A Spring in Your Step and in the Air; Let's Get to Work!

Finally. Spring has arrived here in Maine. Folks are tuning up their bikes, breaking out their barbecues and starting their early seedlings.

The Longfellow Learning Garden may not look like much right now, but just you wait. With what looks like no frosts in the forecast, plans are in full swing to get the garden going for the next growing season.

Karen Koppen's Kindergarten class and Allison Chiodo's pre-K class are beginning to start some early crops, and the rest of the Kindergartners will begin seeding inside during the first weeks of May, then moving their plantings into the greenhouse and then finally transferring them into the garden at the end of the month.

On Sunday, May 5, starting at 9am, all would-be gardeners, birders, planters, green-thumbs, and those who just want to get outside and dig in the dirt, are invited to our Spring Work Day! Treats will be provided to all who contribute--including the children. 

We will be working on the following areas:

• tidying up the composting area, 
• dead heading perennials near the pond and in the habitat area, 
• trimming broken branches on shrubs, trees, and wisteria, 
• cleaning out the stream and pond, 
• putting all the signs in, 
• removing the broken picnic table, 
• buying a new round picnic table (anyone have a truck?), and
• setting up benches.   

There will be more opportunities throughout the Spring and early Summer to help out, but now's the chance to take part in the miracle of growing from the ground up. Remember, the seeds we sow today will yield the flowers we'll smell and the vegetables we'll eat tomorrow!

A Snowy Start to Spring

You wouldn't know it from the snow, but the first day of Spring arrived in the Longfellow Garden -- with not a bud in sight. The late March snowstorm brought another foot of the powdery white stuff to Southern Maine, making this winter one of the top 40 snowiest in recorded history.

With snow caking tree limbs and blanketing the ground, it's hard to believe that anything is going to be growing on these grounds anytime soon. But seed orders are in -- carrots, sunflowers, scarlet runner beans, corn and potatoes -- and before you know it, that snow will be melted, and we'll be hard at work cultivating the garden.

To help make sure the soil is healthy, hearty and full of nutrients for our vegetables and flowers, Mr. Johnson's 5th grade class will be testing the dirt in the raised beds to make sure they're ripe for growing.

Here's hoping the soil passes with flying colors.

Winter Birdwatching in the Garden

Spring isn't here yet, but you can still hear the birds tweeting.

And with the Longfellow School Garden's new bird feeders, the little warblers will be a lot happier to stick around.

Currently, there are feeders for several classrooms, with the teacher's names listed on each feeder. Teachers and students should work together to keep the feeders full and inviting. There are a number of birds that everyone should keep an eye out for, including chickadees, titmice, blue jays and robins.

If you get a chance for a winter walk in the garden, be sure to check out the colored paths that will lead you to the feeders--that is, until the next snow covers them up.

According to birdwatching.com's Diane Porter, there are several ways to maximize the number of bird species that visit your feeders, from supplying a wide variety of edibles to offering food at different heights above the ground as well providing plenty of fresh water, which birds need in the winter as much as food.

Because insects are hard to find in the cold weather, most winter-weather birds eat seeds. According to Porter, black oil sunflower seeds are perfect for attracting cardinals, woodpeckers, blue jays, goldfinches, purple finches, chickadees, titmice, and nuthatches.

 

Porter also recommends Safflower, a white seed, slightly smaller than black sunflower seeds, which are a favorite of chickadees, titmice, chickadees, and downy woodpeckers.

Porter's site also warns not to buy bags of mixed birdseed, because they contain a lot of filler, such as red millet, which most birds won't eat.

When starting up a feeding program, be patient. Porter suggests it may take as long as several weeks before the birds discover your feeders, "While you wait," she advises, "be sure to keep the feeders filled."

If you build it, they will come.

Fall Harvest Fun

"Harvest time is here again
In the garden we must dig
Carrots, radishes, onions too
All so fresh and yummy too.
Harvest time is here again
Won't be long till you know when!"

The one thing missing from this poetic ode to the fall harvest is potatoes. At the Longfellow Garden Fall Harvest on Monday, October 15, spuds were everywhere: white ones, red ones; skinny ones, fat ones; tiny ones; big ones.

Dozens of children took part in the digging, using gardening forks, shovels and gloves to excavate the soil. It was almost like looking for treasure. While the potato plots were being harvested, the rest of the garden's carrots were also gathered.

After collecting the potatoes and carrots--and a few prize white onions--all of the vegetables were gathered and washed in large tubs, and then laid out to dry.

In all, 150 pounds of potatoes were harvested this year. Speaking of treasure, that's about the weight of five and half gold bars.