Spring clean up

  Weeding, mulching and pulling up carrots and beets that survived the winter!

Time to wake up the garden

On the first day of Spring, David Martin and his team of international students sowed seeds in the greenhouse, weeded and prepared garden beds for planting. It was so warm on the first day of spring that the vents on the greenhouse popped open. Students planted chives, peas and lettuce seeds.

Some things have been thriving all winter. The garlic greens are already about 5 inches tall and the culinary sage is abundant. Drop by the garden and pick some sage leaves for cooking. If you are not sure what to do with them, try out this recipe from Saveur.

Fried Sage Leaves

Delicate, crunchy fried sage can be crushed and sprinkled on squash or bean soups, served as an accompaniment to burgers, and even eaten whole as a snack.
1 bunch fresh sage
1/4 cup olive oil
Coarse salt
1. Pinch off leaves from sage. Heat oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat until hot.
2. Fry 6–8 sage leaves at a time until crisp, 2–3 seconds. Transfer with a fork to paper towels and sprinkle generously with coarse salt.
MAKES ABOUT 30 FRIED LEAVES

Spring is almost here!

Two days until Spring is official, the weather is warming up and it's about time to start weeding and getting the garden beds ready for planting. Here is a great resource about what to do in the garden, complete with a guide on what to plant when and some useful apps for mobile devices.

 Also, if you are thinking flowers, here is how you can help the bees out.

Sustainability Conference

The Sustainable Saints are going to a sustainability conference being held at Western Washington University in February.

The student summit looks especially exciting. Check out the conference schedule here. Registration is still open! Email Irina ( igendelman... )  if you would like to go and carpool with us.

HOLIDAY NATIVE TREE SALE

 
BENEFIT FOR THE LEARNING GARDEN AND SUSTAINABILITY

Wednesday, December 4th
12-3pm
 
OUTSIDE OF ST. GERTRUDE’S DINING HALL

NATIVE TREES DECORATED WITH EDIBLE ORNAMENTS FOR THE BIRDS - PLANT A NATIVE TREE AND SEQUESTER CO2 FOR OVER 100 YEARS

CRANBERRY POPCORN GARLANDS AND SUNFLOWER BUTTER BIRDSEED FEEDERS - FEED THE BIRDS IT WILL MAKE YOU HAPPY
 
ORANGE AND CLOVE POMANDERS – KEEP MOTHS AND OTHER INSECTS AWAY

Leaf Mold Bin

What is a leaf mold bin and why would you want to make one?

 

  A Leaf Mold is a type of compost made of leaves broken down by fungal action.

We need to add compost to our garden beds on a regular basis to replace and replenish our soil to grow the best vegetables.

Although compost is available commercially it is very expensive and made of a wide range of materials, some better than others.

The leaves we used in our compost were Bigleaf Maple leaves,

Acer macrophyllum our native Maple Tree with

Very Big Leaves!

 It is very important that the leaves remain wet over the winter to achieve decomposition by Spring.

We will add another layer to the bin and we may cover it in the Spring to heat up the fungal action.

Come and check out our leaf mold bin!

 

Edible Ornaments for the Birds!

Here are some example of the fun stuff student volunteers are making for our up coming Holiday Sale. We worked on Orange and Lime Pomanders and Peanut Butter Pinecones for the birds.

We will be making garlands and decorating trees!

 

The Learning Garden is planning a Holiday Native Tree Sale with edible ornaments for the birds! 

If you have extra clean dry pine cones laying around, bring them by and leave them inside the greenhouse located in the Learning Garden, just outside of the dining hall.

American Goldfinch

History

when the Learning Garden was just a dream

Orange Peel Mushroom

This Orange Peel mushroom showed up in the carrot and beet bed in the garden this week.

Aleuria aurantia among the carrots

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!!

Food for the Honey Bees

The latest visitors to the garden are honey bees!
Here is one that we spotted collecting pollen from a giant sunflower. This means that there is a honey bee hive somewhere within a 2 mi radius, because that's how far the bees will travel to look for food.

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.

Ecology’s Food Bank Garden on October 5th

Our neighbors at Ecology are calling volunteers to help harvest from their garden and take to the Thurston County Food Bank. Come spend a few hours outside and help eliminate hunger!

Thurston County Food Bank volunteers

What: Fall Potato Harvest

Where: Department of Ecology Food Bank Garden, 300 Desmond Drive, Lacey

   
The garden is located near the far parking lot in the meadow.

When: October 5^th 9:00am-2:00pm

Why: All the produce grown in the garden is donated to the Thurston County Food Bank.

What to Bring: Tools will be provided, but are limited. Bring gloves and shovels if possible.

Lunch will be provided!

Contact Laura Inouye with questions @ lino461@ecy.wa.gov

Learning Garden brainstorming with Taiwanese students visiting SMU

On Thursday July 18th  I had the pleasure of working with visiting students from Taiwan. We decided  to label the plants in both English and Mandarin. This gave rise to the idea of making laminated labels for the plants in the Learning Garden in all the languages of people likely to visit the LG.

 

We also collected seeds from our bed of greens, and trimmed the remaining scapes from our second garlic bed.

 

 

We did a little hand pollinating in the greenhouse on the tomatoes.

 

 

We had a lot of fun in the Learning Garden!

 

 

 

 

 

The Learning Garden at SMU receives help from vsiting Korean Students

 

On Wednesday July 17th The
Learning Garden at SMU received some help from 14 visiting Korean students. The students helped me remove the scapes from our garlic crop to encourage the energy flow of the garlic plant downward into the bulb.

We also discovered a small maple tree growing near one of the beds. We dug it up and potted it to add to our native plant nursery.

I think it is a big leaf maple time will tell.