Our Garden

I'm so happy I was able to participate in this class with all of you! I've had a lot of fun, and I'm glad we were able to create our own little presence on campus. I'll be here over the summer, so hopefully I'll be able to see a few of you working on our garden, or perhaps at one of the other community gardens in the area. I definitely believe it's important for those of us staying to keep in touch so our garden doesn't go untended. We can check this blog, or perhaps form our own e-mailing list. I also love the idea of creating other small plots like this in random spots around campus. Everywhere I see an empty grassy spot I think "what a great place for a vegetable garden!" Perhaps different different groups on campus can be encouraged to organize and maintain their own plots. We can gather our resources together, and and harvest time can have a big campus cook-out, or perhaps donate excess veggies to Fields for Families.

And now for a trip down memory lane:

City Paper - Finding the Good Life in Your Own Backyard

The City Paper did a nice write up of some of the gardening and farming activities in Charleston including mention of the Bogarden as well as discussion of some of the great local farms in our community such as Ambrose, Rosebank and Thornhill.

One of the mentions that most interested me was Chef Fred Neuville's heirloom chicken farm out on Wadmalaw Island. Chef Neuville is the head chef at the Fat Hen on Maybank Highway. He has started a program called Farm Kids that aims to connect children living on the Island to their food. The kids get to collect eggs, check out the baby pigs and even make candles in the honey house. I think that its really great for these kids to learn about where their food comes from and to gain a working respect of the hard work that goes in to raising these animals, as well as a healthy respect for the animals themselves that nourish us. Hopefully none of these kids will grow up thinking that food comes from a supermarket and that's the end of the story.

I'm really happy to see all of the gardens and farms in the area getting some recognition!

Watering

As we are attempting to pass off the bogarden to the neighborhood, me immediate fear is that there will not be consistent watering. This is another problem that seems common in gardens that many people have a hand in. Thus, I have found a pretty reasonable solution to ensure that plants have adequate water through this hot South Carolina summer. Basically, this system is similar to what I suggested for making compost tea in the garden bed. All you do is sink a 2 liter bottle or a milk jug (depending on how many plants you need to keep watered) half way in the soil and poke two pencil sized holes in the bottom of the jug. Every time you water the garden, fill up the jug, as water is removed by the plants, it will be drawn out of the container and into the soil. Even allowing the top two inches of soil to dry out can stress the plants and keep them from producing at their best.

A word on when to water:
Just because plants are wilted, it does not necessarily indicate that they need water. Too much water, disease, and plain old heat (a common thing down here) can cause plants to wilt. Before you decide to water, put your fingers in the soil and see how moist it is. If the top two inches are dry add enough to thoroughly soak the soil. It is ideal to water infrequently but deeply. This encourages root growth into the soil by keeping a large area moist without risking squeezing all the oxygen out of the soil. It is ideal to water in the morning to allow water to evaporate before the heat of the day. Watering at night can lead to problems with disease, so avoid watering the leaves if you have to water at night. Also, water in a large circle around the crops which will ensure more healthy root growth.

Good luck keeping the garden alive and well this summer!

Lessons from the Bogarden: Compost Tea & Using Compost

Trying to maintain rich soil without the use of artificial fertilizers can seem daunting today when we are taught through marketing to think that you need to add miracle grow to get good results in the garden. However, preparing compost tea is an easy and free method for introducing nutrients along with beneficial microorganisms to your soil. Seth Pritchard touched on a few methods for preparing compost tea when he spoke to our class a few months ago. However, I found a few low-tech methods for producing this nutrient rich brew without having invest in air stones and any other fancy equipment.
First, I found a simple method in Rodales's Garden Answers: Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs which has proven to be a helpful guide all around. This book's suggested method for producing compost teas is to put a shovel full of compost in a porous bag (burlap, pillowcase, etc), steep it in a bucket of water for a few days, and then dilute it to the color of tea. I am currently trying this method because many of the seedlings in the bogarden are not growing very well, which leads me to suspect that the soil is poor in nutrients. It is relatively easy however I question its effectiveness because there is no way of keeping oxygen levels high in the soil unless you occasionally pull the bag out and break the soil up. Seth Pritchard's method is similar to this but it ensures a steady supply of oxygen by using air stones to saturate the soil while it is submerged.
Another way to produce compost tea without having to do any major engineering is to simply place a handfull of compost in a clay pot sunk half way in the ground next to your seedlings. Place water in the pot when plants are watered and compost tea is made in the pot and immediately diffused directly to the roots of the plants. This may be a good option for the campus garden to avoid having to repeatedly haul tea/fertilizers to campus.
Finally, we recently came in contact with two guys who are starting their own verme-composting business. They collect the worm castings (excrement) from the bottom of the pile and sell the juices as liquid fertilizer. I applied the fertilizer a few weeks ago and the plants have noticeably improved. I spoke with the guys today and they told me that their juice wasn't particularly rich in nitrogen, so if one is to use worm castings as a compost tea, keep in mind extra nitrogen may be needed around flowering time to ensure proper vegetable production.

