Tropical fruit in Maine?
Cut up some fresh fruit and eat. Don't forget to
spit out the seeds onto a paer towel. Now your ready for the start of
your own tropical fruit garden. The bigger the seed, the deeper we
usually plant the seed. Cover your dampened plantings with plastic wrap
and put it on the radiator.
*Apple trees- take a fall trip to an apple
farm to visit the cider press. Ask if you can have some of the
pressings (apple pulp) to take back to school. Plant the flat pressed
sheets of apple pulp about 6 inches under well composted soil and
mulch. Mark your area with sticks and a string. Check the garden next
spring and see what happens. You can plant the apple seed individually
by using deep seddling trays.
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Students have been working with the produce managers of the Belfast
Coop learning how to bring their produce to market. They are
taught sustainable growing techniques, quality control, accounting and
marketing methods.
The garden students usually
work during their free
time to harvest and pack their produce for market. A typical
week's harvest: 60- 80 bunches of swiss chard, 30-40 bouquet's of
basil and 6-10 of dill. Our tomatoes are typically eaten on the
spot or brought to the school kitchen.
It's a great opportunity to
have so much support
from a local food business. It gives the garden students an
opportunity to learn about the inputs and outputs required to bring a
product to market. It also makes a strong connection between our
food system and community.
Students prepare another delivery
for the Coop
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An eight layer Lasagna
Potato Tower
You might not know it but at THMS
we have a tower... a
potato tower. We call it the Lasagna Potato Tower. Your are probably
thinking, “what does a lasagna have to with potatoes?” It really
has nothing to directly tob do with the potato at all but describes how
they are prepared for growing in a small space like the
greenhouse.
We layer the potatoe eyes, compost, worm
castings
and straw just like the layers of a lasagna. This is held
together by thick metal screening that we molded into the cylinder
shape that we had needed.
The
potato tower grows a lot of
potatoes in a small area about 3 feet diameter and five feet tall.
Normally this many potatoes takes up to a 20 foot row in the garden but
by using the lasagna method we only have to use 3 feet. The bottom line
is we are maximizing our growing space.
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The
Garden Stand Division