Summer Garden Projects

Summer is the best time in the garden! Heat and sunshine make everything beautiful. On Friday students from Dave Martin's class joined our new Garden Coordinator, Sky Myers for a work party. Dave led a group of international students in the construction of a new bin for last year's maple leaves that were in one of the raised beds.

First, they took the fence apart and removed the netting. Beneath the surface, the leaves were already beginning to decompose. We worked some of the leaves into other beds and used some as mulch. Leaf mulch helps retain water as well as keeping the weeds down. The new bin was constructed entirely from recycled materials. It will allow us to turn the leaves regularly to expedite the decomposition process.

Meanwhile another group of students worked on clearing out an area where we will later build a trellis. Students also created a new small bed along the fence and planted some sunflower starts and cleared ivy from around the gingko and fig trees. Ivy is terribly invasive and requires continual maintenance to keep it at bay. 

After a break, Sky and a few of the students worked on the drip irrigation system. An afternoon of hard work in the garden left us with smiles on our faces and sense of accomplishment.

Garden Coordinator, Sky Myers is in the garden on Friday afternoons; stop by and say hello or pitch in for an hour. She always has projects going. Next up? Planting the raised bed that formerly held the leaves.

Can you believe these are onion flowers?!

P.S: It's almost time to harvest strawberries! Please come and check how great they are! If you find some red ones, you can taste them! Definitely better than what you buy in supermarket!

Garden Map

Sky made this awesome garden map for watering, so I thought I'd share. In case you want to see what's happening in the garden, here it is. download a PDF here.

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