Early morning reflections ...

Each morning around 5am I go to the school garden to water the plants, check for signs of pests, and snap a few progress photos.

I look forward to going each morning because it's the quietest time of my day. As I water, I envision the potential the garden holds, and gain inspiration for new projects.

The more time I spend in the garden, the more I realize that this is what I want to do with my life. It is so rewarding and fulfilling to take an empty plot of land and transform it into a space that is attracting birds, butterflies, worms and other beneficial insects, and growing food to feed and nourish others.

Each day I find myself lingering in the garden because I enjoy being there so much. It is such a quiet and relaxing place and as I watch the plants growing I can feel myself growing more towards a life in agriculture.

Every time I look at a plant I am fascinated by the potential each seed holds.

The amount of energy stored in that tiny pod, capable of growing into a plant that can produce food and  even seeds to grow more plants is mind blowing! It's nature's miracle that we get to experience every day!

Gardening for me started out as a hobby, but is quickly turning into a passion that I can't seem to control. The more I learn about things like seed saving or winter gardening, the more I become drawn in and realize this is what I want to do for a living.

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Each day seems to bring new opportunities to bring me closer to this dream and I am grateful for these unexpected miracles.

~Rob~

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. 

Live the life you have imagined.
Henry David Thoreau

Enjoying Father's Day planting in the garden

What better way to spend Father's Day than planting in the garden!

Today we spent some time working in the school garden, adding some butterfly attracting perennials to the center bed. It's so satisfying to see the gardens finally coming together!

We have already noticed more birds, bees and dragonflies around since we started planting and hope to attract more butterflies as well, so today we added some butterfly weed, cone flowers, bee balm and yarrow.

Butterfly weed.

Bee balm.

Yarrow.

During Tuesday's gardening club the children will be adding some annuals and mulching the beds. We are thinking about making some cement bowls to add for decoration and to fill with water.

The  mini sunflowers are really starting to open now that the rain has stopped. I can't wait to see them in full bloom!

I am still amazed at how well the tomato plants are doing at the school garden. They are so much taller and bushier than ours at home. It's almost time to start pruning and staking them!

Hop over to the school garden blog and read my post on the progress of the garden and why we feel this project is so important!

Happy Father's Day!

~Rob~

Building a school garden - one raised bed at a time!

Today was our raised bed building event at the school garden. It was a gorgeous day with perfect weather and we had a fantastic turnout of volunteers!

We had so many volunteers that we finished constructing all the beds in an hour!

The children seemed excited to have a hand in assembling the beds, especially when we asked, "who wants to use a power tool?" The raised bed system worked out very well and went together easily. The children were able to put it together themselves with very little adult help and seemed thrilled to have a hand in creating our school garden! We are very grateful for the amount of school and community support we are getting with this project.

You can read more about the event on our School Garden blog!

Several people were interested in building the raised bed boxes to use in their own gardens so I decided to make the plans available. You can download them for free from my Project Plans page on my website if you wish to build some raised garden beds for yourself!

~Rob~

Shared at:

The Create HomeAcre 
Deborah Jean's Dandelion House 
The Backyard Farming Connection

Getting children involved in gardening

A key point in our mission for the school garden is to get children outside and more involved in gardening. We believe they should be taught where their food comes from, how to grow it and also be given the opportunity to get involved in the entire process. The school garden is mostly for them and we are trying to come up with ways to get them involved and excited about gardening. 

Over the past couple weeks we distributed seed starting kits to the 17 teachers who signed up to take part. We were very surprised that we had over 75% of teacher participation with more asking to participate each day! The children became very excited watching the seeds they planted germinate into seedlings and some classes have already begun "blocking up" their plants!

To keep that excitement going we want them to also be involved in creating the garden. We believe having them help layout the garden and construct the beds would give them a sense of pride and ownership. We were concerned about possible injuries using power tools so I worked on creating a raised bed system that the children would be able to help assemble.

Just about every kid loves building with lincoln logs and blocks, so I set out to design a raised bed system that could be assembled without power tools.

The design I came up with worked really well, but I wanted to see if it would actually go together with ease and be sturdy, so I built a 1/3 scale model.

I am extremely pleased with how it looks and how well it slips together.

I think the children will really enjoy taking part in building all the raised beds and being allowed to participate in the creation their garden!

