Spring Fever! Farming, Flowers and Festivities

Spring is back--with forecast temperatures for the upcoming Longfellow Spring Fair this Saturday predicted to crack 80 degrees. Put on your sunscreen, get ready for fun in the sun, outdoor games and grilling, and a bevy of plants and seedlings for sale from our very own garden.

corn seedlings

squash seedlings

There is also a lot to be learned in the Longfellow Learning Garden, and plenty of Longfellow students have been helping out, preparing our future crops and learning about sustainable agriculture in the process.

While the Fourth Grade classes planted four beds of potatoes last Friday, they sang the ’16 Counties’ of Maine song, because Maine's Aroostook County produces more potatoes than any other county in the United States!

When you're tired of bending over to tend to our seedlings, take a rest in the garden's new picnic tables, which were made just down the street at Davis Woodworking on Brighton.

In other news, next year's Kindergarten students will be planting sunflowers in the Garden, which they will get to enjoy when they return in the fall, while third grade classes will be planting carrot seeds this week--which should also grow into edible treats during harvest season. But if you can't wait that long, take a look at this year's Kindergarten classes' cold-weather green beds, which are already beginning to sprout. Salad, anyone?

Springing into Action: Gardening Fun in the Sun

Could this Spring be any more pleasant?

While the lack of rain may be making our gardens thirsty, the dry and sunny weather has made for some warm and wonderful work-days in the Longfellow Learning Garden.

In just the past week, kindergarden classes have planted peas and radishes, while the Magnolia tree and the tulips are beginning to bloom.
 

On Sunday, a number of intrepid garden volunteers helped out with the Spring Work Day, getting things ready for the busy planting season. In between sips of hot chocolate and fresh doughnuts, our gardeners -- novice and experienced, young and old -- removed weeds, pruned bushes, raked debris, watered seeds, and prepared the soil for the "Three Sisters" garden.

If you don't know, the Three Sisters garden is named after a Native American legend that claims corn, beans, and squash are three inseparable sisters who only grow and thrive together. But the myth is based on a sustainable growing reality.

According to Renee's Garden website,

"Corn provides a natural pole for bean vines to climb. Beans fix nitrogen on their roots, improving the overall fertility of the plot by providing nitrogen to the following years corn. Shallow-rooted squash vines become a living mulch, shading emerging weeds and preventing soil moisture from evaporating, thereby improving the overall crops chances of survival in dry years. Spiny squash plants also help discourage predators from approaching the corn and beans. The large amount of crop residue from this planting combination can be incorporated back into the soil at the end of the season, to build up the organic matter and improve its structure."

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.