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At the Apprentice Garden at Kinder Farm Park, the ground is quiet for the moment. The crimson clover cover crop is growing, and the herbs and strawberries are awaiting warmer weather. No critters have been spotted in the garden shed as yet this year, but we never know what we’ll discover until we “open” the shed to retrieve the tools stored there.
The Apprentice Garden program is fully subscribed, and we have started a waitlist for 2023. Three of the eight families for 2022 are repeating a second season, and all families together will bring 18 (!) children. Our gardeners will enjoy a NEW layout for the family spaces and the common spaces in the garden. Deb moved the bed boundaries in the fall (a much more doable project since movable corner-blocks ‘n’ boards were installed last season) to improve the human traffic circulation and to provide better access to the individual beds.
The strawberry pot in the corner has been a successful move, and many strawberry runners fill the area. Some of which have been “potted” to find new homes in nearby gardens. The center “owl” garden will remain a Mediterranean garden, planted with perennial herbs, sage, rosemary and thyme, and flowers will be added in the spring.
Master Gardeners will open the garden in mid- to late-March, and work parties are planned for March 12, 16, and 26, weather permitting. Volunteers will open the garden, clear winter perennial debris, and plant potatoes, lettuces and greens. The first project meeting with the families will be Wednesday, April 6. The meeting will be held in the Harvest Hall at the Kinder Farm Park Visitor’s Center at 5 to 7PM. Meeting and project set-up before the families arrive; families at 6PM, and clean-up and exit before 7:15PM.
Throughout the season, April through September, the project meets at 6:30PM every Wednesday at the community gardens at Kinder Farm Park in Millersville.
Master Gardener volunteers can also “adopt” part of the perennial gardens along the “outside of the fence” and maintain it on your own schedule. Native goldenrod, mint and chives on one side, and brown-eyed Susans on the other. Milkweed, tall phlox, iris, BES, mountain mint and a peony grow by the garden gate.
Please consider volunteering in the Apprentice Garden. Volunteers, and interns are welcome anytime. You can do the Wednesday meetings, and/or do other-day garden checks and extra watering. Your children are welcome to join you. There is always a sign-in sheet in the garden mailbox for noting your presence and recording your hours. Many thanks.
The Apprentice Garden is dedicated to organic techniques; we do not roto-till for spring planting. Potatoes and lettuces will be planted in mid-March; the cover crop removed only where needed. The vegetation will be left on the gardens to dry and will be turned into the soil, or composted in the in-garden bin
Hope you can join us in the Apprentice Garden in 2022!
If you would like more information, please contact Janet or Deb.
Co-chaired by Janet Clauson and Deb Fritz
janetclauson301@gmail.com, 410.987.2027
debfritzdesign@gmail.com, 410.279.1077
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