Odin Falls Garden Update !
The long sunny dry summer days are here in the high desert. The freezing nights have stopped for a short few weeks which allows us to take the plastic off the hoop houses.
In the Odin Garden's second year we are having a few great successes. There has been several rounds of fresh, organically grown lettuce and salad greens as well as spring greens like arugula and kale. We have been incorporating them into the kitchen nicely with the help of our new chef. The fruits of the garden are worlds better than the average salad greens and vegetables we receive from bulk restaurant distributors. Those greens come from who knows where and are wrapped tight with several layers of plastic packaging.
The compost systems are still a bit of a challenge. Getting everyone on the same page as we come and go from base camp into the wilds and back can be a difficult task. One of the off-season goals will be to find and implement ways to make this more smooth in the coming years.
With that being said, we are using all our napkin/paper towel waste and our organic food waste between our four piggies tummies and the garden compost pile. The grass clippings from the lawn also make for green material in our garden compost. This makes our dumpster less full, less often and all the plastic bags we would buy to throw away organic compost are not needed!
While on the composting topic: Our phoenix composting toilet processes much of our human solid wastes, which is always a plus to conserve water in the desert and decontaminate our waste into a garden/fruit tree friendly product.
This past spring both students on our Wilderness Educators Course and staff around base put a lot of time and effort into getting seeds started, the greenhouse finished, the hoop houses covered with plastic, and watering our young plants.
Seeds were planted for inspiration and education as the educators course students worked in the garden for a short Land Stewardship Day. One previous non-gardener from the course will help manage gardens in her new job this fall!
Thanks very very much to the generous contributions from Uprising Seeds in Bellingham, Washington, and the American Center for Sustainability in Portland, OR. We spent little to no dollars on seeds and starts this year! We are so very thankful and gracious for these contributions. Without these we would not be moving forward.
We are thankful to the land, sun, and water sources that grace our garden everyday. These are the most important elements.
Also thanks for the staff who gave time and energy to the garden this year.
"One of the most important resources that a garden makes available for use, is the gardener's own body. A garden gives the body the dignity of working in its own support. It is a way of rejoining the human race."
— Wendell Berry
At Outward Bound we strive for the connection of humans to their fullest potentials through excellence,integrity, inclusion, and compassion. We take them into the wilds of the world and mentor them to touch into their inner workings like the rites of passage performed by indigenous cultures throughout the world. We sometimes could improve on giving them the essence of the values we hold on an ecological level. Gardening is where that magic can happen.
Too a fall of fresh squash, zucchinis, melons, beans, peas, lettuce and a winter of herbal teas....
"The peasants are the seed savers" - unknown
"To plant a seed in the dirt, see its sprouts emerge from the soil... now that is a miracle for all the eyes of the world" -gardening thoughts
In the Odin Garden's second year we are having a few great successes. There has been several rounds of fresh, organically grown lettuce and salad greens as well as spring greens like arugula and kale. We have been incorporating them into the kitchen nicely with the help of our new chef. The fruits of the garden are worlds better than the average salad greens and vegetables we receive from bulk restaurant distributors. Those greens come from who knows where and are wrapped tight with several layers of plastic packaging.
The compost systems are still a bit of a challenge. Getting everyone on the same page as we come and go from base camp into the wilds and back can be a difficult task. One of the off-season goals will be to find and implement ways to make this more smooth in the coming years.
With that being said, we are using all our napkin/paper towel waste and our organic food waste between our four piggies tummies and the garden compost pile. The grass clippings from the lawn also make for green material in our garden compost. This makes our dumpster less full, less often and all the plastic bags we would buy to throw away organic compost are not needed!
While on the composting topic: Our phoenix composting toilet processes much of our human solid wastes, which is always a plus to conserve water in the desert and decontaminate our waste into a garden/fruit tree friendly product.
This past spring both students on our Wilderness Educators Course and staff around base put a lot of time and effort into getting seeds started, the greenhouse finished, the hoop houses covered with plastic, and watering our young plants.
Seeds were planted for inspiration and education as the educators course students worked in the garden for a short Land Stewardship Day. One previous non-gardener from the course will help manage gardens in her new job this fall!
Thanks very very much to the generous contributions from Uprising Seeds in Bellingham, Washington, and the American Center for Sustainability in Portland, OR. We spent little to no dollars on seeds and starts this year! We are so very thankful and gracious for these contributions. Without these we would not be moving forward.
We are thankful to the land, sun, and water sources that grace our garden everyday. These are the most important elements.
Also thanks for the staff who gave time and energy to the garden this year.
"One of the most important resources that a garden makes available for use, is the gardener's own body. A garden gives the body the dignity of working in its own support. It is a way of rejoining the human race."
— Wendell Berry
At Outward Bound we strive for the connection of humans to their fullest potentials through excellence,integrity, inclusion, and compassion. We take them into the wilds of the world and mentor them to touch into their inner workings like the rites of passage performed by indigenous cultures throughout the world. We sometimes could improve on giving them the essence of the values we hold on an ecological level. Gardening is where that magic can happen.
Too a fall of fresh squash, zucchinis, melons, beans, peas, lettuce and a winter of herbal teas....
"The peasants are the seed savers" - unknown
"To plant a seed in the dirt, see its sprouts emerge from the soil... now that is a miracle for all the eyes of the world" -gardening thoughts
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