It comes once every thirty days...

...or so. And you guys and gals certainly are helping bring the required elbow grease:

Thank you for everything that you did to 'cultivate' loveliness at our second annual garden workday!

We crafted vertical trellises for four garden beds (unofficial word is, the snap pea seeds gawked on, and ultimately approved). We finished filling all 26 teacher's patio containers, so that they can easily introduce their students to plant life cycles and the economic value of these lovely organisms. We mulched the path in the big garden and mulched landscaping throughout the school's courtyards. We planted pollinator seeds in portable crate gardens. We refreshed our greenhouse lettuces.

We painted lots of signs (together with Timbersong Academy). We planted seeds for our Plant Starts Fundraiser. IDES parents, teachers and partners kicked it (butt, that is)... =)

We enjoyed a fabulous potluck... absolutely fabulous. I unfortunately do not have a list of names - but,  there were between 60-80 people who attended. Apologies if you are typically recognized by name and are not here; apologies similarly if this was your first big volunteering and we similarly missed out on giving you props. Special thanks to Bountiful Cities Project and Asheville Greenworks, for offering very thoughtful and kid-friendly programming on-site!

There were easily more than half a dozen Dickson teachers out here getting down n' dirty with us... its hard to enumerate the downstream value in having our kids' schoolteachers so readily throwing their skin in this game, but its also easy to see that IDES staff are all about getting this landscape more and more prepared for learning (and playing) experiences. :)

Excited to post more about what Joan is doing in (and out of) classrooms next week... until then, please carry on with loving this early spring wave we've been sent.

A big bump, to Sow True Seed!

Hey there, I will try to be brief, for the first time ever -- since I've got no fun pictures to include this time around...

FIRST:

Buy seeds this spring. Try to grow stuff. Use Asheville favorite Sow True Seeds to help you do this. If you use the coupon code 'idesgarden2017' then 25% of what they get from you will go on a check that they will write out to Dickson Elementary. Pretty generous, huh? If the code doesn't seem to apply correctly -- which seems to happen if you have just one 'sale' item in your cart -- then simply make a note of the error, and of the code you had hoped to use, in the 'notes' field of your order. Remember: Sow True Seeds... code idesgarden2017... paste it in the 'notes' field for good measure. Its that simple!

SECOND:

Consider becoming an 'official sponsor' for the pilot year of what we hope will be a variation of the 'CSA' model that I'd like to call a CEA. Stands for Community Enriching Agriculture... contact me, Mr. Mikulski, at roaringgarden@gmail.com, if you are anywhere from curious to already convinced :) Please leave a phone number so I can follow up with you by phone. Just to get your saliva flowing, here is what we're hoping to cultivate for the CEA: Our 'Sow True Seeds' Shopping Cart . I said 'hoping' because surely we'll win some growing battles and lose others =)

Until next time!

Upcoming February garden work day... AND, do you want to be an 'official sponsor' of our upcoming community garden?

Helping to prepare one of many delicious quiches, for the winter show!

In our first post of 2017, I wanted to let you know that we are having another garden workday in a couple of weeks. What degree of action is employed in a typical garden workday? Look at my last blog post for a hopefully compelling visual record :) Plus, there's real good food at the end! Please click on the flyer image to enlarge / see details (thanks, Steve Agan, for putting this together):

Also, a quick shout-out to Asheville Mulch Yard and Southern States Cooperative... one supplied the new wood mulch (that replaced the re-purposed rubber) on the Dickson front-and-center playground AND promised us some donated goodies in return, while the other offered us a series of 100-gallon galvanized planters at a very generous discount. The plan, as Joan explains it, is that IDES teachers will use the planters (plus donated potting soil) to realize their very own little 'mini-gardens' this coming spring. Imagine such delight, right outside every classroom... what an awesome vision, Joan and Brad!

In summary: Plan to come on out, IDES garden fans, on Saturday the 18th -- as we build on the substantial improvements (and revelry) that we enjoyed in December!

Everybody must meet a worm!

Finally, as the operations manager for the 'Demonstration Food Garden' -- a working vegetable plot that we plan to do on the west end of the garden space -- I wanted to let you all know that we have begun seeking 'official sponsors.' Our hope is to get one dozen individuals to commit to ensure that we have all the supplies we need to BOTH 1) grow a substantial amount of seasonal, organic produce for our students/teachers to learn/teach from, and... 2) have a substantial weekly surplus, to be used to help educate and enrich the communities that neighbor IDES about the healthy, financially sustainable, and uniquely satisfying nature of enjoying food grown right in one's 'backyard.' =)

Lovely goodies donated by Roots and Annie's, for the winter show

If you are interested in being a part of this alternative, inclusive form of Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA), then please contact me (Mr. Mikulski) directly at roaringgarden@gmail.com for more details. Please include a phone number in your email, so I can respond to you by phone!

Coming soon... courtesy of a long, unbroken chain of goodwill and kindness (see 37gyouthveggies.blogspot.com and wpveggiefarm.blogspot.com for glimpses of that original, fertile soil :)

As usual, I'm 100% looking forward to showing you more of what we're 'sprouting,' and very soon :)