I like my greens... bitter!

With the recent desert-like weather in Ann Arbor, our greens were not doing so hot. When plants such as lettuce, kale, swiss chard, and spinach are stressed, they "bolt" or send up their flowering stalk. This makes their leaves bitter and  unappetizing, especially when eaten raw. In order to not waste our bounty of greens we hosted a bitter greens cooking workshop.

In addition to all of the greens, we harvested a huge onion and some garlic from the garden. 

We even included kale-seed-pods, spinach flowers, and fresh coriander in the mix! After sauteing the greens in olive oil with onions and garlic, we added dressings and spices.

Yum!

Dinner in the garden!

Summer Workdays at the Garden!

Now that the garden is all planted and summer is almost officially here... we have a new WEEKLY WORKDAY SCHEDULE! Come out to the Ginsberg Garden (corner of Hill and E. University) to do some weeding and work projects on any or all of these days through the summer:

Monday 5-7pm
Thursday 5-7pm
Friday 10am-1pm
**Every week for the rest of the summer!!**

Workday Details
Mondays: We'll be joining forces with the campus farm (haven't heard about the farm yet? check out the website to learn more!), located at Matthaei Botanical Gardens. If you want to go work on the campus farm, meet at the Ginsberg Garden at 5pm, and we'll drive out there together. If you can't make it to the farm, fear not! We'll still have tasks and snacks to do at the garden.

Thursdays: Cooking day in the garden! In addition to the usual projects, we'll make some sort of garden snack every week! From herb teas to kale chips, there's always something in the garden we can use for a tasty treat.

This Thursday's cooking extravaganza: bolted greens! The sunny spring weather has caused our greens to bolt and turn bitter. The bad news is that they're not so tasty in a salad anymore. The good news is that it gives us an excuse to experiment with the greens before relinquishing them to the compost! Bring your culinary creativity to Thursday's workday and help us turn these bitter greens into savory, sauteed, side dishes! We'll start the workday by building new tomato structures (and doing the usual watering/weeding), but we can end with a feast of greens.

Can't make it Thursday evening? The campus farm has a workday every Thursday at 11am! Stop by the Botanical Gardens to help out!

Fridays: A lovely morning workday and a perfect opportunity to gather some produce to bring home for the weekend!

See you Monday at 5pm :)
--Jessie and Allyson

It's been a busy couple weeks at the Ginsberg Garden, with our trusty volunteers helping to pull the rye grass cover crop, spread a giant heap of compost, hook up rain barrels, and finally plant some seedlings!

  

We're looking forward to a couple new plants this year: sweet potatoes, chamomile, "crazy spiral" cauliflower, asparagus, and a long, red, roasting pepper, among others. The sweet potatoes are in three different spots trying out three different growing methods to see which one best suits them. A few are in the cold frame, a few more are in the garden on a mound of soil, and the last few are inside a plastic bin growing through black plastic to keep them warm. We're excited to see how they do through the summer!

Aside from the Ginsberg Garden, you'll be able to find Cultivating Community seedlings, grown with love this spring in the Matthaei Botanical Gardens greenhouses, scattered across gardens all over Ann Arbor. We sold a number of these plants at our plant sale a couple weeks ago, but all the leftover needed a good home. So, these plants were donated to local schools and organizations in need of some plants to get their gardens going! Thank you to the following groups for giving our plants a good home:

• Tappan Middle and Burns Park Elementary Schools
• UM Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning
• Martin Luther King Elementary School
• Northside Elementary
• SELMA Cafe
• Green Adventures Camp

The folks at Green Adventures already have 300 tomatoes in the ground all ready to grow and ready to help kids grow this summer on their 4 acre farm. Look how happy these tomatoes are already! We're so happy we can support our fellow gardeners in this way. Grow, plants, grow!

(Photo courtesy of Dave Szczygiel)

 

Spring Plant Sale!

Cultivating Community has been gearing up for our upcoming plant sale since February, lovingly planting and transplanting all kinds of vegetables and herbs to sell to community members. This year’s selection includes 15 types of heirloom tomatoes, sweet and spicy peppers, and a variety of scented geraniums to keep your porch, garden, or kitchen smelling fresh. A full list of plants can be found here. There’s bound to be something you’ll love… including purple basil!  

Come check it out if you’re free! We’d love to see you! All the proceeds from this event help support Cultivating Community, so tell your vegetable-loving friends, family, and neighbors to stop by as well.

