Preparing for the Spring

We have done much in preparation for the upcoming season. We made bird feeders out of pine cones, vegetable shortening, peanut butter and bird seed. We also did this at the end of last season. Recently, John C. came to the roof deck at 248 West 108 Street to help us prepare the planter boxes and also to help us map and plan our herb garden. While on the roof deck we turned over the soil, added compost to the soil, and cut back the dead branches of trees that look unproductive.



-Stace Van Rossum

More First Pictures

(Stace transplanting a cabbage seedling)


(Annie & Johnny working)



(Inspecting the cold frame)




(Stace the hard worker)





(Transplanting cabbage seedlings)

First Planting and First Pictures

(John C., Johnny & Annie making the cold frame)


(Growing garlic, planted last winter)



(3 parts peat moss or potting soil, 2 parts sand and 1 part compost/manure were used to make the soil for seed starting)




(John C. overseeing Natalie and Tara)





(Our seedlings)





I began to prepare to harvest the wormbin for the third time by not feeding the worms today. I will do this for another week and in two weeks will be able to harvest the vermicompost to add to the garden. John C. came again and assisted us with seed-starting. We planted lettuce and collard green seeds indoors. We added some manure/compost to bed number 1. We made a cold frame and planted two types of cabbage transplants outdoors underneath the cold frame in bed number 1. Finally, some of the seeds that we planted indoors last week are starting to sprout and grow.



-Stace Van Rossum

John C. and students from Cornell U. visit

Today John C., workers from the ?Green Team? and students from Cornell University came to help us with seed starting indoors. We started leeks, tomatoes, and a few others in a homemade mixture of compost manure, sand and potting soil. The students prepared lunch for us all. We had salad, fruit salad, 2 kinds of pasta, and other healthy dishes. The food was good. We continued to review our map and came up with other ways to maximize our space and be more efficient in our planting by planning beforehand even more in depth. Finally, we gathered up leaves from the front yard to add to our compost bins. Another good day.



-Stace Van Rossum

3/18/2009

Today we cleaned up the garbage that accumulated in the front yard and began to decide on which perennials and annuals we will plant in the front yard for this season. Since we decided to attempt to grow plants on the lowest tier we broke up the ground in this area. Natalie has given this area the moniker "The Pit". We went over a second time the areas that we prepared last week in the entire garden, continuing to make the soil ready for planting by breaking up the clumps of winter wheat that remained.




-Stace Van Rossum

Selecting plants and drawing a map

Today Natalie, Tara and Stace met to discuss what exactly we would like to plant this season. We drew a new map taking into consideration the 5 foot area we will temporarily lose when the city builds a park in the vacant lot next to our garden. We chose which vegetables, plants and flowers we will plant this year and decided where we will plant them. We will practice crop rotation this season so everything will be planted in different places this year. We ripped up the winter wheat berries and worked them over into the soil.


-Stace Van Rossum

3/6/2009

WE had another meeting to continue to discuss our plans for the 2009 growing season. We took inventory of our tools and recently I took inventory of the horticulture/gardening books in our library. We decided that we would order some more tools so each worker will have our own pruners, trowels, etc. Since there was a lot of trash in the garden area, Natalie and Stace cleaned up everything and the garden looks clean again. Soon we will be working.



-Stace Van Rossum