The Story of the Seed Project Makes Full Use of WGHS GOLD Main Garden

This weekend my Biology 1-2 students and I planted over a hundred young Brassica oleracea plants into the main garden. Cultivars planted include "Pixie" cabbage, "Di Ciccio" broccoli, and "Purple Vienna" kohlrabi. Many thanks to the student volunteers--Leah, David, Savannah, Cole, and James--who came out last weekend to help prepare the boxes by pulling weeds and cutting up plant residues from the previous crop (used now as a mulch for the present crop). Here's how things looked as of around noon today.

The Brassica oleracea crop is the heart of The Story of the Seed  project.

The Black-Eyed susan is still carrying cheerful yellow blooms.

A border has been added to the back of the bed along the chain link fence to prevent soil loss.

The buckwheat persists--it is now in its fourth generation.

Here is a shot of the buckwheat growing up against the aforementioned  border.

Above are shots of the healthiest tomato plant and a box full of  the tomatoes that were harvested from this plant today.

If you would like some of these luscious fruits, stop by the garden tomorrow between 10 and 10:45 a.m.--I'll be out there keeping our Brassica babies cool and hydrated.

The Story of the Seed: Time to Get Growing

Students in Mr. Bursch's Biology 1-2 class will soon be making full use of the WGHS GOLD main garden site to conduct the outdoor portion of a yearlong project in which they follow the life of a domesticated plant from seed to seed.

The seeds have already been sprouted and will be transplanted outside in four weeks. For more detailed information on The Story of the Seed project, visit the project website at http://storyoftheseed.blogspot.com/.

Garden Status Update: Main Garden

Garden Volunteers Needed Today, Friday June 29th!

Hi WGHS Garden supporters,

The Branch Manager tree service is kindly donating a truckload (several cubic yards) of wood chips (and other greener stuff) to use as a mulch on the pathways in our main garden. The load is being dropped in the teacher parking lot adjacent to the garden and we need wheelbarrows, shovels, and some eager volunteers to use them to move all of this chippered goodness into the actual garden space. If you can come by at any time today or tomorrow (regardless of who else is there) with a wheelbarrow, shovel, and some gloves and just move some cartloads anywhere around or near the boxes, we'll love you forever! The chip pile should be at school by noon.


Thanks,

Justin

Garden Update (in Pictures)

Going for the GOLD

Just a quick note to point out a small but noteworthy change--"WGHS Gardens and Outdoor Lab" is now "WGHS Gardens and Outdoor Learning Domains" or "WGHS GOLD" for short. Red and GOLD certainly do make a beautiful combination!

State of the Garden

Yes, I know, it isn't a pretty sight right now, but remember, the cover crops we left in there were going to die one way or another (by tilling under or by frost). Leaf mulch has been applied to all beds to help keep in moisture from the scant winter rains.

The water source issue remains with no obvious solution on the horizon--whenever we need to water the garden we still have to connect 125 feet of hose to the science building and drag it across the staff parking lot to the garden area.

We (student volunteers and I) will start a late winter cover crop and some cilantro (coriander) within the next couple of weeks.

We will definitely be needing another big volunteer effort this spring when we make our next big expansion of the main garden (five additional beds). Keep your eyes peeled for updates.