November 2014

Hi there!  We are back with a long overdue update on our gardens.  Baldy View's orchard garden will soon be growing, thanks to a grant from the Western Growers Association! We will be planting more orchard trees where there used to be grass. The entire student body is invited to offer their suggestions about which trees and shrubs we should plant.  The new orchard trees have to be researched by our students before being purchased.  They need to be trees and shrubs or vines that are suited to our climate and temperature for maximum fruit production.  The soil needs to be amended and irrigation must be in place before we can think about planting the trees.  This is a big project for our garden club students and will require serious efforts to make this new venture a successful one. 

For the past two years, Garden Club Students have entered our garden in the 48th District Agricultural Association Fair and both years we have taken 1st place in our division. Many of our students have also won ribbons for their personal entries.  We are very proud of all of their efforts and we hope that they have not only learned 1st hand about farming but also enjoyed discovering the process and watching the fruits of their labors grow.  As part of our participation, we have created murals both years related to the theme of the annual fair.  We hope to have these mounted to the wall behind the garden sometime within the next year. 

The vegetable garden is constantly being tilled, reseeded, weeded, watered and harvested. We continue to practice organic gardening and we make our own compost to add nutrients to replenish what the plants take from the soil.  Our "California Friendly" drought tolerant garden suffered some losses this past year.  We lost our beautiful blue flowering California Lilacs.  They exceeded their lifespan in a cultivated garden, but we have been slowly replacing them with new and different plants that our local natives had used.   The pomegranate tree produced enough fruit to make a dozen pint jars of jelly  We received a new delivery of decomposed granite to replenish the bit that has washed away over the years.  It gives the garden a fresh "new" look.  This garden is very self-sufficient which is good because we need to spend the bulk of our meetings caring for the vegetable garden!  Looks like we might get a little rain this December and our wishes are that it will help refill some of our depleted water table.  We will continue to plant and grow, and enjoy the beauty of nature and life.  Best Wishes to our Baldy View families throughout the upcoming holidays and into the New Year!