Volunteer Days June 3 - 9, 2012

Tuesday, June 5, 8:30 to 10:30:  We'll trellis as many vining plants as we can and harvest for the afternoon market

Thursday, June 7, 8:30 to noon:  We'll weed, feed and mulch the leeks, sweet potatoes and parsnips.

Friday, June 8, 1:00 to 3:00:  We'll weed, deadhead, feed and mulch as many flower beds as we can.

Volunteer Days May 27 to June 2, 2012

Monday, May 28 from 1 to 4:  We'll plant beans, harvest the grains, finish putting up the trellises, and work on the chicken coop.

Thursday, May 31 from 8:30 to noon:  We'll plant buckwheat in B1, hill the potatoes, check to see if the ginger is ready for hilling yet, and weed all of the root beds.

Friday, June 1:  We'll finish whatever we didn't get done on Thursday.

Pictures of the Week

This is our ginger experiment.  Rather than growing it with loads of organic fertilizer in a soilless medium, we're trying biodynamic compost and watering it with compost tea.  So far so good.

Plants that the botany class has been working with in the greenhouse.

The photo doesn't really do it justice, but this is the sort of thing I've gotten used to seeing on the blackboard when I peak into the greenhouse, beautiful pictures of flowers and plant parts.

Volunteer Days May 20 to 26, 2012

Thursday, May 24 from 8:30 to 10:30:  We'll finish putting up trellises for all of our vine plants, finish moving the rock pile outside of the garden fence and clean and repair the explosive fluids cabinet.

Friday, May 25 8:30 to 10:30:  We'll transplant chives and plant phacelia, echinacea and coreopsis seeds, and weed and feed as many flower beds as we can.

                          1:00 to 3:00:  We'll apply compost tea, fermented nettle and fish emulsion to the beds, and weed and feed as many leaf beds as we can.

 Trip Week

Third grade had a wonderful time visiting Minka Farm this week.  They helped with farm chores including feeding and watering the animals, collecting eggs, cleaning out barns, and caring for the plants.  They also got to wash, card, spin and weave wool, go boating on the pond, swing on the rope swing and help with meal preparation and clean up.  A good time was had by all!

Ninth grade went on a series of day trips ending with a single overnight this year.  They learned about passive solar technology at NC State and Duke, biofuel and sweet potatoes at Piedmont Biofarms, recycling water, organic farming and heritage breed chickens at Chatham County Community College, and working with wood by hand at Roy Underhill's Woodright Shop.  They finished off their week with an overnight at Pickard's Mountain where they spent time reflecting on all they experienced over the course of the week, learned a little about the current level of stress our planet is under, and tried to put into words what they felt they could take home from the whole experience.

Volunteer Days, May 13 through 19, 2012

It is field trip week for both 3rd and 9th grades this week so I will not be in the garden much at all.  If anyone is able to come out and work at any time, please do.  Everything is desperate for weeding.  Below is which beds need weeding on which days.  I'll post this list in the grey shed as well.  Please come out if you can find the time!

Monday, May 14:  B3, C1, D3 and D5 - all flower beds
Tuesday, May 15:  A1, C2, C5, and D7 - all leaf beds
Wednesday, May 16 until 4pm:  A2, A4, A5, and B5 - all fruit beds/
                                 after 5 pm:  A1, C2, C5 and D7 (leaf beds)
Thursday, May 17:  A1, C2, C5 and D7 - leaf beds again
Friday and Saturday, May 18 and 19:  A2, A4, A5, and B5 - fruit beds again.

I recommend pulling any weeds that are flowering or have gone to seed first, then pull any weeds taller than the crop plant.  Finally, pull all smaller weeds and give the surface (top inch or less) of the soil a good scraping with the hand hoe, a claw or the edge of a trowel.

Thank you in advance for anything and everything that you are able to do!

Volunteer Days May 6 to May 12, 2012

Tuesday, May 8, 8:30 to 10:  We'll stir and spray the silica prep.  Come help out with this one hour stir and take a little of the prep home for your own garden too.

Thursday, May 10, 8:30 to noon:  We'll plant okra and beans, finish installing the trellises and weed and feed the grains bed.

Friday, May 11, 1:00 to 3:00:  We'll weed all the empty spots in the winter root bed and plant buckwheat as a cover crop, add manure to the compost pile, and spread some cardboard and wood chips on the paths between the beds.

Picture of the Week

Here is one of our rising 3rd graders holding one of the first heads of lettuce harvested this year.  Bella often volunteers to help with packaging the vegetables for market.  Thank you for you help!

6th Annual Pollinator Day Celebration in Pittsboro

I received this invitation through the Growing Small Farms list serve and thought I'd pass it along to all of you.  It looks like a fun and informative event!

Come join the Chatham County Center of North Carolina Cooperative Extension and the Chatham County Beekeepers’ Association for our 6^th Annual Pollinator Day Celebration on Saturday, May 12, from 10:00 am til 2:00 pm on the lawn at Chatham Mills in front of Chatham Marketplace in Pittsboro, NC. The purpose of Pollinator Day is to raise public awareness of the importance of the bees and other pollinators that are needed to produce 80 percent of our flowering plants and one third of our human food crops. The event is co-sponsored by Starrlight Mead.

We have a great program planned for folks of all ages at our event here in Pittsboro. All activities are free!

You can hear presentations about beekeeping – how to get started, equipment needs, management tips – from local expert beekeepers. Tour Cooperative Extension’s demonstration Pollinator Paradise Garden at Chatham Mills and learn how to attract and protect pollinators. From 10:00 am-2:00 pm, feel free to visit the display tables and talk with local beekeepers!

Watch expert beekeepers work an actual hive inside a bee cage (bees inside, participants outside!), see honey bees up close and personal, and get your burning beekeeping questions answered.

Ever tried honey wine? Co-sponsors Starrlight Mead will be doing a mead tasting and a mead making demonstration. Visitors can also visit the meadery where they produce their award-winning honey wines on the Chatham Mills property!

Visit our kids' tent with lots of activities for kids including a scavenger hunt, plant-a-pollinator-plant, beeswax candle making, face painting, Chatham County pollinator coloring books, and more! Watch “Bee TV” - park yourself in front of an observation hive and watch the worker bees tending to the queen. It’s mesmerizing!

We will be giving away native plants and gift certificates from local nurseries throughout the day, thanks to generous support from Niche Gardens, Mellow Marsh Farm, Cure Nursery, Big Bloomers Flower Farm, and Country Farm & Home Supply.

Visit the display inside Chatham Marketplace during the week of May 7.

For more details visit the Growing Small Farms website at http://bit.ly/pollday

Thanks to the following local businesses for supporting our event:

Country Farm & Home Supply, Inc.
Cure Nursery
Mellow Marsh Farm
Niche Gardens
Big Bloomers Flower Farm

We hope to see you there!

Volunteer Days April 29 to May 5, 2012

Thursday, May 3 from 8:30 to noon:  Plant more parsnips, prep a bed for sweet potatoes, weed the winter root bed and plant it in cover crops.

Friday, May 4 from 1:00 to 3:00:  Finish anything we didn't get to on Thursday, then add manure to the compost pile and lay down cardboard and wood chips in section D.

Pictures of the Week

Calendula and Dill, both of which you can buy at Tuesday Market, 8:15 to 8:45 AM and 3:00 to 3:45 PM every Tuesday.  Come check it out!