Washington Youth Garden

In light of today’s rather silly holiday (because we think you should be able to eat what you want any day), this blog post will be devoted to food preferences for a few different creatures that enjoy the Washington Youth Garden.

1. Ground hogs:  We are plagued by these resourceful rodents here at the Washington Youth Garden.  Lettuce, tops of radishes, and cabbages have all provided a tasty meal for the local critters.  They are picky!  Once, in a single plot of kale, they ate the Dinosaur variety to the ground and left the Red Russian variety standing tall.  Every organism has a purpose in the ecosystem, but it would be great if we could utilize some natural pest management systems to lessen crop damage.  We have a fence around a portion of the garden and some row covers; further tips would be appreciated!

2.  Bees: We all know that bees love to munch on pollen and slurp nectar, but when they smell smoke, all they want to eat is honey!  Beekeepers smoke the bee boxes when they remove the honey combs because it signals the bees to rush into their hives and collect as much of the precious honey stores as possible before they evacuate their “burning” home.  As their abdomens fill up, the bees become heavy, drowsy and even lose some of their flexibility, making it difficult to bend abdomens and push out their stingers.  I liken it to the peaceful post-Thanksgiving-dinner stupor.  Less aggressive bees equal less painful stings for the beekeeper! 

First you take the busy bees…

…and smoke them!

Thanks for sharing, bees!

3.  Humans:  Nearly every field trip, we overhear a parent talking about how their child would never eat that vegetable when it was served for dinner.  There is something magical about picking it right from the plant, close to the earth.  Thyme flowers, lemon balm, fennel??  We try it all!  As we ran our “Where does food come from?” program this week, we even got to spend some time at the asparagus beds slipping in a few nutrition tips.  At the end of the field trip, a British 2nd grade visitor shared this lovely feedback:

I learned that asparagus loses a bit of its healthiness when it goes in a can.

A classmate added this effusive accolade for garden learning:

I hope my mom and dad take me here on vacation, if not every vacation. 

Cheers and Happy Mother’s Day weekend!

Did you know that there is only one type of plant that can host the Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly?  The Pawpaw produces fruits with a mild tropical flavor that some liken to a combination of pineapple, bananas and mangoes and is the only tree that feeds the growing caterpillars.  Equally interesting is the fact that these trees are not pollinated by the butterflies, but have flowers that are dark red and scented slightly like rotting meat to attract carrion flies and beetles.  Our bees want nothing to do with them! 

On our last few SPROUT field trips we have been privileged to see both the striking Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly hovering around the blooming Pawpaw trees and plenty of Honey Bees buzzing around the rest of garden!

During both pollination-themed visits, bee-keeper Sean helped us open our newly returned bee boxes and taught us lots about bees and their lifestyles.  One of our favorite facts is that bees use their wings to fan the collected nectar, speeding the evaporation process that creates what we know as honey.

Students loved both observing and tasting fresh honey combs.  It was experiential learning at its finest!

The local farmer’s market has been stocked with stored winter-y things for months - potatoes, onions, winter squash, cabbage - but for the first time last weekend they had tender greens and early tomatoes from the greenhouse!  Maybe the same is true at your local farmer’s market, so I thought I would share the recipe for the salad I made with my spring find.  (Of course you can use veggies from a grocery store too).  Enjoy!

Salad:

• mixed baby greens (or any tasty lettuces)
• tomatoes
• walnuts
• feta cheese
• canned pineapple chunks (or fresh apple pieces)

Scale the amount of ingredients to how much salad you are making, but you want about 3/4 of the salad to be lettuce.  Slice and add half of a medium sized tomato per serving, and top with a sprinkling of walnuts, feta, and fruit (pineapple or apple), about the same amount of each.

Dressing:

• olive oil
• lemon juice
• salt
• pepper
• garlic
• dried basil

Pour equal parts olive oil and lemon juice in a small jam jar (fill the jar about halfway).  Add 1 garlic clove (cut up small), and a few good shakes of salt, pepper, and dried basil.  Put on the lid of the jar and shake well, and also shake before pouring onto each salad serving as the oil and lemon juice separate.  Adjust salt, pepper, and basil to taste.  This will make enough dressing for several salads, and it’s best to eat within 3-4 days of making.

This week the 3rd, 4th and 5th graders at Marshall Elementary used the inspiration from their worm bin, a short video about pollinators and Nadia’s soil haikus (see on our Facebook page) to write their own garden science-themed poetry. Please share some of your own garden haikus on our Facebook page!

Worms are so creepy,

But they make the flowers grow,

They decompose fruits.

By Sallie

Worms break though dirt

Bats pollinate day and night

Worms eat leftovers

By Le’Asyah

Earthworms love food scraps

And they also love soil

Earthworms help the earth

By Jonathan

Bats fly at nighttime

Bats are night pollinators

Bats sleep at daytime

By Valencia

Bees carry pollen

Yellow jackets sting people

Bees also can fly

By Christopher

Pollinators can

Pollinate flowers for use

So we can eat fruit.

By Jonathan

Pollinators can

Go around the garden and

Pollinate flowers.

By Olivia and Milan

Pollinators are

Things that help pollinate

Flowers with pollen.

By Ayomide

We can eat fruit too

People love the fruit we eat

It is so healthy.

By Kalil

Taking soil samples and sending them to a lab for testing is like preventative health care for your garden and will help ensure you have a productive growing season.  We contacted our D.C. Extension Agent, Sandy Farber (sfarber@udc.edu), for recommendations on soil testing labs.  University of Massachusetts Soil and Plant Tissue Testing Laboratory has easy to follow directions and decent prices.  We sent our samples off yesterday and should hear back next week.  Follow these simple steps to test your soil:

Materials

buckets, 1 shovel (or fancy sampling tube if you have one), plastic zip lock sandwich bags, sharpie, measuring cup, towel or rag

Step 1 Clean buckets and shovel with soap and water.  Dry.

Step 2  Take samples

Take samples from fairly dry soil before you add any fertilizer.  It is recommended to take 10 subsamples from each area to be tested.  We started with the garden beds designated for onions.  Use your shovel to take subsamples, 6-8 inches deep, from 10 random spots within the defined area.

Sample size shown above.  Place all subsamples in labeled bucket. 

Step 3 Thoroughly mix subsamples and break apart clumps

The mixed subsamples are representative of the entire area and will be treated as one sample.  Make sure to mix well!

Step 4 Repeat process for different crop areas

Step 5 Spread out soil to dry

Little to know moisture should be left in the soil when sending it to the lab.  Spread out your samples on paper or in trays in a dry area.  You can use the sun or a fan to help speed up the drying process. 

Step 6 Scoop out one cup of soil and place in a labeled zip lock bag

Step 7 Fill in your sample form and send in your samples

UMass Lab has changed their soil sample form since I filled out this one.  So yours will look different.  Don’t worry, it’s probably more efficient now.

Thanks for following our blog.  Happy sampling!