I am going to pre-cut, notch and sand all the parts. On May 4th we are going to have a ground breaking ceremony where we will be laying out the garden, building the beds, tilling the outer patches and putting up our garden sign! The children that already know about it are excited to take part and hopefully the enthusiasm will continue to grow as the garden grows! We feel that by involving the children as much as possible, they will really benefit from this project.

"Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn".

~Benjamin Franklin

~Rob~

Help us win a grant for out school garden!
(Click picture to find out how)

Shared at:

Tilly's Nest
Deborah Jean's Dandelion House
The Backyard Farming Connection

Germinating seeds ...

I am always amazed watching the process of a germinating seed.

It is incredible to think that the energy to grow a plant and the potential food that it can produce is locked away inside that small seed just waiting for the right conditions to begin the germination process.

Nature is truly amazing!

Great things can happen given the right conditions!

That's how I feel about our school garden project.

The seed has been planted an it is starting to grow into something amazing!

This weekend my wife and I are working on the garden proposal. We are outlining every aspect of how the garden should be used, what lessons it will teach, what it will incorporate and what the garden should represent. The proposal will be used as both an operating plan for the garden and to obtain our funding. We both get excited and emotional when we look at the potential of this project and what great things can come of it for the school and the community.

The seed has been planted and has begun to germinate,
I can't wait to see what it will grow into!

~Rob~

School Garden Update...

It has been an extremely busy beginning of spring with planned projects, seed starting and preparing the gardens for planting, but we finally got The Garden at Oswegatchie School blog and Facebook page launched!

The project is now officially underway! 

We have the garden layout drawn up, the budget created and the proposed location has been measure.

Front entrance to the school.

Location for the garden.

We received a generous donation of 150 packets of organic seeds from Peaceful Valley Farms to help support our project!

We will be putting together "kits" for the teachers to use in the classrooms. Each kit will include a mini-greenhouse, 40 3/4" soil blocks, a spray bottle and 2 packets of seeds.

After the seeds germinate we will provide them with 2" soil blocks to transplant the seedlings into until they are ready to plant in the garden, or use for a seedling sale.

As I mentioned earlier, I will be donating 50% from all my online sales to help fund the School Garden Project! Feel free to share this so we can gain support while we secure our funding.

If you would like to follow us on this journey in creating an oasis for healthy bodies, minds and imaginations, I will be posting updates here, on the School Garden blog and Facebook page.

I hope you will follow along!

~Rob~

Creating a School Garden

We finally have our approval to move forward with the school garden project, something my wife and I  have been dreaming about for a very long time.

Last week we had or first meeting to discuss the location, throw around some ideas and talk about how the garden will be used. We have a great group of people on board so far and everyone seems to be really excited about this project!

Proposed layout for the school garden.

Our vision for the school garden is to be a place to teach children about where their food comes from, let them experience the process of growing their own food, and to help connect them with nature. Hopefully the garden will inspire children to become interested in starting a garden at home and educate them about the importance of eating healthy, local food. It always surprises me when someone tastes a vegetable fresh from the garden and says, "Wow, I never knew these tasted like this!"

Another reason I am excited about this project is because it is a chance to experience growing on a larger scale than my own back yard. For me this is a step along the way to owning some acreage and running a small organic farm.

We want the garden to be strictly organic, which means no chemical pesticides or fertilizers and planting only organic and heirloom seeds,  no GMO or hybrids. We want to use only natural growing practices - growing in harmony with nature. We plan on using natural pest control, such as garlic sprays and will be applying compost and compost tea sprays, which is something I do in my own garden with great success.

As soon as the snow melts and the ground thaws, we will be laying out the garden, building the raised beds and putting up a fence to keep the critters out. Meanwhile, I have worked out a proposed budget and we are in the planning stages to make sure we can get things started as soon as possible. This year will be busy planning our own gardens in addition to the school garden, but I am passionate about gardening and healthy food, so I am thrilled to be working on this project!

Hopefully the garden will be successful and we get a lot of people interested in it. There is already talk of starting a garden club, possibly incorporating some of what we grow in to the lunch program, doing a seedling fundraiser and even having a farmers market. Future plans will include adding a storage shed, greenhouse and possibly expanding the gardens to include blueberries and raspberries!

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To help fund this project I will be donating 50% of all my online sales for the months of March and April to the School Garden Project. That means 50% from each item sold from my ETSY store and Website will go towards supporting the School Garden Project and help promote organic gardening!

~Rob~

Shared at:

The Backyard Farming Connection
 Tilly's Nest
 The Self Sufficient HomeAcre