Arboretum & Garden
Stop 8.1: Camp Sequoia
Every summer, Blithewold holds a camp for kids, K through 4, called Camp Sequoia. Listen to this Blithewold staff member’s blog post of a particular fun-filled day with the kids:
“Having the campers visit the garden each week has been a real fun activity for myself and for the kids. We always talk about the basics, soils, composts, water and light, and then move onto seeding, transplanting, successional cropping, trellising and their most favorite part; Harvesting! We talk about favorite vegetables and new ones they might not know of. This past week, one out of 18 kids knew what Kohlrabi was; maybe by the end of summer, I’ll have converted the rest. Thankfully the garden can accommodate both weekly donations to the East Bay Food Pantry and the campers getting a bag of ever changing fresh organic produce.”
Stop 8.2: How We Care for the Vegetable Garden
From the Blithewold Garden Blog:
“Mulching is the practice of covering bare soil with some sort of substance in order to conserve moisture, reduce or eliminate weed growth, and provide an aesthetically pleasing look to an area. That’s my definition at least. Nowhere are weeds more apparent and frustrating than in a vegetable garden where they don’t hide under perennials or get outshined by annuals. Nope, when your vegetable beds are full of weeds, it’s obvious, especially in those areas that remain unplanted until late spring. In larger scale production gardens, often beds will be tilled right before planting, turning weed growth back into the soil and providing a clean top layer for planting. As I have been trying to move away from late tilling and I dislike unnecessary weeding, I decided for the areas that are planted (nearly) last, I would try a fabric mulch this year.
I installed 4oz non-woven landscape fabric, and am not entirely sure what the fabric is but it feels similar to felt and isn’t plasticized. Highly permeable to water, it also helps absorb heat and so far has kept 99.9% of weeds out. It was very easy to roll out, and using 6″ anchor pins every 4-5 feet, was easy to keep taut.
While other areas have started to weed-up, these beds will be happy to fill up with Squash, Cucumbers and Melons. I will also be using wood chips for main paths, salt marsh hay among the peppers and tomatoes, and I’ve been thinking about trying out shale as well.”