Another priority in the SELS garden location, like almost any other spot in Truckee, is dealing with the poor native soil. Tahoe soil could have lots of shale, granite, and crushed pine needles. As my neighbor once said, ‘It’s a bunch of rocks with some crushed pine needles holding it together.” A great way to deal with this is to NOT deal with it, and just put raised beds on top filled with healthy, nutrient-rich soil. After reaching out, Seamus Gallagher and Gallagher Construction very willingly donated a number of cedar boards that we used for the box portion of the raised bed. With help from Brent and Jason, we cut and staged the boards for 5 raised beds. 

We’re saving the final steps for these raised beds for the next work party on October 3rd. We’ll be adding netting to the bottom (to prevent critters from digging underneath) and adding PVC hoops (that we can cover to make mini hoop houses) and filling them with the aged horse manure that we got from Piping Rock stables.

Remember the straw bales we set up in May? These housed some great plants over the summer: sungold tomatoes, herbs like mint, sage, and rosemary, squash, lettuce, and kale. I also tested two raspberry plants in pots which grew some good juicy berries. We planted one of these beds in August, and did another bed at today’s work party.

I’d also like to try composting at school, but this will be tricky since there’s been bear activity at the dumpsters in that area. An easy, quick, cheap (my top three motivators) way to set up a compost pile is to grab some pallets and screw them together with a corner brace. We set up a double stall and also oriented it to face true south so that it also gets maximum sun. Compost piles here rarely heat up enough to do their work due to our cold nights and winter season. We have these placed and ready for any plants and straw that can be thrown in.

TIP: A great way to jump start your compost pile is to use fresh, hot horse manure which brings up the temperature (when you add enough). The fresh compost also gets its time to age so it’s safe to put into your garden and around plants. Any stable or horse owner is usually happy to give manure away - I just ask and coordinate a time to come get it that works for our schedules. Stables, like Piping Rock, usually have huge piles of fresh and aged manure. Do NOT put fresh manure on your plants - it should age for at least 4-6 months. When fresh it’s too hot and will burn them. When I get manure, I usually get a bit of both and use it in the right spot. And even if you don’t have a truck, you can get bins with tight lids and just stick it in the back of your car. 

With the help from Brad Chalstrom and his awesome dump trailer, we have a large pile of aged manure, ready to go into the new raised beds.

Our next work party will be on Saturday October 3rd and will run from 9am to noon. We seem to get through all the tasks quickly, so the time is usually shorter than scheduled. We will be putting the raised beds in place, filling them and getting their hoops in place. Come check out how to set these up for your own garden. We’ll also be moving some bales and then using them for one more round of growing – this time for garlic.

Thanks to everyone who came out to help yesterday. We’re building another great component for our school!

Once the SELS Board approved the garden in April, I reached out to two different nurseries / garden stores for supplies. Peaceful Valley is a nursery and garden store in Grass Valley that is committed to fostering organic gardening – and with one email to their staff they sent us a large box of free seed packets of all varieties. They have a wonderful online and brick-and-mortar store that always inspires me when I manage to get there.  Peaceful Valley approved our application to get SELS registered as an official school garden – which opens up the door for more discounts and donations for supplies we may need in the future.

Eric Larussen at The Villager is an amazing font of knowledge on how to manage growing things in our challenging climate. The Villager generously gave us a discount on potting soil and fertilizer which we used liberally to get the straw bales cooking and ready for plants.

During May & June, I had 8 kids in an elective called ‘Getting Your Hands Dirty’ where we worked in and learned about the new SELS garden. The kids started keeping a journal that they would record in each meeting: current outside temperature, maximum and minimum temperature from the last 24 hours (using a handy weather guage), and the temperature within the bale (using a compost thermometer). They also recorded observations about the weather over the last several days and the N-S-E-W layout of the garden area. We made a number of conclusions about the weather and location and how that would affect which plants were planted.

The kids and I also potted and seeded: blue hubbard squash, green zebra & cherry tomatoes, romanesco, sumter cucumbers, and a number of other varieties. After nurturing these pots in my cold frame at home, we got them planted in the bales on June 5th. I also brought over some kale and raspberries from my backyard.

I checked on the plants the next day – and the fat and happy squirrels that I’ve seen running around the area had already munched some of the leaves! We put some security in place: netting and milk jug covers. So far, it seems to be working … but we’re going to have to aggressively cover and net all beds and plants.

I hope to continue with work parties over the summer, potentially one in mid-July, where we install some covered garden beds. Stay tuned and sign up for the garden mailing list so you get the emails!

The bales are set up in rows and were oriented east to west so that they get full sun all day. The straw bale technique requires an initial fertilize & water period of 10 days so that the bales start to ‘cook’ and become mini-compost piles. This makes the straw break down into soil and also creates a heat source within the bale to make the plant’s roots happy.

Here’s more info about the technique:

http://modernfarmer.com/2013/07/straw-bale-gardening/
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/garden/grasping-at-straw-a-foolproof-vegetable-plot.html?_r=0

And you can even buy a book about it:
http://strawbalegardens.com/

The bales should be ready to plant in about 2 weeks. I purchased them from the Sierra Feed and Saddlery in Reno – (775) 853-6700 – and they deliver if you get above a certain number of bales. Always make sure you get STRAW and not hay (which contains seeds).

What will we plant this year?

Of course, we’ll try the token tomato plant (or three). I’ve had great success in my garden with a small, cherry tomato plant called ‘Sun Gold’ as well as with a russian variety called ‘Silver Fir’ that does well in cooler climates. I planted these seeds back in March – and now they are close to a foot high and ready to be planted. We’re going to try a number of greens: swiss chard, lettuce, spinach – but this may have to wait until later in the summer since the spot is so sunny. (Greens do better when it’s cooler). We’ll also try pole and bush beans, squash, cucumbers, and calendula and other flowers to attract beneficial insects.

Do you have any ideas on what to plant? Leave a comment with some ideas or suggestions.

NOTE: A big thanks to our local nursery, The Villager, who generously gave us discounted supplies.

The first phase is a trial of the site itself: sunlight, access to water, critters, and the difficulty in managing the garden during the prime growing season while school is out of session.

We’ll be trying a technique using straw bales as planters for the first phase. This is a quick way to get planter beds up and running and produces compost that can be rolled right into beds for the next growing season.