Garden Education and Weeds

In late June Kristi sent out this message:

There will be some activity in the garden this week: on Thursday, June 30 from 9a-noon, we are having a guest lecturer on flowers for the Summer Bridge program; and during July, Tess Diamond (our "edible schoolyard" consultant) will be working with the two other summer programs - the middle school Early College Academy and Summer Scholars (accepted 9th graders).

I decided to check out the guest lecturer, who turned out to be Louis Raymond, aka Louis the Plant Geek.
While I was there Louis spoke to three or four groups of about 20 students each.

He talked about composting, the various vegetable plants and flowers in the garden, and the birds and insects the plants attract, like hummingbirds. Hummingbirds love the pink bee balm pictured below. Their long beaks and the trumpet-shaped petals are a perfect combination.

He engaged the students with questions to draw out what they knew. Since I knew that the tree beds needed weeding, my ears perked up when he asked them "what is a weed?" because it was a question I had been asking myself.

Some weeds are obvious, like crab grass, lamb's quarter, plaintain, chickweed, and dandelion. Other plants in the tree beds looked like they might be weeds, but had flowers or buds that had the potential to be pretty--so what do you do? (That's a BHSEC year 2 student weeding with confidence in the picture above)

Louis's definition of a weed was, "whatever plant you don't want growing in your garden." There was agreement on Lenny Lopate's WNYC recent show Please Explain: Weeds. An expert from the Brooklyn Botanical Garden and a plant researcher from UC Davis said, "a weed is in the eye of the beholder."

The black eyed Susans in the picture above are "volunteers" and the tree bed is overloaded, so do I pull them? They are so pretty!

Enough about weeds. Here are some pictures of the organic edible garden in our new raised beds:

Overview of the edible garden

Strawberries--I assume they will bear fruit next June.

Chard [picture by Tim Murry]

Chard and nice organic soil

Lentil marker placed by the middle school students working with Tess Diamond our "edible schoolyard" consultant

Young tomatoes photographed on June 30th

The same tomatoes on July 11th [photo by Tim Murry]

Chives

Basil and parsely

Marigolds are a common companion plant in vegetable gardens. They have an anti-weed and insect repelling effect which is beneficial to the plants that grow near them.

Mesclun

Here's one last photo of some pretty pink flowers that Tim took when he went to check on the sprinkler system. Does anyone know what it's called? It kind of looks like a pink version of purple loosestrife (an invasive weed introduced from Europe) but it also looks like it could be a flower called Veronica. Leave a comment and let us know what you think.

The Yard in Use: 2011 BHSEC Neighborhood Festival

Here are some pictures of the yard during the BHSEC 2011 Neighborhood/Lower East Side Schools Music Festival which was held on Saturday, May 21st.

BHSEC Chorus & Stein Senior Center Chorus

LES Elementary school PS34 guitar ensemble

BHSEC Orchestra

BHSEC Special Projects Mgr., Kristi Powell-Grenfell; BHSEC Principal, Michael Lerner; State Senator Daniel Squadron; State Assembly Member, Brian Kavanagh; Baruch Tenants' Assoc. President, Mr. Roberto Napoleon, Baruch Tenants' Assoc. President; Rosemarie Diaz, Community Liaison for Daniel Squadron

Festival goers in the garden

BHSEC Rock band & trees/garden

Festival goers in the garden

The Yard on May 20, 2011

These pictures were taken out in the yard on Friday May 20th--the day before the Neighborhood Festival. There are two sets of pictures. One set of the new raised vegetable beds and one set of the trees.

THE RAISED VEGETABLE BEDS:

THE TREES: They are HUGE!

Lower East Side Schools Music Festival - Saturday!

On Saturday, May 21st, 12-6pm, we will be hosting our annual BHSEC Neighborhood Festival, which this year is a "Lower East Side Schools Music Festival," celebrating the arts in our schools. Along with BHSEC's Orchestra, Brazilian drummers, our Step Team, dance and other groups, participating schools include the East Village Community School, PS188, PS34, and more, with the generous support and talents of our Third Street Music School teaching artists.

