado is really exciting! My hoop houses keep the soil nice and warm through the spring freezes. Once late May comes around I will take the plastic off the hoops and have the garden all summer, but when fall rolls around ETF (since I will be gone away at college) will be able to reattach the plastic to keep growing till winter!
Having the experience of telling people what I was doing, answering their questions and getting them excited about green schools and young people gardening was great for me. It made me start to feel really proud of my project and what I was learning about. It was an awesome experience and makes me want to show everyone the garden!
03-04-12
The beets have sprouted and the radishes and arugula are shooting up! Lettuce is doing pretty well also!
03-04-12
Yesterday I went to Pioneer Sand to get a planters soil mix. I got about .75 cubic yards, 1,500 pounds. I emptied about half in my garden at home and have the other half for the school garden.
How did this start for me?
02/29/12
Forth quarter, 2011 I took a class called Community Adventure Program (CAP) at New Vista. In CAP, students learn about their personal environmental impact and environmental change around the world. They also engage in camping trips where they learn about wilderness and survival skills. Every quarter, each class picks a topic everyone feels passionate about and designs an action project around that topic. My class and I felt passionate about local food awareness. In 2009, a CAP class created a New Vista garden that was accessible to both staff and students. Since 2009, the garden had been forgotten about and became overgrow. We decided as our action project we would restore the garden back to health and beauty!
Throughout the next weeks, we started by getting our hand dirty and picking weeds. It had been a surprisingly long time since I had dug in the dirt with my bare hands. I remember scooping up both hands full of the moist dirt, holding it near my nose and taking a big whiff. The smell of earthy soil captivated me and brought my back to my childhood, sitting in the mud, gardening with my mom, eating sweet strawberry’s. I had forgotten about my love of dirt and gardening.
After weeding the garden, we began turning all the soil to bring fresh nutrients to the surface and to bury weeds and the remains of previous crops, allowing them to break down. After turning the soil we began planning what we wanted to do with the garden. We knew we wanted to grow vegetables and flowers to support the pollinators. Within our large array of vegetables we had many root vegetables to plant, so we agreed on creating three raised beds in order to help the root vegetables thrive. We also built a bigger raised bed surround by a wooden frame.
Through out those weeks we were constantly visiting and volunteering at local farms and community gardens around Boulder for seeds and starts! In mid-April we began planting the seeds and starts we had been giving over the past weeks. We planted carrots, kale, beets, Anaheim, purple and Poblano peppers, onions, tomatoes, turnips, mint, basil, lemon balm, thyme, sweet snap peas, cantaloupes, parsley, strawberries, lettuce and an array of flowers. A previous CAP class built a cold frame as their action project so we were able to befit from it’s extra warmth.
Everyday I watched the small sprouts grow into lush mature plants. Over the summer I took care of the garden weekly with a few other ladies. When the plants started to fruit and I started taking home armfuls of vegetables, I notice that my disconnect from food was much larger than I had thought. ‘Food disconnect’ is not actively thinking about where and how your food is grow. For example, when we go to the grocery store and pick up an apple from England, we don’t normal think about that apple’s journey of airplane, ship or truck to into your hand.
All summer my food disconnect faded but in no way is it gone; I still have a hard time realizing where and how my meat is raise and slaughtered. As it faded I realized how awesome gardening is and was inspired to have my culminating project be based off local food and extending the growing season with hoop houses. That’s how I got here.
02-29-12
Seeds are in the jiffy pots!
Carrots
Onions
Leeks
Lettuce
Radishes
Arugula
Beets
Spinach
I didn’t start the sweet snap peas because they are planted at a inch deep, and the jiffy pots are about an inch high.
