Cardinal Carter High School Garden & Greenhouse

Cardinal Carter High School 

and Greenhouse Visit

I got a chance to meet the teachers behind the Cardinal Carter High-school Garden and Greenhouse. The team was just finishing up for the year and were doing some last minute preparations before they left for the summer. Over the summer Irena's team from Mill Street Initiative will oversee the raised beds. 

The Teachers (Chris & Paul) will also stop by. This was an important component to getting this to happen. Here are some pictures from the day I visited. Yes, it was HOT.

The School runs two classes on Gardening, Agriculture, Propagation Techniques. Good for you, Cardinal Carter! 

 The School runs two classes on Gardening, Agriculture, Propagation Techniques. Good for you, Cardinal Carter! 

Here, the teachers have trimmed back the last of the tomatoes and have decided to experiment and see what happens over the summer. 

The Teachers report that the Custodians 'oversee' the green house produce at night time. There's a salt shaker there, so go figure! 

Looks like they do some Inventory Control as well!

These were the first four raised beds they built.

They are planning on four more next year since it was so successful!

I thought I was just going to a meeting but we ended up in the garden doing some weeding, planting onions, and harvesting beets and lettuce.

Out In The Garden

Out In The Garden

Yesterday (Wednesday) I had some free time between morning meetings and evening meetings, so I went to Ford City Community Garden to do some harvesting. Even when I'm not on 'the clock' I love to be in the Garden with the other gardeners. Anyway, here are some shots.

 Brett in his best pose.

 We trained Eric to squat.

Its a JUNGLE out there! 

 Pole beans reaching towards the sky!

Snow peas are on!

New Urban Farm?

New Urban Farm?

I was out yesterday with Chelsie and Hugo from YMCA and a group of men and women from Thailand who want to start their urban farm here in Windsor. What a great job I have! We're half way there! Just got to secure some permissions. The best part? This is only ONE of THREE cultural groups who have asked for help finding and getting started with their urban agriculture project.

Out and About Like A Good Canadian Gardener!

Garden Collective Network Coordinator Travels 

Here's a few pictures from around the county over the last week.

 MILL STREET INITIATIVE - LEAMINGTON

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

YFRN COMMUNITY GARDEN - KINGSVILLE

Urban Change, Grassroots Revolution of Public Spaces

So much going on!

Windsor Essex County 

Community Garden Collective

MEETING

TUESDAY JUNE 11th, 2013

YFRN Community Garden

Kingsville

530 PM

It was good to see a number of families out at the Essex Windsor Solid Waste Authority open house. They have officially started their community garden and have been invited to attend the collective. 

You can see how they have started. They have the tires and mulch on pallets. The old railroad ties are loose right now but will be put in with steel posts. I showed Lina from Together We Flourish how you need to pack the sides of the tires firmly with dirt. If not, the water displaces the VERY DRY compost (which you must pre-soak before planting) and the roots lay bare for the plants. Plus, its not advisable to simply use pure compost. Everyone is on a learning curve, though, and Heather will meet with me later to talk about improving the success factor of the garden.

There could be some softening of the City of Windsor position on Hens in the City limits. Fulvio spoke with Philippa about trialing our Chicken Cluck-tive at the Ford City Community Garden. We're developing our strategy and putting the plan together to present to him so he can take it to the next stage.

On Friday I attended a City sponsored Walk-able Communities workshop with lots of city planners and community architects. Community gardening, agriculture, horticulture was at the front of every great community. Of course, we knew that!!! The conference was about improving your city and keeping the Pedestrian at the heart of every City policy and bylaw decision. Autos should be last.

Many of us have been sharing our plants and seedlings. Hope everyone survived the late frost with some of our more sensitive plants. I lost a couple tomato plants, but that was all.

I can't pick my lettuce fast enough at Ford City Community Garden. Its great to have fresh grown leaf lettuce. I really really love it.

Chef Dave from The Willistead did the first Live Chef demo at the #DowntownWindsorFarmersMarket June 1 2013. It was great to see him go around and get all the fresh produce from our local farmers and cook it up fresh for the patrons!

Hope to see everyone soon!