A Draft for 2017 - Planting Plan overlaid with Cover Crops

The West Side as of 11/29/16

 The Center 11/29/16

 The East Side (near the Orchard) as of 11/29/16

Sprout Sprouts!

Collaboration with Boise Food Salvage

We're collaborating with Boise Food Salvage as a Service Learning Project. Next season we will plant special culinary herbs and fruits for but for now we will cook and harvest! Thank you Samantha for inspiration!





























Loved our day with Boise's Children's School. They're studying food and so are we!

Location:Cathedral of the Rockies and Downtown Teaching Farm

Fall Photo Gallery 2016

Somehow the magical mobile device Gods sent out an old old post from 2011 titled Happy New Year. While the title is confusing it was fun to wake up to the original "before" photo of our space in my in-box.

The DTFarm space when we began, looking West, Winter 2011.  Thanks again to the Cathedral of the Rockies (FUMC) for their generous trust in Boise High to help tend this piece of land, and all the Boise High teachers and students who've helped over the years..

What a difference 6 years makes as we look forward to the 2017 season. Here are some photos from the 2016 season. Thank you to all that offer their gracious support of our project!

Biology Class get's in on beneficial soil organisms (notice Chloe's gloves!)

 Mulch ladies, Mulch!

Manure for next year's benefit.

Nature matching fashion nail color.

Lily's group harvested kale for our Harvest to Homeless Initiative.

 No caption needed, that smile says it all!

This area was an absolute disaster 1 year ago, now look at that soil, and how easily this team prepped it for next year.

Manure before cover crop planting in Bio.

Performance Task - making time outside count.

Super excited - the living fence has grown in nicely and next year we will add bee boxes to the Apiary.

The space in general is making more sense, a bit of a long view.

Cover Crop Delights

We have been experimenting heavily in the past 10 months or so with the use of Cover Crops at the DTFarm.

The basic premise of using Cover Crops essentially involve creating a positive soil ecosystem and plant colony, rather than surrendering to weeds that proliferate quickly even when water is removed. These beautiful and beneficial crops also fix nitrogen, mine minerals from the deep soil layers, and help nourish key soil microbes. Plus, they do this heavy lifting all winter long while we wait for Spring.

Some useful links about Cover Crops:

For the Home Gardener (from Modern Farmer)

From Cornell University

From the Sustainable Agriculture Environmental Research Conference on Cover Crops

More from SARE

From the USDA

Next year's draft of our planting plan, overlaid with winter cover mixes from the students "mix-a-lot" lab!

Ahhh... JUNE!

THE PLANTING PLAN FOR 2016 - as executed by many months with many people's help!

The East Side of the Farm

 The Center of the Farm

 The West Side of the Farm

A FEW ACTION SHOTS

Bumble Bees, Guthrie's Knees

We've got Carrots!

Mrs. Stewart's class from Roosevelt came for a Farm Day!

Mrs. Stewart's class from Roosevelt came for a Farm Day! We made them some scavenger hunts!

And we all had a great time!

Some of our Community Gardeners are hard at work, please join us!

Spring has Sprung!

We are continuing to till in our Nitrogen Fixing Cover Crops - our soil is looking great and they are providing great weed protection while we wait for planting dates.  THANK you to all the Bio classes that helped plant these important beneficial plants last fall!

We will continue to plant our Spring Veg this week - 

Potatoes and Onions and Greens Oh My!

Here are a few photos from our very successful Sustainability Summit on April 8th.  Thank you to all the DTFarm Committee Members and gardeners who supported our school's efforts regarding Sustainability this year.  This is surely only the beginning!

Flower arranging at the Sustainability Summit - Thank you Bloom Boise for help with the Spring Blooms!

Food Truck Rally!

Lance teaches us about Bee Boxes - coming to the DTFarm this week!

The Comb.

Planting Bare Root Fruit Trees as part of our Bee Barrier!

Thanks to the 150 student presenters in classrooms all over BHS!