This week has been pretty different because of the intensive heat and humidity.  While the plants have been enjoying the sun, there is an increased need for weeding and watering.  So most of the time was spent pulling weeds and turning beds, while intermittently working on our projects for garden share.


Here are some photos from this week

These flowers sprung up over the weekend 

We finished turning our second bed, which used to be used for potatoes, and were able to get some new seeds in this week!

Moving forward, top priority is getting things planted so we can have a bountiful harvest.  However, everything is quite weather dependent!  I was going to plant a few rows of carrots and beets today in other beds that we've done work on- but the rain is a hinderance.  :(  At least the rain will be nice for the plants that were looking a but dry.  Carrots and beets will just have to wait a few days.

-Sheila

Finally- A tour!

I thought I'd be nice to give a clear visual of where everything is in the garden, so I put my most tech-savvy foot forward and make a video tour.  It may be a bit small, but hopefully it's helpful!

New Trail

On Sunday the trail from the driveway down to the brook (where it goes over the bridge and connects with another trail leading back to campus) was finally finished!  Here are some pictures of the finished project.

 The trail as it winds down to the protest tree and beyond

 Approaching the tree

 The protest tree, with a cut area from which to view it

 The 'branch' of the tree, reading "Commodifying Invisibility", as viewed from inside the trunk

 As the trail goes past the tree

 Crossing through a marsh-like area of periodic flooding

 Leading up to the bridge

 The bridge crossing the brook

 There are several log jams in the brook along the property, which we hope to clear soon

 Looking upstream

The trail going back

 A view of the barn from down by the river

The barn, solar shed, protest tree, and the other house on the property visible from the field

~Sean

Making Progress

We had a very sunny week and made some great progress outside.  We did a lot of weeding and made some new paths in the garden and trails in the fields.

 The now weed free garlic bed

 Sheila's dog Mango joined us on Friday

 The freshly mowed tree nursery

 Another shot of the tree nursery

 The new trail through the field leading out to the opportunities sculpture

The opportunities sculpture, in need of a little repair, with a fresh cut viewing area 

 The stone doorway of the sculpture, which blew down in a storm

 We hope to repair this soon

 The start of the path down to the protest tree and the bridge

 Further along the path

 The protest tree off in the distance

The trail in progress

Some of the new mulch paths in the raised beds

This garden has come quite a long way in the last few weeks!  We hope to soon see some great progress in the growth of our plants, and some may even be ready for harvest soon.

~Sean

Could that be the sun?

After countless days of clouds and rain, the plants at the ESL are spreading their leaves to catch the rare rays of sunshine.

(So I've created a short photo montage)

 

Garlic!

Blueberries (still quite green)

Peas.  They pop right up!

How can I go back to store-bought after this...

Tomatoes!

The potato bed

Our new raised beds loving the sunshine

Let's keep it coming!

-Sheila

 

New Projects

On Tuesday we began some of the new projects from Jon Rosales and GardenShare, as well as continuing several of our old, ongoing projects.  At a morning GardenShare meeting, we discussed their upcoming Food Day Youth Summit, to be held October 16, 2013 at SUNY Potsdam.  After discussing the origins of the event and some of its history, we started planning aspects of the upcoming event.  This year's Food Day Youth Summit will include workshops that will provide high school groups interested in such things with the resources to plan, execute and support projects including;

• Planning, assembling and maintaining a school garden
• Composting
• Waste reduction
• Integrating gardening in to school life in the cafeteria and classroom
• A vending machine health campaign
• Food tastings of healthy and local goods
• Taking food surveys for future reference
• An Oxfam hunger banquet
• and starting a group of interested students to support and maintain these projects

Sheila and I, as well as the GardenShare staff and interns, will be assembling Tool Kits, packets of helpful information to guide teachers and students to succesful completion of these projects at their schools, which they can take away from the Summit.  I will be assembling a packet on composting, and Sheila will be tackling the creation of a group to carry out projects.

