Tuesday, March 9, 2010

February Update

Time for another garden update! The rest of nature may be sleeping, but the garden is not! Our swiss chard, celery, broccoli, lettuce and Brussels sprouts thrived throughout the winter and have been giving up some of their last produce just in time for a spring planting. Most important, however, is the slow winter growth of our eighteen fruit trees and twenty-four blueberry bushes that we finished planting right before spring break. Although it'll take some time to determine who survived and who didn't, many of the plants are sending out buds and fresh branches in preparation for spring. We're looking forward to incorporating these eager young trees and bushes as permanent members in the garden.

These plants will have some company! If you come by the garden, you will notice rows and rows of new raised beds in between the trees. These were made at the very end of spring break by our construction team and are the focus of an exciting new program. In exchange for an hour of work each month, volunteers will be able to grow their own food in individual raised beds. We hope that this effort will provide members of the Duke community with an opportunity to interact and experiment with nature. This program is open to both experienced and inexperienced gardeners. We welcome participation in the main garden as well. We'll soon be holding free educational workshops on the basics of gardening, so feel free to come on by and learn how to plant, tend and ultimately grow your own food!


This planting season will continue with more cold-weather crops going in the ground shortly. Work continues on the individual raised beds. We're laying newspaper in and around the beds to reuse some old materials for new purposes. We fill the beds with topsoil and compost, then mulch around them to beautify the area. As this project continues, a major construction project is being realized in the garden. An update about it will come soon!

Come out for some nature time and relaxing work in the sun! Our works days this semester are on Sundays from 2-4pm and Thursdays from 1:30-3:30pm. We hope to see you there!

The Garden Crew