Garden Help Available October 23rd
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Amy Joens
Oct 14, 2015, 10:44:49 AM10/14/15
to Des Moines School Garden Network
Hello Des Moines Gardeners!
Does your garden need any help doing clean-up or harvesting? There is no school for DMPS on October 23rd and some Americorps members are available to volunteer in gardens. Please let me know if this is of interest to your garden!
Best,
Amy
PS- If there are any garden clean-ups, harvest parties, or otherwise that you would like to publicize, we would be happy to share those out as well. Also, be on the lookout soon for some garden updates!
rvoe...@mchsi.com
Oct 14, 2015, 11:12:28 AM10/14/15
to Amy Joens, Des Moines School Garden Network
Perkins Garden has already had it's last meeting - we finished early because of an opportunity (and the fact that our produce was about finished).
In Spring we received a Whole Kids Foundation Grant, and this fall Whole Foods approached us about a combined experience during the month. By the time we settled on what worked between our schedules, it was already mid September so our focus was on communicating with the parents and school. On October 1 we had 15 parents and Whole Foods employees who met at 2:30, and in an hour we had taken down and stored our rabbit fencing, cleaned the 5 year old broken square foot gardening lathe lattice off two raised beds, pulled all weeds and tossed the compost bin. At 3:30 the kids and garden club arrived, and we began distributing the 6 ton/10 cubic yard pile of compost we had ordered (with funds from the grant). Kids were on top of the pile shoveling compost into wheelbarrows, or in the garden raking. We moved the entire pile in an hour, adding compost to 5 of the raised beds, a little to stimulate decomposition in the compost bins, and 2+ inches to the entire tilled area of the garden. Following the work several families enjoyed a potluck in our outdoor classroom.
Our final meeting was Oct. 8, where we had hot chocolate, ate kale chips made from the part of the remaining kale bed, and harvested herbs and the broccoli plants. Unfortunately, early in the season the rabbits got to our broccoli and ate it down to the stems, so we never had more than a few tiny secondary heads to harvest over the summer. However, we picked the leaves and small stems, and sauteed them with shallots, salt, pepper and some of our herbs. The kids loved them.
We are hoping to make this workday/potluck an annual event, especially as we have enough grant money allocated to compost to add 12 more tons. (much needed, as we have never in 5 years amended this garden soil). We will be certain to invite all!
Michelle Voelker, RDN, Perkins Garden Club leader.
In Spring we received a Whole Kids Foundation Grant, and this fall Whole Foods approached us about a combined experience during the month. By the time we settled on what worked between our schedules, it was already mid September so our focus was on communicating with the parents and school. On October 1 we had 15 parents and Whole Foods employees who met at 2:30, and in an hour we had taken down and stored our rabbit fencing, cleaned the 5 year old broken square foot gardening lathe lattice off two raised beds, pulled all weeds and tossed the compost bin. At 3:30 the kids and garden club arrived, and we began distributing the 6 ton/10 cubic yard pile of compost we had ordered (with funds from the grant). Kids were on top of the pile shoveling compost into wheelbarrows, or in the garden raking. We moved the entire pile in an hour, adding compost to 5 of the raised beds, a little to stimulate decomposition in the compost bins, and 2+ inches to the entire tilled area of the garden. Following the work several families enjoyed a potluck in our outdoor classroom.
Our final meeting was Oct. 8, where we had hot chocolate, ate kale chips made from the part of the remaining kale bed, and harvested herbs and the broccoli plants. Unfortunately, early in the season the rabbits got to our broccoli and ate it down to the stems, so we never had more than a few tiny secondary heads to harvest over the summer. However, we picked the leaves and small stems, and sauteed them with shallots, salt, pepper and some of our herbs. The kids loved them.
We are hoping to make this workday/potluck an annual event, especially as we have enough grant money allocated to compost to add 12 more tons. (much needed, as we have never in 5 years amended this garden soil). We will be certain to invite all!
Michelle Voelker, RDN, Perkins Garden Club leader.
Steinwandt, Tammy
Oct 14, 2015, 1:17:11 PM10/14/15
to rvoe...@mchsi.com, Amy Joens, Des Moines School Garden Network
This is AMAZING!!! I am so excited for the initiative! Way to go each of you! This is truly fabulous and a wonderful partnership between all! KUDOS on an job well done! I loved this update!
Have An Awesome Day!!
Tammy J. Steinwandt
Wellness Coordinator
Des Moines Public Schools
515-242-7791
tammy.st...@dmschools.org
________________________________________
From: des-moines-schoo...@googlegroups.com <des-moines-schoo...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of rvoe...@mchsi.com <rvoe...@mchsi.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 14, 2015 10:12 AM
To: Amy Joens
Cc: Des Moines School Garden Network
Subject: Re: Garden Help Available October 23rd
Hunafa, Cynthia
Oct 14, 2015, 2:14:03 PM10/14/15
to Amy Joens, Des Moines School Garden Network
Greetings!
We have five raised beds and three large grow pots next to Creative Visions. That's a shared area and it's about 90% harvested already. The garden across the street where we've partnered with LSI and their refugee program --- each of the 21 plots are used by individual families. Through translators, gardeners have been reminded that when their harvesting is done, they should clear out their plot and use our newly constructed compost bin. If that doesn't happen, we have a group of youth on standby who will take care of that. With the Empowerment Garden, we have an AARP worker who's been doing the weeding and watering at all three locations. He's also added quite a lot of compost to two of the three garden areas and laid down two+ truckloads of mulch. It has not been possible to gauge --- in pounds --- how much food is being harvested since communication with gardeners across from CV is quite difficult due to language challenges. The same is true for The Empowerment Garden. (Due to the need to fill in work spaces left by staff who've taken on other employment, I have, unfortunately, been unable to tend to that garden this year and was only able to delegate very basic maintenance for it.) Before the start of next year's growing season, I hope to partner with Food Corps and ISU Extension early on to help plan at least two of the three gardens. I'd like to add more growing pots and higher raised bed. I do have some ideas from Forest Av. Outreach for growing pots...(potatoes and sweet potatoes :-) ) The plots across the street take care of themselves because of the families tending to them throughout the growing season. We take care of the watering.
We will be hosting our second annual Harvest Potluck either the end of this month or the first week or so of November. The exact date TBA.
Warm Regards,
C. Hunafa
--
Cynthia Hunafa
Learning Coach
Outside the Box
Creative Visions Human Development Institute
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