A Field Trip With the Seaside Garden Class

On Thursday, Snookie Parrish and Kim Gordon's Garden Class from the Seaside Neighborhood School, visited CFH Design Studio's urban permaculture homestead. Ms. Parrish and Ms. Gordon have been teaching the students about organic gardening and living lighter on the land. The students learn through hands-on experience at the Corner Garden that is located to the East of the Seaside Neighborhood Scool on Quincy Circle. Their garden is an edible garden and most of the garden infrastructure was recycled, re-used, or donated by individuals or local businesses.

Kim wanted to show the kids a real life example of a local family that is actively working to reduce their environmental footprint. So, she arranged a field trip to our home.

When they arrived, I greeted them outside, as it was a beautiful day, just before the Spring Equinox. There were five students and they presented me with a sweet little gift of two organic German Butterball potatoes in a ceramic pot. I have two potato growing bags where they will live for the next few months.

We started by talking about some of the volunteer succulents that have sprouted up around the front porch and two bottle brush ferns that I recently discovered to be as old as myself. We then talked about the house and some of the things that were incorporated into the home to reduce its environmental impact like building to dimensional lumber sizes to reduce waste, large overhangs to protect the structure, using re-usable/recyclable materials like metal siding, using rain barrels for water harvesting, and using foam insulation to reduce energy cost. All the kids squatted down to see and poke the foam insulation under the floor system.



Then we moved on to the micro-farm in the driveway. They learned about hoop houses and how they can help protect plants in the winter and give seedlings an early start. In my garden beds, I let the weeds grow a bit, if they are edible. The students all tried a little taste of one of those weeds, yellow wood sorrel, as I talked to them about foraging. They were surprised how yummy and lemony it tasted. Before I could tell them what was growing in the garden, they had identified the arugula, collards, chard, and some of the seedlings. They already knew the French Marigold seedlings I started would deter insect pests. Ms. Gordon and Ms. Parrish have been teaching them lots of great stuff.

After seeing the small working garden, they stopped by one of the rainbarrels to see a sh itake log that was soaking. They learned that shi takes grow on logs and they have to be submerged in water occassionally and kept in the shade. No mushrooms were growing yet, they'll come in the Fall.


On to the backyard, I explained what was taking shape there. At first glance, it doesn't look like much, but the patch of land that will be the garden is overtaken by what appears to be more weeds. I explain to the kids that this is a lasagna bed, layered with carbon and nitrogen materials to build the soil. Then, the area was seeded with alfalfa and clover to add nitrogen. The weeds that were popping up were evidence that the soil is coming along and I would start to transplant my seedlings into this bed. The weeds would be slashed, laid in place and used as a mulch. In another small bed I am also improving the soil and providing food by growing snow peas and Tom Thumb peas.

From here we wandered to the very back of the yard, so the kids could get a good look at the solar water heater on my roof. They also got to see my shed that is designed with a living green roof (not installed yet) and all the kids enjoyed running their hands through a garbage bag full of coffee bean chaff that was acquired from the Amavida Roastery. They got to see the compost bin constructed from salvaged pallets and I told them it was being filled rather quickly with the vegetarian food scraps from one of the local cafes.

Then, we moved on to the worms. They were able to see how vermicompost is made from two five gallon bucket worm farms and some red wigglers. They learned how to use worm tea compost to fertilize plants.

At the end of the field trip, we went inside to see the Moonlight Micro-Farm sprouting operation. All the sprouts are grown in sterilized food grade buckets and later washed and packaged. They are then sold to local restaurants like George's and Amavida and For the Health Of It. The kids got to taste some of the gourmet cabbage sprouts that are grown for George's. I don't think they were impressed, heh.


The grand finale was a hula hoop session in the driveway. While in the dining room, the kids discovered my other passion, making hula hoops. They grabbed five hoops and ran outside to hula hoop. What a perfect day! Thanks Seaside Garden Class for visiting!


To see the class in action, visit Walton Outdoors blog entry and video at: http://www.sowal.com/bb/blogs/walton-outdoors/369-local-school-children-share-their-gardening-wisdom.html

Eco Design + Living is an online resource for living sustainably on the Emerald Coast and beyond. For more information e-mail chandra@cfhdesignstudio.com