Let it rain

Our rain barrel system has been working out very well for us so far. We’ve got 8 barrels, 55 gallons each. They’re all hooked together to collect the water off of one half of our shed. The other half goes into the rain garden (more about that further down). Considering the area of the roof we’re collecting from is only about 60 square feet, we’ve gotten a huge benefit out of it - these barrels are our only source of water so far. They won’t be enough once the summer comes full force, but they will be a great help to us in reducing our usage and impact. Putting in a system like this or with one big cistern has great potential for Whidbey - if we can get this much from our little shed roof, just think how much water you could collect off of one side of your house! You can find a simple formula for estimating how much water you could collect from your house at Rainbarrelguides.com.

These food-grade barrels used to hold olives, now they hold our garden’s water. All eight are connected along the bottom and routed to one common spigot

The barrels are up on cinder blocks to give us some gravity help in getting the water out. The flow isn’t fast, but it’s enough for us

Funky Cold Mizuna

Our first crop of the year is our mizuna, a gourmet plant with spiky, delectable leaves. It loves cool, damp weather, which was pretty much the story of April here on Whidbey. We’ve been able to donate several pounds of the good stuff to Good Cheer and the WIN lunch program already as we wait for all of our other crops to come into their own. The radishes should be up next in a bit, with lettuce coming in soon as well.

Here’s the baby mizuna in early April, before it grew its first set of true leaves.

This week we planted a full bed of Bull’s Blood Beets from seed and added more tomato plants (kindly donated to the garden project) to the hoophouse. Our next big task is to create some good signage for the garden, so that visitors know what they’re looking at. Even we are starting to lose track with so many good things growing!

Peas and the greenhouse

We had plenty to do at the garden in March! We’ve had groups of kids coming through weekly from the high school, middle school, and the children’s center in Langley to help the growing along. Though the weather turned cold, we still planted peas, onions, lettuce, and carrots outside this month, and took some space in the school’s greenhouse for some trays of tomatos, eggplant, and broccoli. Our greenhouse, a hoophouse we bought as a kit, was completed by the end of the month as well, and it definitely keeps the heat in.

We received some expert help from Carl and Chris in setting up the greenhouse, which was ordered as a kit. The kit provided the poles and plastic, leaving the two ends up to us. The picture above is from early on when the ends were still being shaped; below is the finished product. The plastic sheeting went up at the end of March, and it’s doing a great job of holding in the heat. Our concern now is for ventilation so that when we plant in there the plants will remain healthy.

For the inside, we’ve built up a massive mound of good dirt and compost along one side. In October and November we may line the other side with black water buckets to hold in a bit more heat, but we quickly found out that heat is not going to be our problem for the summer. In a few weeks we’ll start planting the mound with some of the hot weather crops we’re growing in seedling trays. A look at the inside:

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I teased you with peas, so i better get those pictures up as well. On a few different wednesdays in March, we planted peas - 5 different kinds to be exact, in preparation for the Great All-American Pea-Tasting Contest 2008. Kids from the Children’s Center in Langley planted the first three kinds (they’re the ones under the cloth in these pictures) before the cold set back in. The peas didn’t appreciate the snowfall in late March, but they survived under the protective cloth and are now growing again. On to the pictures:

These undercover peas are much happier than the two rows left uncovered. We’ll see how they do in the taste test.

A group of high school students comes weekly to the garden as part of their Leadership and Resiliency Program (LRP), an elective class at the high school. Last week they planted onions, watered the garden, and helped pound in the posts for the pea trellises. Even though those peas are only about 1/2″ high, they have loads of potential and we’ll be ready for them when they need to wrap around something. We used a very scientific tool provided by Anza called a “pounder” - this is Alex at work:

Anza brings homebaked bread to every Wednesday garden session - just in case hard work isn’t its own reward. This week we had some delicious egg bread. Thanks to Anza for all her knowledge, leadership and baking skills!

The Rain Garden

The second half of February brought some amazing weather to Whidbey, and we weren’t the only ones who took it as a sign to get out into the garden. We used the warm clear days to work on the garden beds, the hoophouse, and the rain garden. More on that:

Rain gardens are a great way to reduce the amount of water your house and property drop into a gutter or storm drain (not to mention the pollutants included in that water), and they can also help clear up muddy spots under your downspouts. For an in-depth description, check this out: Pierce County Rain Garden site.

Our rain garden is fed by half of the water falling on our storage shed - the other half goes into a series of rain barrels for use in the garden (more on that soon!). Some pictures of the beginning of the process:

First step: trace the outline and dig out that sod. After the top layer was off, we dug it out ever deeper. The soil became sandier and sandier as we went down. I also started building a low mound around the depression to keep the water in (but i don’t think we’ll have problems with water overflow, considering how sandy the soil is). Speaking of water, here are some shots showing the process behind constructing the creek bed:

After we traced out the path for the creek, it came down to diggin’, and diggin’, and digging some more.

It ended up at 18 inches deep at the far end because of the slope of our site. If you’re putting it in on an existing downhill slope, you should be able to keep it shallower than this. This bottom picture of the finished trench shows the next step - after everything’s dug to the right depth, line the bottom with a double layer of weed cloth. We used a felted kind and it feels pretty much waterproof. Once the lining’s in we tested the flow with about a quart of water at a time. The creek bed did its job and got the water into the garden, so we finished it off a few days later by filling it up with small (1″ diameter or less) stones collected from the garden, plus a few buckets of gravel donated by Landshapers, a local landscaping company. One last shot of the final product:

Next time we’ll look at the raingarden itself and get an update on our most recent work party.

A growing project

The first of many terrible puns. Welcome to the home of the Langley Middle School Community Garden! We’re located in Langley, Washington on Whidbey Island. Our mission: to bring together students and the community in growing and maintaining a vegetable garden. Everything we grow will be donated to the local food bank. We’re about to kick off our first growing season, so check back often for pictures, updates, and information.

Here’s a pic of our most recent work party - we dug out a trench for the rain garden, replanted some sod, and got a good deal of the hoophouse constructed. This is the hoophouse underway.