Journey Through Gardening: Falcon Farms Educational Blog by Theresa Kelly (Heights)

Community Partners

tkelly116 — 2024-02-26 23:50:45 UTC

The first step in our gardening project involves communicating with other local community garden projects. On February 26th, Weir, Shellhammer, and Cabral visited the community gardens at Earhart Elementary, Coleman Middle School, and East High.

Soil Preparation & Fertilization Techniques

tkelly116 — 2024-02-26 23:50:45 UTC

Preparing the soil is crucial for the plants' health and growth. This involves clearing the area of weeds and rocks, improving soil quality by adding organic matter like compost or peat moss, and ensuring proper drainage to prevent waterlogging.

Choosing Plants

tkelly116 — 2024-02-26 23:50:47 UTC

Selecting the right plants for Falcon Farms involves considering the climate zone, sunlight, and soil conditions. It's also essential to think about the growth patterns of your plants, including their mature size and how they'll interact with their neighbors in the garden.

Planting

tkelly116 — 2024-02-26 23:50:47 UTC

The act of planting seeds or young plants marks the beginning of their growth journey. Proper planting techniques vary between species but generally include making sure to plant at the recommended depth and spacing, and providing each plant with enough space to grow without competition.

Regular Maintenance

tkelly116 — 2024-02-26 23:50:48 UTC

Post Garden Care updates HERE!

Regular maintenance including watering, weeding, and pest control, is essential. Deep, infrequent watering promotes root growth, while mulching can help retain soil moisture and prevent weeds.

Harvesting

tkelly116 — 2024-02-26 23:50:49 UTC

Harvesting begins when your plants reach maturity. It's important to harvest at the right time for each species, whether you're growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, or herbs. Some plants can be harvested multiple times, while others may need to be replanted each season.

Composting

tkelly116 — 2024-02-26 23:50:50 UTC

Composting is a sustainable practice that returns nutrients to the soil, enriching it for future planting. It involves collecting organic waste like leaves, kitchen scraps, and garden trimmings and letting them decompose naturally.

Winter Preparation

tkelly116 — 2024-02-26 23:50:51 UTC

In regions with cold winters, preparing your garden for the cold months is essential. This can involve mulching perennials, protecting young trees and shrubs, and planting cover crops to reduce soil erosion and improve soil health over winter.

Coffee Grounds

tkelly116 — 2024-02-27 00:06:51 UTC

Mr. Shellhammer will ask DECA and The Nest to save coffee grounds to mix with soil.

2024 Garden Diagram

tkelly116 — 2024-02-27 01:01:29 UTC

Visiting Earhart Elementary

tweir7 — 2024-02-27 01:31:42 UTC

Maintained by one teacher and her classes; started with one raised bed and grew every year.

Crops are used in class and also given away.

450 students take turns taking care of all the tasks from planting seeds in the classroom, regular watering, planting outside, weeding, harvesting the works.

Biggest obstacles & advice for Heights

no budget
choose plants that align with spring and fall harvesting
choose your companion plants wisely
click this link to view all pictures from this visit

Visiting Coleman Middle School

tweir7 — 2024-02-27 01:51:54 UTC

Coleman Middle School is a community effort. While one teacher watches over the gardens during the day and involves his classes, a second teacher lets out the chickens and ducks every morning and a third teacher locks the pins at dusk every single night. In the summer, a daily part time garden club program teaches kids how to care for both plants and animals and makes sure feeding and watering continues during the hot summer months.

Honey from the bees is sold at parent teacher conferences. Herbs and grapes are used in the school cafeteria. Eggs are consumed by students in class.

Biggest obstacles & advice for Heights:

budget runs mainly on donations
find partners as not to reinvent the wheel
animals are a big commitment and make sure you build a team
link to all pictures taken on this visit

Pest Control

tkelly116 — 2024-02-27 01:53:19 UTC

As an organic garden, we will not be using harmful chemicals. Strategic use of companion plants will help protect the garden from unwanted pests while encouraging visits from pollinators.

Visiting East High School

tweir7 — 2024-02-27 02:14:40 UTC

East High's Farms are maintained by one teacher and an extracurricular club of dedicated students.

The greenhouse produces lots of mixed greens that are sold by the club to the culinary arts department.

