A Shot From Last Year's Harvest to Whet the Appetite!
Greetings and welcome to a new year. The fall was busy and not well documented. The 8th graders (and some demerit hall attendees) spent class time and Saturdays respectively, cleaning beds, making compost and putting the garden away for the winter. We have not done a lot of tilling or cultivating as the winter has been wet, cold and often with a good snow layer on the ground. Indoors, we have been very busy. Seeds are ordered and in. Eighteen (18) varieties have already been planted in indoor growing beds (flats under grow lights) and we can't wait to see them sprout and develop. Lettuces, onions, broccoli, cabbage, kohl rabi, leeks, and turnips have been started. The planting log is at the bottom of this page with more info on varieties, types and quantities. We anticipate bed prep and direct seeding of many spring garden favorites in the next few weeks as time and weather permit. Gifts from the Mothers and Fathers clubs include two cold frames, a new Mantis tiller and a new composter, giving us a total of 4 composters now. We hope to be planting out into the cold frames soon! Good to be back and itching to go! The MBA Garden Crew.

Pepper mandala

These are garden grown peppers, arranged in a complex design.

Critters in our garden

The garter snake we did not photograph today during first period showed up later in the day for a shoot.

One of the composters

Shown at the top is a scoop of our ground brown and green waste of reduced particle size. Shown at the bottom of the composter is the black gold we put back on the raised beds.

Today in the MBA garden

Today as we weeded, we found a garter snake in a tree. Sadly, we did not have the camera. Also, we scared up a bullfrog! The students did get a good view of our some of our pest controllers. Mr. Bullington shares the frog sighting with his 2nd period Earth Science students. Also sighted was this bumble bee foraging on the Russian sage.

Making compost with 8th grade Earth Science classes.

Today we ground up weed waste and vegetable peelings (pre-consumer) from the cafeteria. This gives us a nice green base for nitrogen, but comes out gooey and may clog the chipper/shredder. So we mix in brown carbon waste in the form of wood chips (from the tree trimmers that maintain campus trees), and we get a balanced and finely ground material to put in the compost bins for rapid decomposition. This composted plant food goes onto our raised bed gardens and the cycle is complete. Our 8th grade students learn firsthand of nature's processes. See the film and pictures.

Peppers on Display

These fruits of the raised beds are on display in the cafeteria and bring color and aroma to where all can see. Thanks to Steve, our Cafeteria Manager, for putting this display together. Pictured in the bowl are basil, rosemary, lemon verbena and sage with tomatoes and peppers.
Peppers displayed in a semicircle are (left to right): Del Diablo (tabasco type) Scotch Bonnet (habanero, Jamaica jerk pepper), Bhut Jolokia (hot jabanero, Indonesia), Red Savina (habanero type), pepperocini (Greek salad pepper), Ancho San Luis (stuffer), Chilhuacle Negro (from Mexico, mole sauce pepper, suggested by Jesse Gray), and Green Bell. We have 21 varieties of peppers in the garden this season (09')!