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!  

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?

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

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~

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.

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

Adult Form Presentation at St. Andrews

Come Join us for a St. Andrews Adult Form!

This week ( March 6th ) some of the EA Terps will be leading the adult forms at St. Andrews Episcopalian Church in College Park. We are hoping to use this time to give an update and explanation of the garden and its origins. Plus, we will be asking for participation in a design charrette. Be prepare to be creative! This charrette will be a way we can continue our designing process with ideas of the community's voice being heard and added into the design. The goals of the garden is to be a true community collaboration, so..........join us for your input.

Our first gift to the garden

I would like to thank Paul Schwobel for donating our first compost bin to the garden! We will be setting it up by the Student center, so feel free to add your compost in ( coffee grinds, old flowers, and other biodegradable materials )
Here is a website on what can be composted: http://eartheasy.com/grow_compost.html

We ( the students of EA Student Center ) will be keeping a compost pail in the Student Center to help cut down our waste in the house and add to the compost bin.

Garden Committee Meeting update

This past week we had a garden meeting where I displayed a site analysis of the garden site. It had four sections: Site Context, Site Flow, Constraint and Opportunities, and a Sun Study Chart. This was a very important stage in our garden meetings because it helps us see the site with a holistic approach.  We learned how many types of people  ( students, parishioners, and visitors ) moved in the space. We also learned that the major run off come from the parking lot and the student center's roof.

Site Context

SunStudy 

Site Flow

Constraints and Opportunities

Organic Gardening before it was cool!

I ran into this really nice video made in 1984 about Halifax gardner Carol Bowlby. She talks into detail about her wonderful garden she has in such a short growing season. With no help from chemicals she has the perfect organic garden and she was doing this way before organic became such a fashionable word. Also note at the end of the video how small her yard/garden is. It is smaller then our plot of land and she even has a nice place set off for her children to play in. This is a really thought out design for a urban garden.

enjoy and be inspired!

What is in a name?

I want to hear your input and get your views on what we should call the garden.
Click on the link below:
Garden name vote!

Organic?!?!

What does this term mean?

Organic Gardening ( the simple answer ) is where gardeners only use animal or vegetable fertilizers rather than synthetics. Where natural pest control devoid of industrial insecticides is used. Instead of using harmful agents that will kill "bad" bugs as well as the "good" bugs. In other words, using natural substance and beneficial insects to ward off pests.

Organic Gardening ( the philosophy ) stresses that we should be increasing the natural health of the soil, choosing appropriate plants that are suited to your area, and working with nature to produce a healthy and productive garden. It understands that we cannot control, but rather we must encourage nature. It is taking the approach of treating the cause of problems and not the symptoms. At times Organic Gardening my seem like a great unknown mystery, but it is not. It is just a different system that requires observation and common sense. For every problem you might come across and you may think of using chemicals ( synthetics ) solution, there is always an organic solution.

We heard in our last meeting from Paul a great example of how you could use egg shells in the soil to prevent Blossom-End Rot in your tomato plants. This is a great example of being an Organic Gardener.

Do you think we can practice being an Organic Gardener in our small community garden?

Do you have any other organic tips to share?

Location for the garden...can you see it?

Garden Committee Meeting

Last night we had a great meeting and yummy food from Berwyn Cafe!

We had two parishioners from St. Luke's Bethesda to speak with us about their experience for the past two years in their garden. Thank you Anne and Phil for sharing your stories and advice. Your stories really gave the group a nice spring into our own garden project.

The one thing that stuck in my mind was their biggest advice: PREPARE THE GROUND.

As snow begins to cover the ground here at St. Andrews, I am preparing a list of the ways to prepare the ground. What do you think needs to be on that list?

d~

Hello!

This is my first post here and I want to say hello to everyone.
The purpose for this blog has to three reason:

1. a place where I can share my experiences and thoughts on this community project
2. create a single place where people involved in this growing garden project can connect and stay up to date on the progress and gathering times.
3. to create dialogue between each other.

Here we go!