The Teaching Gardens of Saint Michael’s College

In the spirit of #throwbackthursday we are going to highlight a favorite partner of ours…LEAP (Learn, Earn, and Prosper), a program of RESOURCE.

This past June & July we had the pleasure of welcoming students from this year`s LEAP program to the Thriving Gardens Course teaching garden. LEAP provides pre-employment transitional services to youth and young adults who are blind or visually impaired.

June & July is a busy time in any garden and we are so grateful that LEAP students were able to help us keep our gardens in check. This year`s students have helped with many projects at the garden such as weeding & mulching our communal beds and perennial berries. They also cleaned greenhouse trays to help prevent the spread of disease, made buttons out of old seed catalogs, potted up flower bulbs, and planted a second succession of napa cabbage.

We can`t wait for next year’s group! ...

Registration for a visit from our Veducation Van is now open for the 2024 season! The Veducation Van has been rolling all over Vermont, delivering workshops in every single VT county! Gardeners have been learning with us about Integrated Pest Management, composting, nutrition, growing microgreens throughout the winter, and various other aspects of gardening.

Interested in scheduling a visit? If you think your community could benefit from a visit, sign up at the link in our bio or visit our website. ...

Members of our collective garden, Seedsong, are now spending every Tuesday evening at the market garden @shelburnefarms gardening in exchange for veggies, and having a great time doing it ☀️

Read more about this incredible collaboration and testimonies from Seedsongers at the link in our bio

🥬🍆🥦🍅🥒🌽🫑🥕 ...

Sweet, sweet August. The month of abundance. We love you. 💛☀️🙌

For the gardens that made it through the flood and are persevering through the rain, pest, and disease...August is living up to its name! Swipe through for some seriously big smiles and the most colorful veggies grown and tended to by our Thriving Gardens Course students 🍅 ...

Our Veducation Van will be at the @the.one.ramble this Saturday ! We`re bringing our button maker to make buttons with photos from old seed catalogs, veggie block prints, and a microscope to check out garden goods up close. Great activities for everyone!

Find us at the ONE Community Center parking lot where the "Round Up" event at 5pm! ...

Today we walked through the Seedsong Collective Garden to assess the damage and begin the process of figuring out what to do next. This assessment along with resources from UVM extension and others across the country will help us determine how we move forward. We will keep everyone up to date on our process.

In the meantime, if you are a gardener and your garden has been affected by the flood please refer to our flood resources page (link in our bio) and/or reach out to us with any questions or concerns you may have about how to move forward.

In solidarity 🌱💚🌞 ...

Our beloved collective garden was inundated with flood water from the Winooski river along with our fellow farmers and community gardeners who grow food at the Intervale.

We were able to get out on the water yesterday to see the damage firsthand and, it is truly devastating.

Seedsong collective garden is tended collectively by 20 gardeners, some who`ve taken our Thriving Gardens Course and become mentors and some who are new to growing their own food. Together they`ve planned, planted, tended, harvested, re planted and processed vegetables that have sustained them over the Spring and Summer months. And now, all that work is under contaminated water 😔

We are not 100% sure where to go from here or what is possible moving forward. We did compile helpful resources on what to do with crops after a flood (access at the link in our bio) and continue to water our greenhouse plants of hope. All that we can do now is wait for the water to drain, soil to dry, and for soil tests results to come in. This will help infer what`s possible.

Our hearts ache for our plant, insect, animal, and grower friends but we will move through this! In solidarity 💚

@new_farms_for_new_americans
@btvparks community gardens
@intervalecenter
@intervalecommunityfarm
@pitchforkfarm
@junefarm_
@diggersmirthcollectivefarm
@sugarsnapvt ...

Today marked the start of a new adventure ! We started our own seeds to supply our programming with a bountiful fall harvest. Thank you @new_farms_for_new_americans for lending us the space in your greenhouse so we can begin this seed starting journey.

This will be a pilot year for our upcoming community greenhouse project; stay tuned for more details. And if you become a member today you will be directly supporting the internal build of the greenhouse! To become a member sign up at the link in the bio 🌱 ...

Become a member and join us for our first (of three) virtual gatherings of the season on July 11 from 5-6:30. In general, these are intended to be casual with a focus on connecting to one another. In this first gathering you will have a chance to ask Charlie all of your most pressing garden questions🌱

Register at the link in our bio.

And in honor of Juneteenth and to the effort of deconstructing the systems of racism this country was built upon...BIPOC members can join for free! ...

We are trialing a few bean varieties at the demonstration farm plot we manage in partnership with @new_farms_for_new_americans

Some of our favorite seed companies are represented here - @seedkeeping @ujamaafarms @highmowingorganicseeds

Two varieties are from the small seed library we started with NFNA farmers. We think Dhan’s seeds are a cowpea-type bean. And the green color of Rukiya’s beans takes our breath away!

Our hope is to demonstrate techniques for managing Mexican bean beetle and leaf hopper infestations, identify seed varieties that NFNA farmers want to grow more of, and demonstrate best practices for seed storage over the winter. Stay tuned for more updates on the beautiful world of growing dry beans seeds! ...

This is what Year 3 of our partnership with @new_farms_for_new_americans is currently looking like. ➡️ to see a couple more photos!

We are working on the drip irrigation at the demonstration farm plot.

Soon we’ll be transplanting all these lovely culturally meaningful plants generously started and donated by @redwagonplants

And the team of women at the farm! Mon, Maya, Fatuma and Hadija are Farm Leaders this season. They are our community liaisons, interpreters, and hard workin’ farmers. Alisha directs NFNA with joy, empathy and determination to both write grants and fix irrigation lines. And Carolina from @vt.gardens , the behind the scenes photographer who mentors farmers and manages the demo plot. ...

Last week we welcomed the 2023 Thriving Gardens Course students to our teaching garden! Together we planted a row of peas to mark the occasion 🫛 (and YES, we always match our nail polish to our compost 💅🌱)

Late April/Early May is a perfect time to plant a second succession of peas (yes, second! the first is right after snow melt, typically late March/early April). Peas are a cool weather crop and prefer to germinate in cool soil temps as low as 45 degrees! We at VGN will soak our peas in water up to 24 hrs ahead of planting to help the seed coat swell ensuring higher germination success. Then we dust the seeds with an inoculant that contains Rhizobium bacteria (found at your local garden supply store). This bacteria exists symbiotically within the pea roots helping them to fix Nitrogen out of the atmosphere.

After these steps, we plant our peas 3-4" apart and intercrop a radish seed for every 6 peas as well as border the peas on both sides with a row of leafy greens like spinach or mesculin mix to enjoy while we wait for the peas to mature.

Enjoyed this tip about peas? Sign up for our newsletter via the link in bio to read our newly featured `garden tip of the month` and to stay in touch about upcoming events and other ways to get involved. ...

Volunteer with us during our annual Day in the Dirt Event on April 29th...only one week away!

Work may include building garden beds, assembling deer fences, spreading mulch, planting pollinator plants and other spring garden tasks. No special skills required and tools are provided. Get your hands dirty and maybe learn something too - fun for all ages and abilities!

Sign up at the link in our bio 🌞 ...