This year the festival will culminate in a "Battle of the Bands" beginning at about 3:30pm, showcasing BHSEC and other high school rock & folk musicians. AND YOU ARE INVITED to help out during the event, (anytime from 11a.m. on) or just come for the festivities - and in the process, support our efforts and represent BHSEC! We are also expecting greetings throughout the day from State Sen. Daniel Squadron, NYC Council Member Rosie Mendez, and Borough President Scott Stringer (please see the information below for more details about the event).

Thank you to you parents, students and faculty/staff who have volunteered to help so, far. If you would like to help out (with decorations, giving out information at tables, translating, giving out refreshments, face-painting the youngest visitors, etc.) please contact Kristi Powell, kpowell at bhsec dot bard dot edu, by Friday, May 20.

MORE ABOUT THE EVENT:
The Neighborhood Festival started out three years ago as a way of inviting our immediate neighbors into our space to learn about who we are, what we do in the building, and our programs - especially the Early College Academy for neighborhood middle-schoolers - and the ways we are connected to the community.

This is a free, fun, low-key event that we hold in the garden (to move indoors if it rains). One of our neighbors, a professional caterer, always donates amazing Spanish food! In addition, LES community-based organizations come and host information tables.

Again, please contact Kristi Powell-Grenfell ( kpowell at bhsec dot bard dot edu ) if you are interested in helping out, donating, or have another organization that would like to have a table at the event.
We hope to see you on Saturday, rain or shine!

Signs of Spring

Right now it's 50 degrees but the temperatures are predicted to dip down to 27 on Thursday and Friday night. I hope these signs of spring can make it through to next week!

Garden Planning Meeting 2/8/2011

It was a week ago yesterday that members of the BHSEC Garden Committee joined BHSEC Special Events Manager Kristi Powell at the school for a meeting to brainstorm about possible future projects and improvements to the Bard Yard. In December a benefactor gave BHSEC a generous donation to be used in the development of a cafe garden a la Alice Waters' Edible Garden project. Waters is the renowned chef and the most visible activist and promoter of organic and locally grown food--especially at schools. We are very excited about this and had a very productive meeting.

The garden committee was joined by architect Andrew E. Burdick of Ennead Architects who has volunteered to work with us.

He came prepared with several versions of plans and quickly sketched out new possibilities after listening everyone's ideas and noting the elements that should be included in the plan (basketball courts and space for outdoor performances or the high school graduation after-party, for example)

Here's the gist of what we discussed at the meeting (from Sonia's notes):

• a permanent and largely underground water solution
• incorporating vegetables into the garden especially those which thrive in spring and the fall to coincide with students' attendance
• the location of, design, and construction materials for the "farm"
• the design of the entire space to incorporate the "farm," the common meeting/events area, the buffer area, and the basketball court
  
• how to get the faculty and students (and community in the future ) more involved. Examples: holding classes in the garden, doing botany or science projects, Eco club, recycling, events, art installations, and arranging garden elements to encourage "hanging out"
  
• long and short term goals
• future sources of aid, funds or grants and partnerships with other local groups to combine grants
  
• the possibility of getting help, especially in the summer when students are gone, from partners and local community groups
• how to make the garden more appealing--the aesthetics, design, noise and wind buffers, seating areas, and using the new kind of astroturf

The progress we've made in the garden since the committee got going in 2009 is amazing. Being in the city we may never have the amount of green area that Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson does, but our yard is going to continue to improve and be a great place to think.

Watering by Snowmelt

I was thinking about Bard Yard this weekend as temperatures in the 40s melted a good portion of the 20 inches we got in last week's snowstorm. I imagined that the runoff produced by the melting snow was doing our trees some good. When I stopped by on Monday afternoon the weather was freezing again, but as you can see from the pictures there is still a good supply of snow waiting to melt into another watering session.