The farms include a fabulous greenhouse that dreams to have running water and electric connections. Periodically a hose is run to the greenhouse to fill up large water tanks that are used for daily watering. Currently, 2 goats and multiple fruit trees live on the farm :).

Biggest obstacles & advice for Heights

the club hosts a spring plant sale to raise money
mulch can be obtained from the district
embrace that Heights has an inside court yard, East has experienced theft of tools
the club has had success with summer Saturday work days for summer maintenance
click this link for all pictures from the visit

Shed

tkelly116 — 2024-02-27 18:51:41 UTC

Mr. Hall's construction students will build a shed to store gardening tools and equipment.

2025-2026

tkelly116 — 2024-02-27 18:54:47 UTC

Plans for the space include a pergola to go over the picnic tables for staff use, class visits, etc.

Products

tkelly116 — 2024-02-27 19:58:18 UTC

In addition to fresh produce, Falcon Farms will work with the culinary department and DECA to create, market, and sell pasta sauce, salsa, and jam.

Clearing the Area

tkelly116 — 2024-03-29 23:10:34 UTC

Using tarps, cardboard, and cinder blocks, Mr. Shellhammer and his students have been using natural means to clear the area in preparation for planting. They have also started a variety of tomatoes, peppers, green beans, and herbs in the greenhouse.

Whole Foods Whole Kids Grant

tkelly116 — 2024-09-09 21:47:41 UTC

On August 1st, Falcon Farms was awarded the Whole Foods Whole Kids grant which will support the development of the organic garden and outdoor classroom spaces!

Shed Blueprint

tkelly116 — 2024-09-25 00:53:14 UTC

Plans are in the works to get the cement slab poured in the courtyard. Afterwards, Mr. Hall’s wood shop classes will begin construction on a 10x5 garden shed.

Cement!

tkelly116 — 2025-01-13 14:38:58 UTC

Last month, District Facilities was busy at work clearing debris from the courtyard, leveling areas in preparation for building, and laying a concrete slab for the garden shed. Now that these projects are complete, Mr. Hall's construction class will begin the process of building the shed.

Club Kickoff!

tkelly116 — 2025-03-10 19:57:29 UTC

Future Falcon Farmers met for the first time on Thursday, March 6th during Advocacy. We spent today cataloging our seed stock. IF you would like for us to grow you a specific plant for your garden, we can do that for $2. We will grow it in the greenhouse and bring it to you when they are ready to be planted! Please look over the list attached and let Mr. Shellhammer know ASAP. We are starting seed soon!

Composting Bins

tkelly116 — 2025-03-10 20:15:53 UTC

Mrs. Shellhammer received a grant for two composting bins for the garden (worms included) which are set up in the courtyard and hard at work!

Laying the Groundwork!

tkelly116 — 2025-03-28 01:58:20 UTC

Progress!

tkelly116 — 2025-03-28 01:59:18 UTC

Garden Diagram - Spring 2025

tkelly116 — 2025-03-28 02:01:35 UTC

Irrigation System Preparations

tkelly116 — 2025-03-28 02:03:34 UTC

Irrigation System Map

tkelly116 — 2025-03-28 02:04:31 UTC

Summer Garden Guidebook 2025

tkelly116 — 2025-06-16 20:08:35 UTC

Staff helping care for the community garden over the summer have this guide to help them learn the basics.

June 2025 Update

tkelly116 — 2025-06-16 20:14:17 UTC

No fruit yet, but plants are flowering! Rain barrel will installation will begin in the next couple of weeks.

Garden Shed Progress!

tkelly116 — 2026-03-24 00:33:03 UTC

Shed Project Completed!

tkelly116 — 2026-06-29 01:04:15 UTC

Thanks to the hard work of Mr. Hall’s construction and woodworking students, the garden has a custom shed.

Summer 2026

tkelly116 — 2026-06-29 01:10:11 UTC

Tomatoes, Cucumbers, & Zucchini

Rain Barrels

tkelly116 — 2026-06-29 01:13:28 UTC

After many unforeseen setbacks, the rain barrels have finally been placed for installation. The platforms are made of leftover cinder blocks from the previous courtyard garden and filled with gravel.