Hey Michael,
Thank you for your inspiring post! I am helping to launch a vegetable container garden for the Spring growing season at a day program for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Over the past four months, I have been reaching out to garden centers, the local master gardener's association, local farms, etc. A lot of people do not respond. Some people will show initial interest and then lack follow up. My point is that I found your stories incredibly encouraging. I'm going to continue to knock on peoples' doors and, over time, I have faith that we will make lasting and enriching community connections. We're not giving up!
My social work education has taught me that support systems are vital to wellbeing in terms of resilience: the capacity to problem solve, the strength to overcome challenges, and the ability to bounce back from Life's hardships. Your emphasis on collaboration speaks to how gardening is such an effective way to involve diverse community members and build community connections. Clearly, gardening has the potential to be so much more than growing plants.
That's amazing about the grower who gives tomato starts away! Interestingly, our garden club is also located in South Carolina.
I hope you continue to post your insights & ideas and keep inspiring others!
Allison
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Allison Burnett
Hardeeville SC
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-04-2022 05:09:54 AM
From: Michael Frank
Subject: Seeds vs. Transplants
I used to buy a lot of transplants often waiting until the stores were about to clear them out. Not ideal since they'd be a bit root bound, but when you're funding the garden yourself, you do what you have to. I'd often ask for shops to donate older transplants rather than throw them out and this worked out well in the winter garden since here in SC we can grow brassicas and greens all winter long.
I also had a very active garden blog and offered to write up the planting experience with the kids and post pictures including the information about the shop where I got the plants. Over the years I established relationships with small garden shops, local farmers, and family run farmstands. Once I was given a full flat of 48 red Russian kale plants by the matriarch of a farming family here who said her son decided not to plant it since customers found it too bitter. That started my love affair with this vegetable and it is seeded in our garden every year now.
My best friend is now an organic farmer and since meeting him I know that if I really needed a few
transplants, he'd have extra for
the kids.
I guess my point is you should make connections with community members in the industry and offer to help them promote. Make it a win-win. There are so many people who will be willing to help out when they learn that the resources they are offering are going to the cause of educating children about nature and influencing their nutritional choices.
Currently I'm working at a charter school with a small greenhouse that allows me to start seeds in the winter months. This is the resource I'd've given my right arm for while working at a public school. We start leafy greens in window boxes spaced an inch or so apart and transplant them while
still small enough to separate them and have done our own peppers and other nightshade family plants like ground cherries
in there too, but we also direct-sow a lot in the beds as
well. (Tip: If you have a greenhouse, dig up your peppers, cut them back hard,
and keep them in the greenhouse over the winter watering sparingly. They will re-grow and start producing much earlier than new transplants, getting much bigger with successive years in the garden and producing much more fruit!)
I have not bothered to deal with growing my own tomatoes for
the past 3 years (not
the easiest thing to grow well from seed) because I learned of a neighborhood gardener who grows 150-200 varieties of tomato in his back yard and offers free transplants to anyone who wants them every year in April. The guy grows 1500-2000 plants a year and has amazing varieties each year and just announces that the plants are available in his driveway for anyone to come and take… Again, community connections…
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Michael Frank
Original Message:
Sent: 01-20-2022 01:49:49 PM
From: Laura Sajdak
Subject: Seeds vs. Transplants
Hello from Michigan,
I was wondering out of those of you that are gardening in schools, how many of you start all of your plants from seed, how many acquire more mature transplants, or how many do a hybrid of both?
Growing seeds with students in the classroom and transporting them outdoors when it is time to plant is an excellent way for students to be involved in the early stages of growth. However, getting larger transplants in when it is time to plant outside is useful in zones where there isn't much time between the last frost and the end of the school year. This could mean that the students have a better chance at witnessing the plants begin to fruit. I would love to hear about your experiences with this.
Right now I plan to do a hybrid of both. Detroit Public Schools is partnered with an incredible organization called Keep Growing Detroit. All of the district's schools with gardens are enrolled in their Garden Resource Program, and they distribute both seeds and transplants to those sites. If you are in Detroit, check them out! They partner with family, community, school, and market gardens and offer a ton of other support.
Garden Resource Program Application Details
Garden Resource Program Information
Thanks!
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Laura Sajdak
FoodCorps - Mackenzie Elementary-Middle School and Henderson Academy
Detroit MI
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