Garden Tower

We were so lucky to receive this Garden Tower with lights from the Classroom Gardens Manager at the Ottawa Network for Education. 

This tower is different than our hydroponic towers in that it uses soil to grow all of the plants.  We filled the garden tower with potting soil and planted one of our seedlings (that we started in class in one of our three tiered greenhouses) in each of the spaces.  We were able to plant 50 plants in our garden tower! 

In the middle of our garden tower is a vermicomposting tube.  We took some of the worms from our Worm Factory 360 and rehoused them in the new garden tower.  The middle tube is where we will add kitchen scraps for our worms to eat.

There is a drawer at the bottom of the garden tower where any extra water will flow (compost tea) which can then be reused to water the tower.  This drawer is also the place where you can harvest any vermicompost that you would like. 

When we first started our garden tower

What our garden tower currently looks like!

We have been able to harvest so much fresh produce from our garden tower and we are excited to continue to plant and harvest from this garden throughout the remainder of the school year. We have had great success with tomatoes (on the top layer of the garden tower) as well as basil, arugula, parsley, beans, peas, spinach and even radishes! We are excited that this garden tower will compliment the tower gardens (hydroponics) where we grow most of our lettuces for the school.

One of the three tower gardens in the
horticulture classroom.
Each tower holds 28 plants which can be
harvested using the cut-and-come-again
method.

Close up of one of the leaf lettuce plants
in one of our three tower gardens
(not to be confused with the garden tower)

We are so excited to have the garden tower (orange - soil based) to work in conjunction with our three tower gardens (hydroponic lettuce/greens) and the two three tiered indoor greenhouses. With these three systems working so well together, students are able to prepare healthy salads and vegetables for the school every week using fresh produce grown by students in the horticulture course.

Thanks for reading! Happy gardening :) 

Outdoor classroom and greenhouse construction!

At the end of October/early November, as the fall horticulture came to a close we reflected on all of the projects we successfully completed.

The outdoor classroom was a success! We got it all done before the frost came.  Students spent time digging up all the grass to create paths and a footprint for where the classroom would be located.  They then put down landscape fabric to prevent weeds from popping up and finished by laying down wood chips to act as the floor for the classroom.  Stumps and log seating were donated by a local tree removal company and things came together beautifully.  It was a lot of hard work but totally worth it!

Once work had completed on the outdoor classroom, students got to work digging for the new greenhouse! We learned so many construction skills while building the greenhouse and with all the hard work of the students, our new 8' x 12' greenhouse is built! It won't be used until late March/early April but will help to extend our short growing season by at least a few months!

It's covered in snow right now but we are so excited to get in the greenhouse and start our seedlings nice and early! With this addition, we can start serving all sorts of healthy foods for the students to enjoy much earlier in the spring.

Happy gardening!