Following the meeting, we did pulled some more of those unrelenting weeds, then went on a shopping trip for the ESL.  We traveled to the Wood Chop Shop, a local small business (with great service!) carrying heavy duty power tools and machinery, to purchase a new line trimmer, something the ESL has not had but could really use.  We bought a used Stihl FS 56 C, along with a tall grass blade provided courtesy of the store owner.  Next we went to Rex Hardware to buy mortar to repair a stone sculpture, part of a senior art project called 'Opportunities' done by a former SLU student, which blew down and fell apart in a storm last year.  Lastly, we bough hinges to build a new door for the Once & Future Forest shed on the ESL property.

With the new trimmer and the blade, we cut a trail through the tall grass out to the Opportunities sculpture.  Next up is a trail through field, down to the bridge over Tracy Brook and around the Protest Tree, another senior art project from a SLU student.

On Wednesday, we began weeding out the garlic bed and the roof garden, where we hope to plant some herbs.

 A before shot of the garlic bed

 A very weedy bed!

 Another angle on the garlic bed

 Sheila at work on the roof garden, on the shed for which we are building a new door

 The ESL's new line trimmer

~Sean

Broadening our scope

Most of this morning was spent weeding the blueberry patch (which is now weed free !) and mowing  a few of the old beds to make them more manageable.




Hopefully this patch will yield some delicious blueberries come August!

There goes the bed of mint and weeds... the mint will grow right back up!

Later on we were joined by Professor John Rosales, of the Environmental Department, and one of his summer research interns.  Wow, how I underestimated just how extensive this landscape is!  John gave us a tour of some of the interesting things around the property, including the tree nursery, the trail to the river (now overgrown), and some sculptures created by former SLU students.


St. Lawrence boasts 110 acres of land just at this property, which few students outside of the environmental department know about.  The area is used for a combination of ecological restoration projects, a tree nursery, carbon sequestration, energy creation, and of course the garden!
We walked a good portion of the premises and John told us some of his hopes for the future of the area.

The interaction provided me with some new inspiration.  This is such an incredible plot of land and, with the right set of ideas and drive, we have a chance to make an real impact depending on the direction we take with the projects.

Current list of projects that Prof. Rosales wrote up for us:
not in any particular order

Mowing: 1. Nursery  2. Trails (to the sculptures and the river)
Sculpture Repair-  this includes repairing a stone sculpture that fell during a storm
Making a door for the storage shed
Weeding the red maple beds
Transplant Sugar Maples: now that they're a bit bigger we can move them out of the nursery!

These projects are, of course, in addition to our garden projects.  But I look at it as a chance to keep busy with a balance of different jobs rather than a burden of many tasks.

Hopefully on the next nice day I'll add some photos/videos of what the landscape looks like... I'm sure it's bit hard to imagine exactly what I'm talking about.

Until then
-Sheila

The End of Week Two

Friday was a big day of planting.  After building our new raised beds, laying paper and hay underneath to prevent weeds and grass growing up, and filling them with fresh topsoil, we planted a lot of peppers we obtained from the Cornell Cooperative Extension, as well as some marigolds, parsley, broccoli  cabbage and cauliflower, and left room for some cucumbers too.  We also put up a fence along part of one of the beds, and planted eggplant along it that we hope will grow up the fence.  We also planted carrot and beet seeds in the bed.

 One of the new beds before planting

 The same bed, planted with a single unknown variety of pepper plants

 The fence we put up, with new eggplant in front. Carrot and beet seeds are planted beneath the soil here too

 The three new beds, and two old ones on the upper left

 An overview of the raised bed area of the ESL garden.  A few more beds are out of sight on the left.

 Sheila planting cabbage in one of the beds

 Another new bed, now planted with Thai peppers, parsley, and another unknown pepper variety

 Another overview of the raised bed area

 Some newly planted cabbage, in a bed near the tree nursery

 A close up view of one of the new cabbage plants

 The new cabbage plants in front, and old raspberry bushes in the back

With most of our planting done, we now move on to other big projects, including turning over and reclaiming new beds to plant corn, constructing and planting more new raised beds, and building cold frames.  We are both looking forward to the harvest that will come from all this planting!

~Sean