Green House notes 2012: From Ms.Lewis' Journal 

4-20-2012

Work was done to begin the construction of a system to keep to keep pets and dogs out of the compost pile.  The student’s direct seeded spinach in the far end of bed 4.  They also transplanted some lettuce from the first planting I did on 3-12-12, I don’t know what all of it is because it was from a mix, but it will be a fun surprise.  There is also a red Russian kale in the corner. 

4-21-12

            Gryphon ran through bed four today! We will see what comes up, none of the transplant lettuce was harmed.  Still working out kinks in the compost pile.  Fisher and piper are finding their way in…  We will figure it out.

4-22-12

Beds are holding moisture nicely.  It’s supposed to be sunny today (already it a beautiful morning although cold).  Great looking germination in the radish beds nice long roots too. 

4-23-12

Kale

 The trim on the chicken coop was worked on some seeding’s transplant into 4” blocks: Green butter lettuce, rainbow chard, kale, pak choi.  *radishes are looking good.  They can be thinned this week.  We harvested the lettuce from the table top bed! Good job Zack Dale.  There was enough for a nice big salad bowl full.  We got a splash of dressing for it and chowed down on the freshest greens we have had in a long time.  The salad got Great reviews.  

Butter Green Lettuce 

Pak Choi

Rainbow Chard 

4/3/12: I made a small (about 1.5ft/3ft) box for a table top raised bed.  Filled it with soil and planted        mesclun and spinach.  Also started in plastic trays: lettuce, a few red Russian kale, spinach, tomatoes, peppers, 4 cucumbers and basil

4/12/12: Got my soil blocker from Jason Beam’s potting blocks! Couldn’t wait to use it so I seeded 20 green Bibb lettuce, 20 red marvel lettuces, 40 green butter lettuces, 10 kales, 10 rainbow shards, 20 basils

4/13/12: Mike and I made a 3 compartment pallet composting structure and placed it next to the greenhouse!

4/15/12: Germination in kale, chard, and a few lettuce blocks from the 4/12 sowing

4/16/12: direct seeded radishes in about ½ of bed 2

4/17/12: students learned how to make soil blocks and seed them.  They seeded many varieties of tomatoes about 10 blocks per variety, bell peppers, 10 cherry sweet peppers, 10 cayenne, 10 jalapeños, 20 lavender, 8 marigolds, 8 cucumbers, 20 scallions they also direct seeded beets in a section of bed 2.

4/18/12: Students used shakers made out of to go coffee cups from the dining hall.  Holes were poked up from the bottom and I experimented with the hole size until it worked well for lettuce.  These shakers were used to broadcast sow kaleidoscope lettuce mix and mesclun into bed 1; and sow a whole bed of mesclun in 3.  We also did some hard sowing of spinach in the last section of bed 2.  Waiting for things to sprout!  Only one more bed to fill I hope to use half for spinach and half for transplanting head lettuce.  Composting in the kitchen has been going well. I am a worrier on a mission!  But I am going to get run down fast if I don’t start recruiting people to help.  I also think we are going to need a few more composting structures.