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.

Recent fun things

Do you know what's cool if you have a garden? Donating food to help others! In the last weeks, our garden donated five bunches of beets and six large cucumbers were donated to the local food bank. In July we also donated  a box of kohlrabi and six heads of broccoli.
 
Before I came here, I never knew that food can be donated too. This is a brilliant idea for both the environment and people. We don't waste food and somebody will enjoy these tasty veggies.

These photos are what beets and broccoli look like. Isn't it amazing to see them in the ground in a natural state rather than in supermarket?

The right one is garlic drying in our shed. They look kinda funny to me, because of their messy leaves and roots. Hahaha! Even I don't know what this garlic will be after drying, but I'm sure they will be better things, eventually. 

Besides veggies, I also have other news to share with you, the following photo is our garden picnic table with new color! Is it romantic to have a picnic on it?  

Have a nice day and come to garden explore more fun! Thank you! 

A Fall Clean-up in the Learning Garden

 Twelve International students helped clean up the Learning Garden and Greenhouse. We picked a final harvest of Tomatoes and Peppers.

Most vegetables we plant are annuals. Annuals are plants that grow, flower, produce seeds and die in one growing season. The students removed these plants from the garden and put them in the compost.

Here is a fall strawberry!

All the beds were gone over and weeded now they are ready to be covered in leaves for our rainy winter.

This group worked so well together, the work was done and there was still plenty of energy!

Thank You Student Volunteers!!

Fighting Hunger with Fresh Veggies

Today we took a box of heirloom organic tomatoes, red peppers and herbs from the SMU Learning Garden to the Thurston County Food Bank.

Harvesting Green Beans

Greetings gardeners and food lovers alike, August brings the heat we need to make our crops ripen. We are enjoying a bounty of perfect green beans in the Saint Martins Learning Garden!!

Our first crop of green beans went to the Thurston County Food Bank!