Over the course of every week, about fifty – fifty! – different people come to the Edible Schoolyard to help in the garden and the kitchen. We rely on these volunteers for essential support in many forms – they help lower our adult-to-student ratio so that we can safely and effectively engage our students in experiential learning, they act as role models and points of connection for our diverse student body, and they demonstrate to students the caring and investment of the greater community. And that’s just during class! Before and after class, our volunteers are hard at work, assisting staff with the tasks, both large and small, of keeping our garden and kitchen running smoothly. Come by any day before class and you would see volunteers in the garden, weeding a bed, volunteers in the kitchen, folding laundry and putting away dishes, even volunteers taking out the compost and sweeping the front walkway.
And who are these volunteers? They are university students, working adults, retirees, and people transitioning between jobs; they are parents to middle school students, infants, and grown children; they care for the elderly, bountiful rooftop gardens, or a menagerie of animals; they are chefs, landscape designers, nutritionists, teachers, professionals, writers, entrepreneurs and trying-to-figure-it-outs. Universally, our volunteers are passionate about food and engaging with young people.
Over the years, we have been fortunate to meet many, many wonderful people who were volunteers at the Edible Schoolyard. A few have been with us, year in and year out, since the program began, sixteen years ago. More commonly, a volunteer will spend a year or two coming to the kitchen or garden every week to work with students and help keep things shipshape, and then he or she will move on. Volunteers have shared their favorite recipes, seeds from beloved garden plants, ideas for curriculum development, and stories of students opening up to them in touching, surprising ways. For all the energy, passion, and dedication they bring to the Edible Schoolyard, our volunteers have our unending gratitude.
Griselda (wearing glasses) is a kitchen volunteer extraordinare -- students, teachers and staff all love her
Ian (wearing olive green) has been making the garden a friendlier, more beautiful place for many years
Helen and Beebo have been with us from the beginning -- we can't imagine the Edible Schoolyard without them
Winter Pruning
Wendy Johnson, our wonderfully insightful gardening mentor, describes in her book, Gardening at the Dragon’s Gate, January as her favorite month in the garden. Although Wendy did not exactly have the Edible Schoolyard in mind, in this cold weather her description serendipitously fits our little garden here on the King campus perfectly! Walking through the garden one would observe that “while our prissiest and most demanding annual vegetables and flowers have all blessedly frozen to death in the field, only the hardiest of plants remain: Siberian iris, cabbages, windswept rows of bare limbed apple trees, and hunch-shouldered winter beets shivering in the icy wind.” As Wendy would surely tell you, despite the seemingly sparse appearance that the winter garden portrays, the winter gardener surely has their work cut out.
Winter is the time to embrace the dormancy of the garden. Says Wendy, “imagine the unfurling of the spring garden that sleeps inside the naked skeleton of the trees and shrubs.” While the trees are dormant, their structure and outline becomes apparent, which lends itself to pruning. In the winter, we prune trees for organization and stimulation, while summer pruning is for height control. Pruning in the winter pumps trees with vigor-generating responses, whereas in the summer, pruning can slow down growth.
This week we called on an expert in pruning highly recommended by Wendy, Leslie Buck, to run our garden staff through a pruning workshop. Leslie is an aesthetic tree pruning specialist who received her training at Merritt College’s horticultural department and in Japan. Her insight into the practice of pruning as both an art form and science was incredibly valuable and instilled a desire to further share what we learned.
The essential question before pruning trees is: what does this tree look like in nature and/or in it’s mature state? Every tree has a certain structure or habit of growth and will therefore have a different response to any cut. For example, our beloved oak trees have rounded tops, while pear trees shoot branches up vertically, and olive trees grow thin, spindly branches that curve as they grow. Understanding the nature of the tree before you begin pruning is imperative. Pruning is an art form that brings the natural beauty of the tree to light, maintaining the balance of the tree. It also requires great patience.
The Basics:
1. Remove the 3D’s: damaged, diseased, and dead wood. This will automatically restore some of the health of the tree
2. Always start with the largest cuts (using a saw). Then, move to smaller cuts, using clippers
3. Never remove more than 30% of a tree at one time
4. Have a multiple-year plan for the tree
5. Find balance as a pruner between being aggressive or timid
The greatest compliment to a pruner is when a pruned tree is admired, yet unnoticeably pruned.
All the essentials: clippers, a hand saw, and pole pruners
Pruning at the point of origin for organzation
A pruning technique called tipping