Our students will have plenty of spinach, bok choi, kale and radishes to harvest when the summer semester starts tomorrow. They'll also trellis the snap peas and broad beans that are trying to climb the terrace wall.
The greens have grown tremendously since the spring semester ended two weeks ago. Here's what they looked like on April 28th.
Here's what they looked like a month ago, on April 8th.
The vegetables are growing right in front of campus, on sandy beds used to grow a lawn for the past 22 years.
The students tore out the sod last fall and planted a cover crop of winter wheat. We hoped it would add some organic matter to the sandy soil when we tilled it in, but the wheat has not grown well. It is turning yellow before setting seed, suggesting a severe lack of nitrogen.
In addition to the cover crop we've added a two inch layer of compost from two municipal composting facilities, Harvest, here in Richmond, and Net Zero Waste, in Abbotsford. This is compost made from they city's green bins.
The compost is weed free, but the sand seems to have a seed bank rich in purslane. We may leave some of it between our vegetable rows to serve as an edible living mulch.
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