Lessons from the Bogarden: Crop Rotation

Although it may be difficult to maintain a cohesive long term gardening plan in a college environment where students come and go quickly and many hands are involved in planting, trying to maintain a 3 year crop rotation is beneficial to the soil and consequently the plants will grow better. This system is an organic alternative to controlling pests and diseases by allowing the correct balance of nutrients to stay in the soil which supports diverse communities of microorganisms. First, here are some basic families. Plants from the same family should not be planted repeatedly in the same raised bed.

Beet family: beet, chard, spinach
Cabbage family: broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, radish, turnip
Carrot family: carrot, celery, cilantro, dill, parsley, parsnip
Grass family: corn
Lettuce family: artichoke, lettuce
Lily family: chives, garlic, leek, onion
Pea family: bean, peanut, pea
Squash family: cucumber, melon, pumpkin, squash
Tomato family: eggplant, pepper, potato, tomato

Plants from these families consume similar nutrients and also contract similar diseases. Thus, in the bogarden, where we are having trouble with a fungus on our tomatoes, it is advisable not to replace our diseased tomatoes with peppers, potatoes, or tomatoes.
Furthermore, to diversify the output of each bed (which is important in community gardening operations) you can practice companion planting. Such pairings can be for structural reasons (e.g. beans grow up a corn stalk and squash protects against weeds) or for nutrient balance reasons. An extensive list of proper companion plants (and planting schedules for Charleston) can be found at Hyams garden center on Folly Rd. or online at www.companionplanting.net, attra.ncat.org

Odds and ends

So many new posts since I left for my conference last week! When I came home, I found a fridge full of strawberries. My daughters and husband went back to Ambrose and picked more. :  )

We need to stake the tomato plants ASAP. The vines are touching the ground which is bad news. I will try to find time today to go find some suitable stakes. If any of you have time to do this, let me know and I'll take it off of my list.

Those of you who will be around this summer and want to help keep the garden going, post here.  I'll be around through June, but I'll likely take a few weeks off in July. 

What a great semester!!

I really enjoyed this class and this semester with all of you. It was a rocky start with us actually organizing the garden project behind the Sociology building, but thanks to those individuals who stepped up and got the ball rolling we finally got on track. I hope that the garden remains well cared for throughout the summer and hopefully next year other environmental studies minors can pick up where we left off. I hope that this garden project becomes a part of campus and lasts well beyond this one growing season.

I also very much enjoyed reading both of the books this semester. The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved was a very informative look at what we eat and how those foods get to our table. I think that the second book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle was by far the better of the two. Reading it you almost didn't realize how much you were learning because of the story like format the book took. With recipes and side stories contributed by her family members, Kingsolver really created a book that was both very informative and very fun to read. Following her family through their journey to eat only what they could grow or what they could get locally, in season, was a refreshing look at ho food could be, and is, for some dedicated people.

On another note I just wanted to discuss with y'all who would be around this summer to care for the garden. I will be here most of the summer, I am taking a few trips but overall will be living downtown until the end of July. I would be happy to help keep up with the care of the garden and was just wondering who else would be available and willing to help out too. We should make some sort of schedule or figure out who can take care of it when. I would hate to see the work that we put into the garden be for nothing if it goes uncared for. We all know how hot it gets here in the summer! Y'all let me know if you will be here and we can work something out.

It was great to get to know all of you this semester and I hope to see those of you who are staying in Charleston after this class ends!!!