Where: Matthaei Botanical Gardens

When: Saturday and Sunday, May 19 & 20, 10am-4:30pm

What: Plant Sale Fundraiser! Other events happening at Matthaei that day include a Water-Wise Plant Sale, Peonies Galore Sale, and Annual Herbfest. Come say hi and wander by other events while you’re here! 

Last year's Plant Sale

Red Rubin Basil 

See you there!

Hoophouses, plant sale, and kale, oh my!

We have been busy this winter and spring getting ready for the plant sale and hanging out in the hoophouse!

Check out some photos from our activities and events....

Hoophouse fun:

Planting spinach in the hoophouse

We covered rain barrels full of water with black trash bags, to create heat reservoirs. These helped keep the hoophouse at a constant temperature.

Hoophouse lettuce and spinach, yum!

The hoophouse gets to breathe today in it's new summer form! Stay tuned for summer hoophouse plans...

Permaculture and GELT talk:

We collaborated with Ann Arbor permaculture expert Nate Ayers and the Green Economy Leadership Training program in Detroit to bring together University students interested in permaculture and sustainable communities in Detoit. The event was inspiring, we learned a lot, and a special thanks to The Brinery for catering! The Brinery is in Ann Arbor and makes delicious, local, fermented foods such as sauerkraut and kimchi.

Brandon Knight, one of the founders of GELT

Students awed and inspired by their new permaculture knowledge

For more information about Permaculture opportunities in Ann Arbor and the brand new U of M Permaculture design team, visit http://www.chiwarapermaculture.com/

For more info about the Green Economy Leadership Training in Detroit, visit their facebook page!

Cultivating Community at Earthfest:

Lauren telling a student about Cultivating Community at our booth on the diag

Plant Sale Preparations:

Happy seed starters: Sonali, Lindsay, Lauren, Allyson, and Tania

Ginsberg Garden:

Check out how green the garden is already!

In the fall, we planted Annual Ryegrass as a cover crop, and it has done its job! Covering the garden, controlling weeds, and conserving the soil. We also have clover growing as another cover crop, which adds nitrogen to the soil.

Get ready for another bountiful summer of fun and food and friends, and getting your hands dirty! We will be having our first workday of the summer this Friday, and many more throughout the summer. To get involved, please email us at mbgna.cc@umich.edu.

Hoop house build!

On Sunday November 2oth, we built a small hoop house in the yard of the Ginsberg Center! It was a fun workday and it only took us about two hours to build.

All photos on this post by: Nate Ayers

A few days later, the wind and rain took a toll on the hoop house, so we had to temporarily remove the plastic. We will be having a workday after Thanksgiving break to re-fit the plastic with the correct pvc clamps, so our hoop will be sturdy and snow-proof all winter long!

Hoop houses are like green houses, but made out of clear plastic and pvc or metal piping. They are cheaper and easier to move than traditional glass greenhouses, but still use the sun's energy to create a warm, humid environment. Hoop houses are great for places like Michigan, because they lengthen the growing season; we are hoping to grow lettuce, spinach, and other veggies all winter long! We put two of our rain barrels in the hoop house which will act as thermal reservoirs: heating up on sunny days and keeping the heat in the house through the chilly nights.

A huge thanks to the volunteers who came out, the Ginsberg Center for their cooperation, and especially to the hard work of Lauren for organizing the project and gathering the materials!!

Also a gigantic thanks to Nate Ayers, a local permaculturalist, who provided the hoops and helped us build the hoop house!! Check out Nate's company: Chiwara Permaculture. Nate also provided all of the photos for this post.

Step 1: Build wooden frame, dig holes for hoop bases

Step 2: bury the pvc hoop bases, attach hoops, cut the plastic

Step 3: secure hoops with a cross-beam

Step 4: stretch plastic over hoops

Step 5: secure plastic and install nifty plastic zipper-door

Step 6: Celebrate!

Next steps: we will ready the soil for planting, add compost to the soil from our compost bins, plant seeds, figure out a rain barrel watering system, and experiment with different vegetables.

Now that we have a hoop house, we will have outdoor garden work to do all winter long! If you are interested in helping out with the hoop house or participating in our indoor winter workdays and workshops please email us at mbgna.cc@umich.edu

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Ginsberg Garden Time Lapse Video!

Watch the garden grow!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AggL0kffFw

Throughout the season, I took photos of the garden from the porch of the Ginsberg Center. The video starts on May 11 and ends on November 21.