The snow is finally melting and I am beginning to see bare ground again for the first time since late November. While some people would call this time of year mud season, for me this is garden prepping season. I was assigned to be the pollinator garden lead for this term and so a lot of what I have been up to involves surveying what plants we have, which of those plants are native, and trying to figure out which plants appear to have survived the winter.
Part of the challenge of being the pollinator garden lead has been trying to piece together what has been done in the past and what I can add to that work to progress the goal forward. As much as the seasonality of our Americorps term has been exciting because everything has been new to us, the lack of continuity of members, especially while we don’t have a director of conservation, seems to have made it hard for projects that require years of planning and maintenance (such as a large scale garden project) to succeed.
Another challenge I have been working with has been trying to find ways to improve the garden with little to no budget. This has meant that I have been challenged to think creatively about how to go about the garden. In previous years, my personal garden projects have centered around plants acquired from a nursery or bought from local gardeners. This year I have been diving deeper into subjects such as propagating trees from cuttings, growing plants from seed, and dividing perennial plants. It’s an interesting transition going from starting gardens to running established gardens.
My latest project, which is still very much in the works- has been my “nearly free” greenhouse which I intend to use both for raising pollinator garden plants and seedlings for our personal vegetable garden. We were tasked with dismantling and taking an old pop up tent that had been warped and broken to the metal pile at the dump, but instead I was able to take the unbroken pieces and hardware and fashion them into a new sort of structure to serve as the base of my greenhouse. With the help of Bri, we then covered the frame in dollar tree shower curtains and packing tape, and built plant shelves using pallets that we got at the dump. The greenhouse is temporarily located in front of our cottage by the dryer vent so whenever laundry is being dried, the moisture and heat warms the greenhouse to a nice toasty 75℉. The only trouble is, so far we haven’t been able to maintain plant safe temperatures at night. This whole project has been a series of trials and errors, so I suppose that’s what I’ll continue to do until we have a functioning greenhouse. Aside from sealing the seams and door better, Nikka suggested making the floor and back walls black to absorb more heat from the sun and I am interested in seeing how having a bucket of water as thermal mass and a source of moisture would affect the greenhouse.
It’s surprisingly fun trying to problem solve, and especially when an idea works! It’s also been fun to see everyone in the cottage getting excited for the growing season- we took a group trip to the Tractor Supply to pick out vegetable seeds to try to grow this year and our living room is full of plant labels, egg cartons, and buckets of dirt. And regardless of whether any of our plants actually grow, I’m thankful to have such an excellent group of friends/ co-members willing to help me with all my hair-brained gardening ideas!
The “greenhouse” during a laundry cycle- nice and tropical in there!
Not only has Kaela done several through hikes, including the Long Trail and the AT, but she’s also on a personal mission to walk across as many states as possible. Look out Rhode Island, you may be next on the list. Learn more about Kaela here!