Our beautiful sunflowers are rapidly ending their spectacular show. Soon, they will be cut for flowers, seed, and the stalk sent in pieces to class for investigations, dried and used as garden stakes, or composted.  Vegetables and fruit, too, are losing vigor with the cooler nights and shorter days. 

This year will mark a dramatic shift in focus for the garden as we’ve worked overtime to harvest many seeds and will put plans in place to continue harvesting seeds and provide nutritious produce for the students and community. To date we’ve collected the following seeds: carrots, radishes, lettuces, snap peas, tomatoes, summer squash, pumpkin, nasturtium, cosmos, batchelor buttons, calendula, and it seems like we’re always finding more!

If you have been through the garden recently, you may have noticed a new composting system. The fully contained, three-bay structure features cedar construction and a lid to prevent soil depletion due to rain. It was designed and constructed by Nathan Harkleroad for his Eagle Scout project over the summer. The composting system replaced our very first compost structure created with pallets by Girl Scout Troop 40120. Adorned with handprints marking the event, unfortunately it began to fall apart and needed to be replaced. Last year, just beside the outdoor classroom, Brandon Harkleroad designed and installed two raised beds dedicated to the propagation of edible native plants - also an Eagle Scout project.