Coming soon: New Weather Station

The Blue Ridge greenhouse area will have a new addition in 2012....A weather station. The Davis Instruments Vantage Vue^™ Wireless Weather Station will be set up in the greenhouse for use in Science classes.  This weather station features information on the following weather conditions here at Blue Ridge Detention:

• Barometric Pressure

• Forecast
• Temperature

• Heat Index (calculated)
• Humidity

• Moon Phase
• Rainfall

• Rain Rate
• Wind

• Sunrise and Sunset

Stay tuned for more information and updates.

BLUE RIDGE GARLIC

Since one of our fall crops is garlic, one Post-D resident decided to give us all a little fact and history refresher on...

THE BLUE RIDGE GARLIC

GARDEN GARLIC

v  There are nearly 600 varieties of garlic.

v  Generally speaking there are two species of garlic, hard necked – garlic and soft necked – garlic.

v  If you enjoy garlic, you will love planting and growing fresh for personal cultivation.

v  Garlic planting is during the fall.

v  Fresh garlic from your own garden is delightful as fresh, home grown tomatoes. Once you try it, you will never go back. 

The USES OF GARLIC

v  Garlic has been used to restore virility, cure leprosy and keep scorpions at bay.

v  It also helped protect geographic status in Europe

v  Garlic is widely used around the world for its pungent flavor as a seasoning or condiment.

New Plants for the New Year

 Check out the new crops (cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, etc.) planted at the beginning of the new school year.  Also, some more growth from last year's plantings (gourds).

Wordless Wednesday

Salad?

Here we have the beginnings of a great salad:  tomaotes, peppers, cucumbers, cilantro.....this is some good stuff!

Veggies!

After the rains......

These pictures were taken about two weeks after the previous posting and what a difference those days made!  (With a little bit of rain, as well).  We have some pretty bright flowers coming out in the Zen garden.  Some of the vegetable plants are almost as tall as Mr. Schaffer (social studies teacher).  The Trail of Tears bean plant has made it almost to the top of the arbor and the tomatoes are not far behind.  Our hard work is paying off!

Trail of Tears

Trail of Tears Bean Plant

The Cherokee Trail of Tears bean seeds were carried by the Native Americans on their infamous walk that is known as "The Trail of Tears".  They were forced to walk from the Smoky Mountains to Oklahoma in 1839.  Over 4,000 members of the tribe died during this walk.  The seeds have been preserved and continue to be planted in gardens across the United States.  When the beans have matured, they are dried before eating and used in many traditional Native American dishes.  Our plants will soon "sneak" up the trellis as they continue to grow.

Growth in Action

As you can see, things are "growing pretty well". 



It's the end of May!

We are quickly approaching the end of the school year, but we will continue to work throughout the summer on the greenhouse and garden projects.  Following are some pictures from work completed so far. 


We're not just growing veggies -- check out the aloe and the house plants. 



Early growth in a raised bed.



Lillies!





Young plants that were repotted.





Mr. Foskett is the garden planner!





Growth in action isn't just limited to the plants.  We're learning about ourselves and helping each other grow, too.

(Today's pictures courtesy of Ms. Capozza)

Purple Basil

• also called dark opal basil
• also known as sweet basil
• developed at the University of Connecticut in the 1950s
• grown for both appeal and culinary value
• 1962 winner of All-American Selection Award

(source of information is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_opal_basil on Monday May 23,2011)

written by jjk

Visitor

Today our Post-D residents gave a tour of the garden area to a supervisor from Region Ten.  After three days of hard rain, it's clear that things are gowing.


 

Pondering the plants. 





Corn!



Can you solve this problem?

It takes some math skills to work in our greenhouse and garden.  When we built our raised beds, we had to decide what size they would be.  Our boards (from Lowe's) were 10 feet long.  We designed the beds to be 10 feet by 5 feet.  So, we had to measure each board to be sure we cut it in half for the crossways pieces.  The depth of the beds is three feet.  Using that information, what is the volume of one raised bed?  We will post the answer on Monday!



Mr. Foskett, clinical social worker/garden enthusiast, spreads mulch in the future Zen garden.



An Asiatic Iris

A raised bed

Raised bed with an arbor in the background

Our backyard