A new season has begun

The first crocus are up, the rhubarb is pushing its way up, and nettles are providing us with our first taste of spring.

Raspberries are pruned; apple trees are next!

The Third Grade Class of the Whidbey Island Waldorf School is transforming a corner of the garden by removing an enormous salmonberry, with huge roots. Stay tuned for their progress!

The biggest project planned is replacing the fence, thanks to a grant from the Whidbey Island Garden Tour! We’ve now taken down the old fence. Stay tuned!

Another LEAF transformation

Last November, the Edmonds Community College Learn-n-serve (LEAF) program came to the Westgarden and transformed the south terraced section of the garden. http://learningfromtheland.wordpress.com/2008/11/14/leaf-transformation/ and http://www.edcc.edu/leaf/

Volunteers and other service learning groups continued the cultivation, and the LEAF school also returned in the summer and planted.

Now, in the fall, after a very successful growing season, it was time to put the garden to bed.

The LEAF service project was part of a day-long program about Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture. In the morning, we visited the Good Cheer Garden, Food Bank, Distribution Center and Langley Thrift Store. The Food Bank is supported by the thrift store operations, and the garden grows fresh, healthy produce for the Food Bank.
http://goodcheergarden.wordpress.com/ and http://www.goodcheer.org/

The afternoon service activity of getting the garden ready for winter demonstrated how sustainable agriculture grows soil. A healthy soil grows a bountiful garden.

First we chopped up the bolted and old lettuce and past their prime veggies, and incorporated them into the soil. We spread aged compost that we’ve been making over the last 10 months over the beds about 2″ thick, and turned it in. Then, winter rye and barley cover crop seeds were sown, and raked in. Wow! In just over two hours, the south terraced beds were transformed!

It doesn’t look like much now, but the cold-hardy rye and barley will slowly grow throughout the winter, capturing nutrients, covering the soil and reducing leaching, and suppressing weeds. The soil microorganisms will slowly integrate the compost into the soil food web.  Then, we’ll turn the cover crop over in the spring about 4 weeks before planting, thereby increasing the tilth and fertility of the soil.

The soil food web, the importance of compost and organic matter in the soil, growing locally and how that impacts our carbon footprint, and food security in our challenging economic times were all topics we directly experienced during the day. Plus we had delicious pumpkin soup made from our garden pumpkins!

 

Natural Building in the Greenhouse

Natural Builder Eli Adadow, coordinated a group of youth from the Alternatives-to-Detention work crew, and some fellow natural builders, in filling in the gaps in the greenhouse. These gaps were between the recycled windows used to rebuild the greenhouse walls. Great for ventilation in the summer…not so great in the winter!

First we made up clay slip, and then mixed soil, sand and clay together in a wheelbarrow til it had the right consistency. In the summer, we might do this on a tarp with our bare feet, but it was cold and windy outside this November day!

Then sifted straw was added to the mix, to make a cob that was a sculpting cob, rather than a coarser kind for construction.

The spaces between the windows and studs were filled with the cob, and packed in.

It was easy, fun and quick!

We used recycling cedar shakes from the old sauna roof to cover over the exposed outside surface of the wall. The cob will dry, and the greenhouse is one step closer to being draft-free!

Our appreciation to Eli Adadow, Philip Galle, Monica Chaplin, and Claire Williamson and the Alternatives-to-Detention youth crew.

The garden close-up

We were working in the garden on a beautiful October day. Garden volunteer, Susan Burgers, is also an artist, and brought her artistic vision to the vegetables and berries we were harvesting.

In the chard forest….

The fall raspberries were divine!

The garden not only grows food, it abounds in beauty.

Youth growing in the garden

From this…..                                                to this!

To the light and heat of the sun, add water, soil, seeds, and the energy of youth, and the garden grows! Youth from the Whidbey Island Waldorf School, the LEAF (Service Learning) program at Edmonds Community College, and the Alternatives-to-Detention program of Island County Juvenile Court have been growing the Westgarden this season.

