End of the Year Harvest!

Hi again!  On Tuesday we had our last big harvesting event.  We got a huge crop out of the first garden, but left the second one alone for now because there really isn't anything big enough to harvest.  Although we won't be maintaining the gardens as intensely over the summer as we are at the moment, we have decided (based on advice from Dick Pierce from the Sustainable Food Center) to leave some of our plants in the garden and cover the beds with compost and straw to replenish the soil and retain some water in it.  Here are some pictures of the harvest -- Enjoy!
--Wallis



One of our two super hardy sage plants.

 


Kale is another of our most robust crops.

 



Carrots!  These guys have exploded in the past three weeks.



Nathan holding a snap pea.





Parsley, which has grown like a weed -- but a very tasty and attractive one.



Potato plant.



Jaron with kale.



Wallis with a carrot.

Jaron and Katherine harvesting veggies.






 

Katherine with beet.

Wallis and Nathan harvesting veggies. 

Two of our carrots grew unusually close to each other!

Jaron with an onion.



Sanam digging up the infinite potato root.





Dick picking some kale.

Katherine and Sanam picking veggies.

Our beautiful carrot and kale crop.

Jaron trying a carrot.

Sanam with a carrot.

Wallis, Katherine, Nathan, Jaron, and Dick around the garden.

Traneecia trying a carrot.

 

Nathan picking lettuce.

Wallis and Traneecia with carrots.

Hey folks, I just wanted to take a minute to catch everyone up on the current status of the Purple Carrot Project. If you saw our last post, you already know that we now have two gardens on campus, one of which is doing very well for itself. The second garden however seems to be struggling quite a bit. We're not totally sure if it is a soil quality or a water issue or something else, but we are working to do what we can to address the issue.

Now, you may be thinking, "well that's all fine and dandy, but isn't this supposed to be a community garden?" YES! Unfortunately we're having a little trouble working out legal issues with AISD, but we will get it all figured out eventually. We will also be applying for a grant from the Home Depot, which we hope will be able to cover the costs of a few more garden boxes for next year.

We also have a few side projects we are working on including a hydroponic garden, a data collection system for our garden and a water collections system for our school building.

So, we'll keep you all up to date with our progress on the Purple Carrot Project and our other projects as we move along.

-David

P.S.

If you have a garden inspired by the Purple Carrot Project we'd love to hear from you and maybe even feature your garden on this blog. Send your story and pictures to the club at lbjenvironmentalclub@gmail.com.