The school year begins so soon!

[sarah byrd]

Hi all:

I hope everyone is well, and has been enjoying the summer and staying reasonably cool.

It's been a long time, and I wanted to touch base with everyone about the goings-on at our school gardens.

This year at Kanapaha I'm going it alone because Meg moved away (sadly), so I feel the need to be much better organized and 

proactive about eliciting help and such.  I remember brainstorming at our last meeting about a school garden festival.

Are people still up for something like that?  Didn't we discuss some dates? 

Let me know your thoughts when you have a moment.  I look forward to collaborating soon!

-Sarah

[Melissa Desa]

A school garden event would be really cool! Perhaps we could get Wendy Wilber to do a teacher garden workshop in the AM, parents, teachers and the public can come later to help plant the fall garden? Maybe FOG will have some vegetable starts and seeds for school teachers to take back to their gardens, maybe FL Ag in the Classroom could bring some curricula materials. Could this serve as a mini fundraiser to pay for basic garden expenses? Does anyone know much about Tools for Schools and if they would be beneficial in anyway for stuff like this??

I'm willing to help make connections. 

Melissa

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[sarah byrd]

All of that sounds great!  Thanks Melissa.  I know you've got the connections--if you have the will and energy to help set it up, that's be wonderful.

What you are proposing sounds like a beginning of the school year

event, while the event we planned in spring would be more like a fall harvest festival.  We even had dates roughly figured out (I'll be out of town the weekend of October 15th), but I can't recall what those were.

I don't know much about FL Ag in the classroom or Tools for Schools, but it's definitely worth a shot.

I've been a bit discouraged of late as far as receiving any grant funding after writing like four grants and

not hearing back a word.  I probably need to get in touch with a more experienced grant writer (doesn't grow gainesville have one?).

Anyway, let's stay in touch!  It all sounds awesome!

-Sarah

[Jasmine Samar Angelini-Knoll]

Hey there!

Thanks so much for getting this conversation happening again, Sarah-- I've been meaning to send an email out to the committee specifically to check in about the fall harvest festival that we talked about (so long ago it seems!) and I'm glad to know you're still in town and working at Kanapaha with the garden! :)  Sorry for my delayed response to this. 
After consulting my notes, I see that the dates we initially proposed were in late October-- the 23rd or the 30th, both Sundays... what do you two (and anyone else!) think about those, in terms of planning lead-time, general timing, etc.?  I'm attaching my notes from that first committee meeting again-- the first part has some of our initial ideas about the festival.  I'm happy to keep conceptualizing this and working on it via email, and/or to plan an in-person meeting whenever that makes sense-- whatever it takes to keep it moving forward!
Melissa, I loved the link you sent to the group from Seed Savers Exchange about fundraising-- I got an email from SSE about it too I was excited that you shared it so quickly!  Maybe this is something we could incorporate into the harvest festival as well?  Here's the link again for reference:
http://www.seedsavers.org/Content.aspx?src=fundraiser.htm&utm_source=Summer+Update+List&utm_campaign=f0a93c1f06-MembershipCampaign04122011&utm_medium=email&mc_cid=f0a93c1f06&mc_eid=84e2473327

Thanks so much!  Talk to you soon.
~jasmine

[Jasmine Samar Angelini-Knoll]

Hey there again--

Came across this national event promoting healthy, fair, equitable, sustainably-produced food, check it out: http://foodday.org
it's happening on October 24th, there are a couple of local organizers doing related events in town-- maybe we want to think about using this as another component/theme for the school gardens harvest festival?
~jasmine

[sarah byrd]

Hi all!

 

I apologize for the delayed response.  Jasmine, thanks so much for your enthusiasm.

After talking to my beloved master gardener, and new co-conspirator, Deb, for Kanapaha's garden, it seems that a garden festival ion October is going to be too soon for us (also, I'm goint to be out of town for two weekends sept. and oct. for my best friend's destination bridal shower/ wedding).  Basically, we have a jungle of weeds to contend with before we can plant (involving at least one Saturday work day, rototilling a few times and having soil delivered).  Realistically, we won't be planting until the end of September.  Looking back, this is in line with our schedule from last year.  Had we been more organized at the end of the year and manage to solarize the garden over the summer we'd be in better shape.  So I am still on board with a school garden harvest get-together, but it will most likely be in November or early December. 

 

Does anyone have suggestions for a good soil delivery person?  I don't really want to use the same guy from last year because of all the peanut shells in the soil (gross pesticides and we are all organic).

 

Also, we need to rent a heavy-duty rototiller for a day.  Does grow gainesville have one we can us?

 

Our goal is to be planting by the end of September, so we need a rototiller and soil before then.

