Worms!

A few years ago, when we started the Learning Garden at SMU, Dick Langill donated a pile of worms from his home garden, so that we could start our own worm bin. The fat red worms ate a lot of compost, multiplied and eventually needed more space to stretch out.

We now had more than enough to share so that others could start their own worm bins. The great thing about worm bins is that the worms eat up the compost and make rich soil that provides a low cost and a natural way to feed the plants. Worm tea made from worm castings (yup, worm poop) is the best fertilizer there is.

Glad to have SMU alum, Sarah Gabel, back to help with the garden!

In the beginning of Fall semester, Sky organized a worm bin building workshop. It takes two plastic tubs and some holes. There are many variations of this design, here is one from Seattle Tilth. We started with our huge pile of red worms that needed to be split up. The worms had to be picked out by hand and added to a fresh pile of newspaper strips and compost.

Hand picking worms out of the rich soil.

Everyone got some worms and bins to take home for their gardens and in Annabel's case, for her dorm room. Since worm bins don't smell, they are a great and easy way to compost indoors.

Pam Holsinger-Fuchs adopts some garden worms for her garden.

Alan Tyler has a pile of worms to take home too.

The best part is that by using a worm bin, you turn your food waste into a reusable resource that goes back into the garden instead of the landfill to produce methane gas. According to the EPA, food waste that goes to the landfill breaks down anaerobically and produces methane, which is 21 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas. By feeding the worms, you are actually helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions and feeding your garden to grow more food.

OIKOS FYS101 class takes veggies to the Food Bank

Here is what we do with the food we grow. Our First Year Seminar class took this harvest to the Thurston County Food Bank where we learned about how this local non-profit helps eliminate hunger, diverts good food from going to the landfill and provides healthy and dignified food options to people in need.

Plant Sale and Summer Class

LERNING GARDEN NEWS

GROW YOUR GARDEN

Annual Plant Sale at Saint Martin's Learning Garden

April 29, 30 & May 1st from 11-2pm in the garden adjacent to the cafeteria patio.

This year, in addition to the usual variety of vegetables, flowers, herbs and berries, we will have an assortment of garden planters made from repurposed materials by student intern Steven Caron.

Throughout the summer quarter the Learning Garden will be offering workshops on how to make some these fun garden projects including:

Vertical Pallet Gardens, Terra cotta Hanging Pot Planters, Repurposed Glass Planters, Beach, Wood Planters, Hanging Gutter Gardens, Garden Totems, Birdhouses, Birdfeeders.

TAKE A SUMMER CLASS (3CR.)! Get outside and learn.

COM395: Ora et Labora: Contemplation and Work in the Garden  (3cr.)

This course has three components: 1. Hands on work in the Learning Garden, planting, tending and harvesting fruits and vegetables for Thurston County Food Bank. 2. Researching local and global issues related to food production and distribution. 3. Creating media stories based on research,m contemplation, and the hands-on experience of working in the soil. Students may take either or both sessions.

Main Summer Session

Fridays, 9am-12:20pm

Instructor: Sky Myers

SERVE

Volunteers needed! Contact Sky Myers (svdervish@gmail.com) if you would like to help with the plant sale, planting or if you have plants to donate!

All sale proceeds go towards the Learning Garden. The vegetables grown in the garden go to the Thurston County Food Bank.

Read more about the garden here http://sustainablesaints.blogspot.com/

Films about food

Here are some titles of films about sustainable food production and things related:

http://www.ted.com/playlists/55/the_joy_of_eating.html -  various TED talks about food

Dirt (2009): Talks about the science of dirt and importance of good dirt as a natural resource.

Growing Cities (2013): SMU library has this. About urban farming in America and implications of food ownership.

2012 Time for Change (2010): An eclectic searching movie that covers many eco-cultural topics, goes to a range of interesting speakers, and leaves one feeling hopeful and capable of creating a flourishing present.

A Community of Gardeners (2012): Focuses on Washington, DC, community gardens as centers of calm and social interactions in inner-city neighborhoods.

Canned Dreams: what people, places, and animals go into a can of ravioli

Food Inc: industrial food industry focused

Food Matters: health focused

Forks over Knives: health focused

Ingredients (2009): Focused on the local food growing movement and sustainable farming. 

