First day of class

 The Agroecosystem Management class accomplished a lot in the campus terrace gardens today.

They harvested 4 kg of spinach, 3.5 kg of radishes, 3.5 kg of pac choi and 2.3 kg of kale. That's on top of 4 kg of spinach, 4 kg of radishes, 1 kg of kale and half a kilo of pak choi that folks took home between semesters, not to mention the neighbors who surreptitiously helped themselves in the dark of night.

If my math is right, that's more than 23 kg of greens harvested from about 15 square meters before the middle of May... equivalent to about a third of a pound per square foot, which is a reasonable yield for these crops in a small mixed farming operation (Rutgers pdf).

The plots looked well picked over by the time they were done.

They trellised the peas and beans. 

They collected emergence data from the compost trial and thinned the lettuce, beet, and chard seedlings in the trial.

They cut the cover crop of winter wheat.

 They spread about two yards of hot Harvest Power compost on the lower terrace. 

They hilled the potatoes and weeded the carrots. 

I explained that the cucurbit seedlings are hardening off under row covers on my deck because they were suffering from lack of light under the grow lights in our lab.

The tomato, pepper, and basil seedlings are there too, recovering nicely from sun scald.

They have plenty of botanical companions on our back deck.

We also have herbs in pots, just off the kitchen, where they get visited by our cat...

and kids.