Time to plant garlic

The kindergarden classes planted up their garden with lots of garlic last week.  The process is simple:

Dig a hole, drop in the garlic clove pointy side up, and bury it.  Mark it with a stick, so you remember it is there, then wait for the little shoots to appear.  Watch the shoots grow, and wait for the scrapes (the curly flower buds) to appear in the late spring - these taste amazing sauteed in butter.   Wait for the plants to die back and then harvest luscious garlic bulbs in the summer.  Dry, and store for use over the next year.  Don't forget to keep a few to plant again in the fall.

Great detailed article here http://www.westcoastseeds.com/how-to-grow/Herb-Seeds/Garlic/

Some of last year's garlic crop

New Pear Tree in QE Orchard Garden

On October 11 Roger Philips come to help members of Green School plant a new Comice Pear Tree in the Orchard Garden.  The Empire Apple tree had to be replaced, due to a fungal disease called canker.  

Roger Philips is a Master Gardener and fruit tree expert at Stewart Farm in Surrey http://www.surrey.ca/culture-recreation/2875.aspx, and he kindly donated his time, expertise and the pear tree to our garden.  Green School members learned about the importance of preparing the planting area with rich soil, untangling the roots, planting to the correct depth, and watering well.  Mr. Philips also showed us the basics of pruning, and will be back in the spring to help us prune all of the trees in the orchard.

Remove from pot

Loosen the roots

Water the roots

check planting depth

water thoroughly

Fall Planting for Spring Eating, Cover Crops


This week, after two clean up work parties, Catriona and the kids planted crops to overwinter for harvesting in the spring. Kale, chard, winter lettuce and peas, as well as some cover crops went into the garden boxes, which had been cleaned up, and topped off with fresh sea soil.

Planted box ready for winter

 

What is a cover crop? Cover crops are planted in the fall to protect the valuable soil from the elements over the winter. They also provide a green manure, enriching the soil in the spring when they are cut down, and either dug into the soil, or added to the compost pile to provide valuable nutrients. The can also be aesthetically pleasing - nicer to look at something green and growing, than bare black soil.  Cover crops used a lot on the coast include: Fall Rye, Buckwheat, Red Clover, Winter Peas, and Broad Beans - all are available from West Coast Seeds, as well as other local suppliers.



Cover Crops





 

Wednesday work parties

If you can, please come out on Wednesday 19th and 26th after school to help clean up the boxes and get ready for the classes to do some winter planting.

More posts soon...

Welcome to the new school year

Welcome back!  Huge thanks to everyone who helped maintain the gardens over the summer.

Harvest Festival

The school year wrapped up at QE Elementary with a fantastic harvest festival. Parent volunteers, classes and teachers baked bread, roasted potatoes, harvested greens, prepared salad, two types of hummus, blueberry muffins, and apple cobbler, and gathered in the courtyard to celebrate the years harvest.

The pre-harvest garden

As the school year winds down, the garden is looking full, just in time for the harvest party later this week. 

Garlic

Mr. Crisp and Division 18 harvested their 6 tubs of garlic on Monday afternoon.  The bulbs were amazing, and will be roasted, or baked into garlic and potato foccacia for the harvest party on Thursday.  

all this from just 4 tubs

Potato Harvest

Monday lunch time saw keen members of the QE Green Team harvesting the potatoes.  The tubs were dumped out, and the kids enthusiastically rooted around, squealing with delight with every tuber and worm that they found - just like a huge treasure hunt.

let them grow

watch them flower

wait for them to wilt

Dump them out and dig around

a sure sign of healthy soil

the prize...

45 kg of fresh organic potatoes

Garden Images












Workshops

A huge component of SPEC's involvement in the QE School Garden are the class room workshops, led by Catriona Gordon.  

Recently Catriona led a Grade 1 class in an Insect Workshop.

The group discussed insect morphology (and later that week made up a song about insect body parts!), behaviour and identification, before being told they were going to go outside and be real bug scientists.

Heading out to the school grounds armed with pooters (bug catchers), magnifiers, and petri-dishes to collect bugs, they dived into the bushes and soon we heard ‘Look a green spider’, ‘cool an earwig’, ‘I think I swallowed a fly’ and ‘ahh, do we have to go back inside, this is fun’.  

Bug hunting was followed by a close up look at some live stick-bugs, mealy worms, QE’s butterfly collection and the favorite, a giant cockroach. The kids drew the bugs, labeled their body parts, and took away a new understanding and appreciation of the insect world and of real life science. 

Thanks

Thanks to those who came out for the work party.  The rain stopped right at 3.00 and a tough group of parents, teachers and kids showed up.  The mulch mountain was moved, the kindergarden was dug over, and later planted, the orchard was weeded, trellis installed in the garden boxes, garlic weeded, and new signs were installed.

Work Party - Thursday May 3, 3.15

Volunteer your time to help with the garden on Thursday May 3, at 3.15 in the courtyard. There are lots of big and small jobs to be done, please bring tools, gloves, and strong backs! See you there!

from seed to sprout in just 3 weeks

The seeds have sprouted in the garden beds.  Check out their shapes and colours.

Spring is here!

March 28 saw four of the new garden boxes planted up with early season seeds - peas, radish, mesclun, mizuna etc.  watch for signs of growth in a week or so.

We also planted some rhubarb and a gooseberry bush in the orchard garden.

Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who came out in the snow, rain and wind on Friday.  The soil got moved, the new kinder-garden was dug, and the raspberry trellis was installed. 

Work Party, Friday Feb 24 1pm until it's done

QE will receive a very large soil delivery on Friday, February 24th. We need volunteers with gloves, shovels, wheelbarrows, strong backs and smiles to help fill the boxes, top off the existing boxes, top off the fruit orchard beds, and fill the new extended kinder garden with soil. The work party begins at 1pm and will continue until the dirt is gone. Students are encouraged to join in the fun after dismissal.   

Welcome to the QE School Garden Blog

Welcome to the new QE School Garden Blog.  Check back often to find out what we are currently doing in the garden, upcoming events, and calls for volunteers.  We hope you find this blog informative, and welcome your comments.

Brief History of the Garden

The QE School Garden was started by a dedicated team of teachers, parent volunteers, and students in 2009-10, with the installation of 4 garden boxes.  In 2010-11 a kindergarten garden was created, and the Fruit Orchard was installed.  2011-12 will see the installation of 6 more garden boxes, and the expansion and conversion of the kindergarten garden area to herb beds for use in the school teaching kitchen.

We would like to thank the following for their generous support: 

Toyota Evergreen Learning Grounds
SPEC (Society Promoting Environmental Conservation)
TD Friends of the Environment
City of Vancouver
Think @ Eat Green, UBC
Russ Evans, Tupper High School woodworking teacher and his students
Kal Gill, Principal of Tupper High School for his ongoing support of our school garden
QE PAC (Parent Advisory Council)
Numerous parent, staff and student volunteers