The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil: hopeful; culturally and economically focused

The Garden: South Central Los Angeles farmers fight to save their huge community garden in a poor urban area

The Garden at the End of the World: social justice and permaculture efforts in Afghanistan 

Vegucated: New Yorkers go vegan as a challenge

An October Apple Tasting!

Greetings! This Wednesday in the Learning Garden we did an Apple tasting of seven varieties of Apples, 5 of which were varieties that grow here in Western Washington and 2 varieties from Eastern Washington. We were taste testing to see which varieties were the ones we would want to grow in our potential orchard. Among the varieties we taste tested were: Fuji, Akane, Gala, Williams Pride, and Jonagold.   All  those grow well here in our coastal climate. We also taste tested Honey Crisp and Golden Delicious which are varieties that grow better east of the mountains. Our data revealed that Fuji was almost everyone's favorite and interestingly enough we have planted one apple tree and it is a Fuji. The Fuji is a wonderful apple; it was developed in Fujisaki, Aomori Japan in  the 1930's and brought to the USA in 1969. It is a cross between the Red Delicious and the Virginia Ralls Genet.
It is naturally on the large size, very crisp and sweet and keeps well. Along with our apples we cleansed our palates with local cheddar goat cheese and some Lattin's Apple Cider .

 Then we got to work spreading some mulch!

Thank You to all the volunteers that are making the Learning Garden such a growing place.
Check in with us next Wednesday when we remineralize the Learning Garden and taste more varieties of apples!

The Learning Garden is Growing!

Greetings! This week we were blessed with a nice size pile of mulch to spread. Our crew was somewhat smaller this week working  in the learning garden:  6 people total, 4 students.  We had three tasks that we wanted to complete and we were able to get everything done and have a little time to enjoy the garden and have a snack.  The tasks at hand were:

1. Move and spread  the pile of mulch over the cardbord that had been laid down last week.

2. Put more weedcloth and rock around the garden shed.

3. Move a 5'X7' garden bed to make room for the incipient fence.

Kudos and Thanks to all who volunteered! 

Our Learning Garden is growing. We need hands on help and ideas; please join us for some fresh air and fun. I hope to see you next week, Wednesday October 10th Noon to 2:00 or 3:00 to 5:00.

August Harvest!

Students from American Seminar class will be harvesting potatoes and garlic in the garden tomorrow.

Lynn Villeilla will be leading the garden lesson and also boiling off some freshly dug potatoes for tasting. Come taste fresh potatoes with garlic and garden herbs as a side for your lunch!

Thursday, August 2, 12pm
In the Learning Garden (located just outside of the dining hall)

Chinese Medicinal Plants in the Garden

Last Friday in the garden - Dr. Louise Kaplan, director of SMU's new nursing program, brought visiting students from Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine to plant medicinal herbs and shrubs in the SMU's Learning Garden.

from Dr. Jie, Xu (Daisy) list of medicinal plants for the garden

Thanks to visiting professor Dr. Jie, Xu (Daisy) who compiled the list of medicinal plants for us to get and to  all of the students who volunteered to go to the market, find the starts and to plant our first Chinese medicinal herbs for future classes to enjoy.

Students from Shanghai University. Left to right in front: Chen Luhua (Pearl), Zhu Liangbo (Cream), Huang Zhiwei (Simple), Zhang Zhuhui(Vicky),Chen Lin (Lin), and Zhao Xiyue (CiCi). Left-far back: Xie Yingfang (Catherine) and Shen Dan (Ivy)  Mr. Lee, the chaperone, is the farthest back.

 SMU's ESL students are currently working on information cards to go with the plants!

Shanghai student, Zhang Zhuhui (Vicky), watering the Ginkgo after planting

Ginkgo (pictured above) is an especially good medicine for a university garden as it helps with memory and concentration!

Students Write about Sustainability

St. Gertrude dining hall

This Fall, 2011 alumni magazine Insights published an article written by SMU's Digital Journalism students. The students researched and wrote about the ways that the monks, nuns and students lived off of the land, right here on the SMU campus. Fr. Kilian and Abbot Neal shared great stories - killing chickens and riding horses through the trails. Fr. Peter helped us find archival photos of the campus back in the 1930 and 50s. Take a look at pg. 16 - A Heritage of Sustainability.

The Farm 1950

Student Liz Wrazien, made this companion video to the article.