A Delicious Harvest

Photo by Prof. David Suter

Happy Friday readers and garden enthusiasts.
As you know Wednesday found us in the garden harvesting the many delicious veggies our garden has produced in spite of the peculiar and antagonistic weather we have had this summer and fall. I am happy to report we were able to harvest some straggler radishes, broccoli, green beans, peas, squash, a great collection of tomatoes (ripened and green), and potatoes.

And the Saint Martin's Sustainability garden was able to donate a box of our harvested treats to the local Thurston County Food Bank, in spite of the fact a small percentage of the tastier veggies seemed to disappear somewhere between hand and buckets, which I wouldn't know anything about...

My roommates are probably happier to report that I was able to bring some of the harvest home with me.

We celebrated the garden harvest with a little breakfast for dinner: homemade quiche with the fresh potatoes, and broccoli. Yum.

Many thanks to all of you who have followed the garden's progress here on the blog, and volunteered your time,and green thumbs to keep our garden running, beautiful and bountiful.

The Potatoes Are In!

Warm greetings to all our readers, and volunteers who have helped to keep our garden running and beautiful.

Many of you have seen first-hand the transformation that has taken place in our learning garden since we first began with a grass, and ivy-covered patch of land beside our Dining Hall.

We're happy to announce another milestone...

The potatoes are in!

And we'd like to invite all of you to come out to help us dig them up.

We will be harvesting them next Wednesday, October 20, at 3pm .

The box of produce will be donated to the Thurston County Food Bank. So please come out and join us in supporting sustainability, our local food bank, and keeping our learning garden growing and beautiful. Thank you to all who have been following us here on the blog, and volunteering, for all your support, and lending us your green thumbs. See you Wednesday!

New Students

First Year students come to work in the garden

they mulch the tomato plants with used coffee grounds from the campus cafeteria

paint some garden signs and assemble the new compost bin

pull up more ivy

weed the ground around the garden

mount some bird houses on the fence

and pick some viggies

Watering Meditation

Watering the garden is a meditative way to start the morning. You stand patiently among the plants and watch the earth soak in moisture. While we wait for facilities to set us up with a more convenient water access, we've devised an irrigation system with soaker hoses and and watering cans. If you would like to take on a day to water the garden, let us know. We'd be happy to add you to our schedule.

Rosemary waters the tomato plants. Photo by Prof. David Suter

Garden Visitors

Yesterday we seemed to have unwittingly hosted new visitors in the learning garden.

Now the garden is finally looking green, the deer have come to get in on the produce.

Our potato bed has started flowering, fortunately this does not seem to appeal to them.

Sadly, the strawberries were not so lucky... The deer have good taste.

One of today's project-- finishing painting our new table and workstation.

So that's what's going on in the garden. Thank you to everyone who have been following us here on the blog, and volunteering your time in the garden helping to keep it green, beautiful, and running.

TESC explores alternatives

Here is an article from the Olympian about TESC's exploration about becoming carbon neutral by 2020.

First Harvest!

This Wednesday, we sampled our first golden heirloom tomato and harvested a box of boc choy

Rosemary models the first pick

Tanya samples a tasty morsel

Amanda holds the crop of boc choy. It was split between all who showed up to the work party. A portion went home to the Thurston County Food Bank with the food bank volunteers who came to help us garden.

More Color!

Lately, colors of paint cans have been stacking up high in the garden shed and the garden is doubling as a mini art studio

Last week, Bridge students stopped by and helped us paint the bird houses that SMU writing specialist Cholee Gladney and music professor Brad Schrandt built for the garden fence

students Amanda and Rosemary painted demo houses before the Bridge students arrived

Turns out we have a crop of creative and helpful students this year

They got right to work and did an inspired job. Welcome to campus!

What's Growing on in the Learning Garden

The garden has finally begun producing enough goodies we were obliged to share. Last Wednesday our volunteers were able to sample the Learning Garden's first ripe tomato, and take some of our boc choy home with them.

This week we have started harvesting the radishes.

The tomatoes continue to tempt us, by looking delicious.

A curious phenomenon is taking over the strawberry patch. This is the last known picture of this one. *Yum.*

This unfortunate phenomenon seems also to have spread to the raspberry box...

The squash has begun to develop fruit.

The sunflowers and corn continue to climb skyward.

The broccoli we planted last week is doing well.

And the newest blueberry plant is flourishing, though I have no idea where all the ripe berries went...

So that's what's been growing on in the garden.

Thanks to everyone who have been following us here, on the blog, and volunteering your time to help paint, harvest, weed, water, and keep our garden looking beautiful.

Garden Update...

There has been a lot of gardening going on. As you can see from all the pictures that are posted on here we have been busy. With all the help from the volunteers we got this garden up and running. We have many different vegetables growing and fruit. One plant just grew the first berry over the weekend and I got the joy of eating it, but not before I took a picture of the raspberry. They seem to be having a hard time growing right now but after seeing that one berry I have faith that those raspberries will grow.

Another update is that we are now having deer or some other kind of animal come up to the garden and they seem to like the carrots and strawberries because that is the only bed that seems to have their foot prints. Looks like we are going to be needing to build a fence to keep them out. That is going to be the next project to come.

Garden Celebration and Blessing

See this article about the celebration in the Olympian.

Abbot Neal blesses the garden with holy water

President Heynderickx speaks

We eat a delicious cake made by Bon Appétit

Prof. Shawn Newman leads a ukulele sing along

Enjoying the garden

Watching it grow

We add our own wishes and blessings to the garden wall

Art in the Garden

Artist Bill Wilson donates his metal sculpture to our garden! You can also check out Wilson's work at the Monarch Sculpture Garden.

In one month!

We started the garden on June 2, 2010. By July 2, 2010 this is what it looks like! Thanks to the SMU and local community volunteers. Now let's celebrate! Come to the garden tomorrow at 1pm for some food, drinks, music and blessing by Abbot Neal.


grass and weeds - blank slate

tomatoes, potatoes, beans, peas, bok choi, sun flowers, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, currants, onions, carrots, new shed, worms, art and more!

from imagining the possibilities

to making it happen

and taking care of the garden