Agroecosystems Management Class - Spring 2016

It has been a busy spring for KPU's Agroecosystems Management class of 2016.

We started in January, by pruning the fruit trees in the orchard under Dr. Mullinix's guidance.

We conducted site assessments on the campus terraces, the Garden City Lands, the orchard, and the TFN Farm School land. We dug soil pits at each location to learn what has happening below the surface. Dr. Taylor, the newest faculty member in KPU's Sustainable Agriculture program, taught us to interpret what the soil was telling us.

In February we started growing transplants under grow lights in the campus parkade to get a jump on spring. 

The campus terraces were seeded to a winter cover crop mix of rye, wheat, and crimson clover, which was a vibrant green by the beginning of March. We cut some of it, and added locally-produced compost from Harvest Power in preparation for our first planting of the season.  

We tilled the compost and cover crop residue into the sandy soil of the terraces using a lightweight electric rototiller. 

We direct-seeded peas on March 8th.

A week later, we harvested carrots and parsnips that had overwintered from 2015.

By the end of March, our transplants were large and vigorous, so we started setting them outside during the day time to harden off.

We transplanted them into the garden on April 6th.

The terraces were a riot of colour by mid-April, with crimson clover and overwintered kale in full bloom. The students finished their spring semester exams and had a couple of weeks of much-needed vacation.

The remaining cover crop was waist-high and ready to cut before the students returned for the summer semester at the beginning of May.

There was also an impressive cover crop of rye and crimson clover at the orchard.

The beginning of the summer semester brought the first substantial harvest of spring greens at the campus terraces. The peas were thriving, and ready to stake.

We cut the cover crop at the orchard, and started spreading compost from Net Zero Waste with our little manure spreader on April 5th.

This year, I am inviting the students to continue the story of the season by contributing updates to this blog, instead of maintaining blogs of their own. Stafford Richter will write the next post, about the past week of planting at the orchard.