We had a good start in fall of 2019, getting the raised beds moved, and planting garlic. In the spring of 2020, Wilkins delivered topsoil and straw, and with the help of 2 enthusiastic high school students, the boxes were filled. We put in some tomato plants, some potatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, and cantaloupes with seeds from Cornell Cooperative Extension.
We shared our produce with the library staff and the Pantry, and kept talking up building a better garden for next year (now THIS year).
Kristen Moore, from Seneca Meadows Education Center, gave us a bit of a shot in the arm, when she worked with us to start a Vermiculture project. Kristen provided the composter, and our local farmer Billy Irwin and his daughter Adia gave us some worms, and a bunch of important worm food. The worms are doing well, and have just been divided. This will provide valuable soil to dress all of our plants this coming year - no need to buy fertilizer!
Kristen also helped us out with some metal garbage cans so that we can start composting. We had a slow start on this project as Covid continued to impact everyone this fall, but we are getting underway with collecting compostable “stuff” from the cafeteria and kitchen at the South Seneca School, and we’ll have good compost to use as we start to plant this spring.
We planted LOTS of garlic this past fall, with generous donations from Sage Hen Farms, Wayne Shutz and Blue Heron Farm, and help from local middle school student, Chase. We’ll watch it grow, and once we harvest we will hold garlic tasting to assess the differences between 7 different varieties! We finished spreading topsoil with Karen McCabe and Marigold, so we'll have more garden space to fill with plants in the spring.
In mid February we’ll start our after school Garden Club, where we will work with our teens (and younger) to start some seeds indoors and begin to map out our garden for this year.