Prepping the soil and adding compost and fertilizer… learning about soil tilth and fertility, how compost improves the soil, and how to make compost with worms.  Though the newly terraced beds had been sheet mulched, they still needed turning over and weeding. We added composted alpaca manure and worm compost.
http://learningfromtheland.wordpress.com/2009/01/28/compost-layer-cake/
http://learningfromtheland.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/worm-compost/

Planting… kale, lettuce, beets, basil, pumpkins, turnips, chard, radishes, beans, potatoes, onions, and lots more! Taking care that the spacing between seeds is correct so as not to overplant, and covering with just the right amount of soil.

Weeding…. learning about the different kinds of plants and pulling the right ones!

And growing! Great flavors, great smells, great textures, great food. Experiencing first-hand the nourishment of the earth and the richness of the natural world.

In addition to the fresh salads for our shared picnic lunches under the apple tree, we walk the produce up the hill to the Whidbey Institute kitchen, and also bring it to the Good Cheer Food Bank.

The next generation is growing the garden, and the garden is helping them grow!

Whidbey Island Garden Tour- a glorious day!

It was a glorious day for the Garden Tour! Perfect sky, perfect temperature, the garden just glowing. The garden tour pledged $1800 to replace the greenhouse roof, and install a rainwater catchment system, so we were extra-motivated hosts.

But to get ready, we had quite the list of tasks to complete. The area around the greenhouse was a bit of a mess from the roof replacement, and piles of irrigation and water supplies needed organizing.

Kale needed to be harvested for the lunch, and there was lots of weeding everywhere!

Bit by bit,  we crossed off everything on the list. So that on the day of….

Everything was spectacular! Many thanks to Waldorf school 3rd grade students for weeding, and also Shawn, Mike and Christian for weeding, clean-up, and harvesting the day before, and then being docents during the tour.

Whidbey Island Garden Tour

The Whidbey Island Garden Tour is funding the new greenhouse roof and rainwater catchment system in the Westgarden! The tour is on Saturday, June 27th, from 10 am – 4 pm. Go to http://www.wigt.org/ to order tickets, and to reserve a lunch at the Whidbey Institute. There will also be a lovely display of art and sculpture in the Whidbey Institute gardens that day, all of which will be supplied by member artists from the Whidbey Open Studio Tour. Tickets may be available on the day of the tour at Bayview Farm and Garden.

Upcoming posts

It’s been a very busy season on the land! Two posts are in the works, so stay tuned!

Natural Building class, with how to make an earthbag wall.

Edmonds Community College service-learning in the Westgarden.

Small Space and Container Gardening

You can grow vegetables in leaky horse troughs, in planting pots, in 4 x 4 beds. In a Learning from the Land class held at the Good Cheer Food Bank garden, Kathleen Rauch shared soil mixture, placement, watering and planting tips for growing in containers. Stay tuned to see how the Square Foot gardens grow!

Making liquid soap

On a blissful May day in the Westgarden, Karen Wilson shared her recipes and experience making liquid soap.

The soap base, made of organic coconut oil, organic olive oil and wildcrafted shea butter was mixed together and warmed up. The more “hard oils” like coconut, the more bubbles for cleaning; the more soft oils like olive, almond, sunflower, the gentler it is for your skin. The one we made in class is somewhere in the middle.

Karen demonstrated how to carefully add the lye to the water, and then carefully, slowly, add the lye to the warmed oils, and mix with a stick blender.

The mixture goes through a few stages….first watery, then becoming thin, and then suddenly thickening into a thick pudding-like paste. The paste is then cooked for a few hours. It continues to thicken to the point that it cannot be stirred and when it becomes transluscent, it has completed the chemical process of saponification. Then it is diluted with water and herbal infusions, neutralized, and ready for essential oils, herbal extracts and bottling.

Essential oils were combined to create just the right fragrance, and added to soap that had already gone through the full process. Now it’s ready for to be used as a hand soap, dish and home soap, bodywash or pet shampoo. If very diluted, it can be used to wash aphids off plants!