Baby garlic

Our garlic's coming up! How exciting that we were able to save our garlic "seed" from last year's crop to continue growing these stinky and delicious bulbs at Drew-Freeman -- this time in a long, in-ground bed!

Last autumn, we planted 3 raised beds with local garlic. One thing we observed last spring was how much better the garlic grew in the bed that we mulched with burlap pieces, compared with the two other beds that we'd mulched with the traditional straw mulch. (There was also a LOT less weeding needed in the burlap-mulched beds, largely because I think the straw we'd gotten had lots of grass seeds mixed in.)

Students have been working on cutting and tearing up burlap sacks in recent weeks to create inexpensive, biodegradable mulch to protect these little bitty garlic plants growing in our free-form beds over the long, cold winter. As soon as these tiny guys are another few inches taller, we'll start laying down our burlap mulch....

Let me show you how to do that

Today, I was joined at the Windsor Crossings hoophouse by Mr. Damian (STEER Center's volunteer coordinator), Ms. Pierre, and a few students from Drew-Freeman to start planting our winter crops. We started by clearing out the hanging pots, loosening the soil while removing debris and old plants. Next, we planted a row of carrots and swiss chard in one of the long, in-ground beds. Finally, we started seeding some of the newly cleared hanging pots with heirloom lettuce seeds. Mmm, it'll be good to have fresh lettuce during the winter and early spring!

Tianna, and Nyjah were excellent farm apprentices, asking lots of good clarifying questions. While they're both new to gardening, they took to planting like ducks take to water: they dove right in! After meticulously planting and labeling half a dozen hanging pots with lettuce seeds, they were experts. (I hope so, since they'll be leading a larger group of students planting more varieties of lettuce and spinach in coming weeks.)

The days are so short this time of year, so we had to pack up earlier than we would have liked... but not before loading up the trunk of Ms. Pierre's car with more hanging pots for planting back at the school!