 

Thanks so much for all of your help and love for this project.  It's going to be a great garden year! 

-Sarah

[Jenny Cohen Seitz]

Hi All-

 

Fl Ag in the Classroom can probably provide handouts of something. I'm unsure if they could provide their actual guides for teachers to take without going through a workshop first. Lisa usually has handouts available.

For Tools for Schools- if you're referring to the one run as a partnership between Alachua County and the school district, classroom teachers have to go either to the center or to the mobile unit to "shop." They do not provide materials for workshops or events. That's due to the way the program was set-up initially. County classroom teachers can shop there for free once a month.   Depending on what is needed or sought after we may be able t contact another organization for some freebies.

 

Jenny

[Travis Mitchell]

All awesome ideas, for the Travis at FOG standpoint I’ll most likely only be working part time with GIFT gardens past October so I don’t know how much I can volunteer to help with planning a workshop. But if anyone needs help prepping for fall gardens or organizing workdays prior to that I would be glad to help.

 

-Travis

 

 

 

 

From: schoolgarden...@googlegroups.com [mailto:schoolgarden...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of sarah byrd
Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2011 9:06 AM
To: Jasmine Samar Angelini-Knoll
Cc: Melissa Desa; Grow Gainesville School Gardens Committee
Subject: Re: The school year begins so soon!

 

Hi all!

[Melissa Desa]

Sorry for being absent here...been out of town for work a lot and will be out of town again with no internet. Crazy, right?

I don't know of any better soil source than Floyd with Soil Enrichment. Yep, peanuts usually have pesticides, but as far as locally produced stuff the only other place is Wood Resource Recovery, but their sourcing I am unsure of and I've been warned that the ph is usually high, not neutral like Floyd's. You could get pure composted cow manure but it gets really heavy, the peanuts add some loft to the soil. 

As far as a tiller, that is something I have never used. Too lazy. Are you trying to tear up the weeds? If so, I would just go ahead and lay down thick cardboard and kill them. If you're not planting for another month, you could do this and/or solarize. It won't be solarized long enough to really kill the weed seeds, but would kill them back enough you don't have to do the heavy work of tiling. If you're starting a new garden plot, same thing. Just lay down lots of cardboard, pile on your compost and plant. Also, weeds thrive on disturbance which is exactly what tilling does. So...if it were me I would say to hell with tilling, lay down the cardboard.

I'd be happy to meet with you all to help think through some events planning. Probably better than through email? If you are interested in potentially having a workshop geared towards parents, teachers or both (better!?) let me know ASAP some dates I can ask Wendy the IFAS Hort. agent if she can organize one. I can also as FL Ag if they'll donate any curricula materials (pretty sure Gardening for Grades is out). What grades are we talking?

Looking forward to the fall and school garden fun! Oh, a lot of those little school garden grants are super easy to apply for and I would encourage teachers to do so.

Melissa

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[Travis Mitchell]

I should add that Floyd can sub other materials like pine bark or you can add vermiculite which I have done for GIFT garden recipients who were nervous about possible peanut allergies.

 

-Travis

[david reed]

Dear back to schoolers,

Good discussion about soils and composts.   Peanut shells make a great compost, because they add organic matter and Nitrogen, carbon and spaces for air and microbial activity.  All add life to the soil.  I don't know about pesticide content - but it would be good to find out before assuming that they pose a significant danger.  Does anybody have any such data?  

RE: composts.  Schools can be making their own composts using school organic wastes, grass clippings, etc.   Are schools allowed to have some chickens, as part of an educational program?   They could get chicken manure from outsides sources, perhaps.  

Some folks at UF and the NCF RCD Council are talking about growing trees that make good fertilizer.  We're looking at some species of Leucaena (seedless, non-invasive) that have leaves which are 25% protein and make a good fertilizer, as compost or just laid down fresh as a mulch.  You can make a tea from the leaves that is 2% Nitrogen.  Their are probably many other legumes that would be good to compost into a good fertilizer - Fava beans grew really well at Highlands last year.  Cowpeas,etc.

After this summer, I am also interested in trees or shrubs that provide shade - for both plants and gardeners.  Leguminous trees like Leucaena that grow fast, make good wood, add nitrogen to soil, and provide dispersed shading, would be nice.  I would like to learn about other plants that serve these kinds of functions. 

Schools should maybe start up gardening teams, like sports teams, and compete with eachother in organized events - maybe all have a big booth together at the farmers markets!   Students should work/study in school cafeterias preparing fresh foods and learning important life skills. They shouldn't graduate without knowing how to peel a carrot.   I think they do such things in other states, like Vermont.

-Dave

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David Reed
cell 352-222-0651
home 352-336-0904