Friday, April 29, 2011

Garden Workday


We will be working this Saturday morning between 9 and 11 am on preparing the garden beds ( painting ), a small tree to remove and a rain barrel to install. 

Come join us at the Student Center and give a hand!  


Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Oh beautiful soil! How art thee?

Last night after the rain barrel workshop, I was looking around the Student Center to figure the best place to set the rain barrel up and I decided to move the compost bin over a little. The bottom of the bin was rich dark soil full of worms. Oh what a sight that was. It is so rewarding to see a successful working compost. This new soil will eventually go into the garden beds to feed the flowers and herbs.
Go on worms! Work, work,  work!

We have a RAIN BARREL !

I went last night to the rain barrel training class and it was super duper informative. The bonus was I came back to St. Andrew's with its first rain barrel. We will be installing it this week, so look for the pictures. By next week we will have next to the Student Center a compost bin, rain barrel, and two garden beds. Wow! What's next?

Monday, April 25, 2011

Rain Barrel Training

Tuesday Night I am heading to Accokeek Foundation to receive a training in how to install and use a rain barrel. This is being provided by the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin
I am looking forward to the class and I will be bringing back to St. Andrew and brand new rain barrel to be install on our work day this coming Saturday at 9:00 am. I will write more about that late and about my experience on the training.

here is the link if you want to out more: potomacriver.org

Monday, April 11, 2011

Garden Meeting / budget planning / St. Andrew's Building and Grounds committee


This week we are meeting Tuesday night at 6:30 to go to a St. Andrew's Building and grounds meeting. We will be bringing to the committee a discussion about the trees on the site location for the garden. Theses trees are the Cornus flordia, Camellia japonica, and  Ilex opaca.  I would like to discuss and explore with St Andrew's Building and Ground Committee to see if we can come with solutions for the Cornus flordia, Camellia japonica ( both are in poor condition ) and for long term the Ilex opacca ( which is in healthy condition). 



So please join us as we explore the next step to get our garden project moving forward.

We will also start looking at what we need to buy, so we can present a budget to the EA Terps for seeds, material for garden beds, or rain barrels. I would like to discuss about getting our other stake holders involved with our garden project. One Idea is to to buy some plastic barrels to turn into rain barrels that we can get the College Park Nursery involved with by painting our barrels. If we can create a budget and supply list we could organize a day of painting for the children. 


Theses barrels will help a rain harvesting for watering plants and slow storm run-off around the Student center. 




Any other ideas? Please give feed back here on the blog




d~







Sunday, March 27, 2011

Tuesday Night Meeting

Hi everyone! 

We are going to meet this Tuesday night for a garden meeting.  I hope you will be able to join us. 

The agenda for the night will be: 
 1. discuss about planting options for early spring through early summer
 2. review how ( and what ) we can compost in our compost bin and feed back on the whole idea of composting
 3. future planning for future meetings on what we need to build a our garden ( bring calendars ) 
 4. Discuss when we should present concept plans of the garden

This week we will be doing a pot luck, so bring some munchies. 


See you Tuesday night! 

Here is a picture from my home town of Charlottesville, Va.


Sunday, March 6, 2011

A Garden Design Charrette


Felt Board Ready to go to work!
A Close up of the Plan. The white is the Student center and the brown is the boundaries of the garden.

Idea #1

Idea #2

Idea #3

Idea #4

Idea #5

Idea #6

Idea #7

Idea #8

Idea #9

Idea 10