SPEC School Gardens Program

A lot of the garlic planted in the fall at QE failed, or was eaten or damaged, so Green School replanted it one during lunchbreak last week.  First Catriona gave a lesson on the lifecycle of garlic, and how to plant it, then  the kids grabbed tools and got to work.  Finally the bed was covered in straw to protect the emerging shoots from the elements.  Half the sidewalk was covered too, so Catriona and Allison stayed behind to clean up!.  The garlic planted now won't be as big as that planted in the fall, but replanting ensures there will be plenty to go around at the June harvest festival.

In December the QE garden beds were covered to protect the winter crops from the elements.  After some experimentation we settled on installing 2 c-clamps at each end of bent PVC irrigation pipe.  This was covered with cloch greenhouse film, and held in place with cloche clips, available from Westcoast Seeds.    http://www.westcoastseeds.com/product/Gardening-Supplies/Crop-Protection/ Inside the cloches the kale, winter lettuce, radish, mustard greens and winter cover crops are thriving.