Vassar Experimental Garden

Hi there VEG-ers,

Spring has Sprung, so it’s about time we let you let you in on the plans for the upcoming season. The degrees are sure taking their sweet time to get up there, but before we get out to the garden we’ve got a few projects that’ll keep us busy.

First up, SPROUTS! That’s right, come join us for a sprout planting session and we’ll provide you with everything you need to start your very own tasty, nutritious and fabulously easy lil veggies. Seeds, jar, water, and we’re set. In case there’s any confusion as to what we’re talkin about, peep this:

yum

Next on the roster: Birdhouses! Pretty self-explanatory. We will have the materials to build and paint some abodes to welcome our winged friends to the garden.

(maybe not this extreme)

We’ll also be starting some seedlings in the greenhouse, that we’ll plant in the garden later in April. GET PSYCHED.

We’re also gonna be starting some window boxes to furnish the dorms with. Fresh herbs!

Lastly, ~DINNER~. You’re invited! Come cook, eat, drink, and be merry with friends–I’ll be sending out an email with the deets, but it’ll be at a TH our first weekend back. Likely on the menu: pasta, roasted veggies, salad, and bevs.

Questions, thoughts? Always feel free to send us an email– veg@vassar.edu

It’s March, and we’ve already begun dreamin’ about the crunch of our blue dino kale sauteed with some fresh onions and garlic. Our seedlings are started, and man are they growin’! We’ve already had to trim back our lettuce so much we made a salad out of it. There’s some broccoli, beets, chives, chard, peppers, tomatoes, arugula, basil, lavender, sage, mugwort (and the list continues) already sproutin’ in the greenhouse, too. Although we’re enjoying Spring Break already, we’ve gotta wait until early May, around the time of the last frost in the Hudson Valley, to get these babies rooted in the tasty soil.

Most of the seeds that we are planting this season come from the local Hudson Valley Seed Library– an awesome homestead-based business started in 2004, whose seed sanctuary is located nearby in Accord, New York. For more info, check out their website (http://www.seedlibrary.org/about-us-hvsl) or their blog (http://www.seedlibrary.org/blog/).

So with all these seedlings on our hands, we’re makin’ sure to have our 2014 garden plan and calendar ready. Here’s a cool chart we can use to guide us with a timeline:

ne:

It’s still pretty chilly out but we are already gearing up for spring!

This month we have been working in the greenhouse seeding a wide variety of veggies and herbs including broccoli, kale, chard, lettuce, onions, sage, rosemary, thyme, basil, and sage… look what sprang up after just one week!

1. Make some plans

2. Find some friends

3. Build it

4. Dig some holes

5. Put the arbor in the holes

6. Have fun with your friends in the arbor!!

It might look like this….

and then when spring  comes around you can plant grapes for everyone to enjoy!

The final product:

The Vassar Experimental Garden is getting off to a wonderful start this fall!

So far, we have:

• Weeded every nook and cranny of the garden
• Planted seeds for season extension
• Installed cold frames and hoop houses
• Labeled the beds with adorable signs
• Constructed a new compost receptacle
• Organized and cleaned our tool shed
• And of course, harvested a delicious bounty of herbs, butternut squash, bell peppers, eggplant and tomatillos.

Whew!

Remember–everyone in the Vassar community is invited  and encouraged to help out!

We work in the garden every Saturday from 2-5 PM. VEG is located in the round grassy patch of the THs. Hope to see some new faces there!

Great turnout for a very productive workday. VEG alum and previous leader Logan Nelson graced us with his presence--what a treat!

Signs in the making.

Monica installs one of our brand new hand made signs. These will make harvesting from the garden a piece of cake for students living in the THs.

Look what's hiding under a row cover...swiss chard! Hardy and healthy with the right season extending technique.

Addie, Maria and Graham weeding like nobody's business.

Cold frame in place and ready to plant. Group works together to make more compost bins. We'll have quality, nutrient rich soil in no time.

Thanks for the photos, Cat!

We here at VEG are proud to announce our new town student compost program! We’ve provided willing off-campus students with buckets, instructions, and a weekly pick-up service. Our soil will be rich and nutritious in no time!

Depending on how the summer crew has fared, we usually start with a clean-up day- weeding the garden, throwing out broken equipment and other detritus, turning the compost, etc.

Because we have a limited time frame in the fall to get things in the ground in time to reap the benefits, it’s best to seed as soon as possible upon returning to school. We usually try to have some sort of planting scheme in place in time for the first clean-up. The design of the scheme has to incorporate the fact that later on in the semester, certain beds will be covered up with hoop houses, so the dimensions of the beds should be determined accordingly. If we remember correctly, the width of the bent hoops is about 5 ft, so beds that will go under hoops should be 5 ft wide.

Here’s a video from Johnny’s seeds about hoop houses- this is where we got the idea to use aluminum piping (EMT, whatever that means).

The hoop bending tool is in the shed and there is still some unbent piping between the shed and the garden fence.

We used these last year and it worked well, the hoops held up under feet and feet of snow:

Yasmin is impressed with our season extending techniques

Logan's feet sticking out of a low hoop tunnel

In choosing where the hoops will go and what crops should be grown in those beds, use this chart as a guide.

Potatoes, winter squash, and dry beans are a useful crop for a student garden because they can be planted right before students leave for summer vacation and will be ready when the fall semester begins. They can also be

Dry beans need to be winnowed (removed from shells)- you can do this several ways: each pod individually by hand, or by putting the pods in a tarp and jumping on it/beating it, etc. and then separating out the pods. If you can get a big fan to blow across the tarp, the pods- which are lighter than the beans- will blow away. Beans can go in a jar, paper bag, etc.

Potatoes and winter squash are best stored in a root cellar, though we have been successful storing them in our kitchen for 2-4 months. We have fantasized about making our own root cellar using a barrel. Check out this tutorial- dreams do come true: