The Garden Moves Outside

Yesterday was the last frost date, and the Greylock Garden is up and running! On April 30, a group of Mt. Greylock and Williams students set up the garden for growing season. Pulling up last year's buckwheat (the cover crop for the part of the garden not in use), we made three long wide beds for veggies and one long skinny bed for flowers. We fertilized with bags of compost.We also planted Buttercrunch Bibb lettuce and Bordeaux spinach and transplanted Red Express cabbage and nasturtiums from the greenhouse into the beds. On May 11, the seed potatoes also went into the ground. We planted four different potato species: Romanze, Kennebec, Elba, and Russel Burbank. This week, we will also transplant cucumbers and tomatoes from the greenhouse into the garden. Feel free to come up and check on the garden--the lettuce and spinach are sprouting, but so are the weeds!

Greenhouse Party!

This week, seeds for the Greylock Garden arrived from FEDCO. Despite the April Fool's Day snow, we planted seeds in the greenhouse today, April 2. Eight volunteers planted, watered, and covered twenty trays of herbs and tomatoes. Some pots stayed in the greenhouse on heat mats, and the rest moved to Ms. Green's room inside.

Also...

LET YOUR RECYCLING GROW VEGGIES!

Do you use a lot of bottles? We have setup an donation account for Greylock Garden at the Bottle Recycling Center at 1000 Massachusetts Ave. in North Adams. So let your returnables help the Greylock Garden grow. When you bring your bottles to the Center, let them know you want the deposit proceeds to go to Greylock Garden. If you let them know that your bottles are a donation, they will even count them for you!

Update: Week of September 27

The garden is finally winding down for the season--and what a season it was! We have grown and harvested over 400 pounds of vegetables, with over 80 pounds provided to the MG cafeteria. Thanks a ton to everyone who helped out!

Next year, the new compost system in the cafeteria will help fertilize our veggies. After looking over our experiences form this year, we plan to hone our selection of vegetables to better fit the soil and the needs of the cafeteria. We also hope to expand our project, possibly with another plot just for potatoes. Additionally, we are looking for funding for next spring--we need new plants and more garden tools, and we would like to purchase deer fencing to keep the critters off our veggies. A foundation has offered us a grant of $1000 if we can raise $500 or more.

To this end, we ran a table promoting the garden at the high school and middle school Open Houses on Tuesday the 21st and Tuesday the 28th. We gave out samples of potato salad made by Judy Richardson from the cafeteria, sold cartons of tomatoes for $4 each, and collected donations from parents and teachers. So far, we've made a total of $318! This is a significant leap towards our goal of $500.

Three varieties of potato salad!

If you would like to make a contribution, please contact Rebekeh Packer, Greylock 11th grader. You can also mail your donation to Mt. Greylock at 1781 Cold Spring Road, Williamstown, MA 01267. Checks should be made out to Mount Greylock Regional High School, with "Greylock Garden" in the memo line. Any size donation is appreciated. Thank you!!!

Update: Week of September 5th

School is in session, and the garden is in its harvesting prime! Over fifteen pounds of sweet cherry tomatoes (and eighteen pounds of Mr. Wied's butternut squash) have been picked, most of which will be served by the cafeteria this week. The onions and carrots were also picked, with some used by the school and some by community members.

The broccoli, peas, and lettuce are still young and delicate, especially the lettuce. Feel free to weed and water beds 1A (lettuce), 5B (broccoli), and 4B (peas). Note: The hose is fixed! To water, attach the hose sticking out of the green house window to the one by the outside door, then bring that second hose up to the garden and hook it to the hose there.

The environmental science class started gardening today! The class harvested squash and tomatoes, in addition to watering. Thank you to Ms. Green and her students!

Update: Week of August 30th

The garden is producing pounds and pounds of veggies! Everyone should feel free to pick some tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, or onions to bring home. Peas and broccoli are starting to grow in beds 4 ands 5. Try to weed around them and keep them growing.

Hopefully, the cafeteria will soon be serving garden vegetables at school lunches. However, the cooler is no longer in the hallway by the greenhouse, so please don't harvest anything you plan to store there.

Note: A lawn-mower mishap broke one of the hoses, so for now, there's a new system for anyone who wants to water the garden. First, grab the usual loop of hose from inside the greenhouse and unravel it as far as it goes. To your right when you walk into the greenhouse from outside, there's a spool of hose on wheels (the spool is grey and the hose dark green). Roll the spool outside, hook it to the first hose, and unravel the spool to hook the dark green hose to the hose by the garden. Then turn on the spigot in the greenhouse and proceed as usual.

Update: Week of July 5th

Below is the task list for this week. Make sure to read about watering under step 5. But first, some important info in available vegetables:

There's lots of romaine lettuce in beds 1 and 2 that can be picked (by the leaf, not by the whole plant!!) and taken for salads, and today I saw about 5 or 6 ripe cucumbers, so come check it out and take some fresh vegetables. The spinach is pretty much done, but anyone who wants to take whole plants or leaves, feel free.

Important: Please document any and all vegetables you take from the garden and where you picked it/them. We will be getting a scale soon, at which time you should weigh and document anything you pick, but for now just write down what you picked, how much, and from what bed. Vegetables to be donated go inside the school, in the cooler just inside the inner greenhouse door (which is open on weekdays).

TASKS: Week of July 5th:

1) Hoe/Dig up large weeds from garden and bed edges. Strew more hay where necessary.

2) Weed the 6 raised beds (priority: beds 3&6 and row P6 (cucumbers) and anywhere there is bindweed)

3) Hoe/weed potatoes and potato isles. Then rototill and hill (Patrick will do that last bit)

4) Hoe/dig up row P5 (the failed beans)

5) Water, water, water!!!!

-Slight change! To turn on the drip system, just attach the hose end directly to the end of the black tubing. We're no longer using the green module. Then turn the spigot handle half-way (45 degrees). This seems to work nicely. For watering the potatoes or particularly dry spots, just detach the hose and attach the regular hose nozzle (which is stored in the greenhouse) and turn the water on all the way.

Tasks: Week of June 21st

• Water on dry days. See the "Watering the Garden" page to the right for details.
• Weed flower beds X and Y, rows P5 and P6, and the row of tomatoes and peppers in Otto's section.
• Weed additional raised beds as needed.
• Mow/Weed wack around the garden edges.
• Pull up weeds from bed and row edges.
• Rototill/ rake potato isles and hill potatoes.

Questions? greengreylock@gmail.com.

Scroll down for photos!!