Gathering Blueberries for Treats to Serve at Workshop & Reading

Blueberries, Photo by Tina Brown

Yesterday my niece, Tina Brown went blueberry picking at White Oak Farm in Renick, WV to help Ginger Must, Laura Miller, and Acting Executive Director Sue Groves, gather fresh off the branch blueberries for the treats that will be served at tonight's events with blueberry farmer and prize-winning author Jim Minick.  At 6:00 Minick will don his farmer's cap for a Workshop on Growing Blueberries, and at 7:00 pm he'll read from The Blueberry Years: A Memoir of Farm and Family.  

Between the four of them they picked 7 1/2 plastic grocery bags full of blueberries, Tina said.  "They were heavy.  We picked about 100 lbs," Tina joked.  The treats will prove an excellent compliment to evening.  

Historic Garden Tours Begin at PSB Birthplace

Last Sunday, June 17, the Birthplace hosted the first of four "Historic Garden Tours" planned for this summer as part of the Calvin W. Price Appalachian Enrichment Series, sponsored by the Pocahontas County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Photo by A. Jiordano of volunteer gardener Joe Heathcock talked about buckwheat and other cover crops, and their function in the museum's organic garden.

It was an interesting program, but I was staffing the Birthplace that day and kept getting pulled away by other things.  Fortunately, Angelo Jiordano from The Pocahontas Times was there and describes the event in an excellent article that appeared in the paper this week.

Sunday visitors to the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Gardens enjoyed a return to "The Good Earth," with free garden tours, demonstrations, and a little bit of history behind the famed author and humanitarian.

Event organizers invited local "mostly-retired" farmer Cad Tyler to talk about some of the tools he uses, and share some tricks he's learned in his 60 years of farming. Tyler also talked about organic gardening author Elliot Coleman and some of the methods he employs.

Read "A step back in time at the Pearl S. Buck historic garden" and see more photos from the day on the website of the Pocahontas Times.

Summer Garden Tour Series Begins with Presentation on Mulching

Freshly plowed and unplanted, in late April

On June 17th, 2012 at 2:00pm we will kick off our 2012 Summer Garden Tour Series with a tour of the gardens at the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace that will focus on properly mulching your garden. Sam Arborgast will be our featured presenter and will show attendees the techniques he uses to mulch his garden, ensuring proper nutrients and adequate weed cover are established.

This “hands on” tour individuals will demonstrate proper mulching techniques and ways to incorporate these ideas into their home gardens. In conjunction with our discussion on mulching we will also have individuals on hand to discuss marketing opportunities at local farmers markets and the farmer’s market system. Make plans to join us on June 17, 2012 for a fun filled afternoon of gardening discussions!

Subtle and Not So Subtle Changes

Sometimes when I close the office at the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace something catches my eye and instead of leaving right away I linger, my attention captured by something that is going on on the grounds.  Our groundhog guests have moved from under the porch of the Stulting House to under the Carpenter Shack.  That's good because they're no longer undermining the porch of a National Historic Structure, not so good because it's awfully close to the garden!  But they're as cute as ever, darn those things! 

This would be the Good Earth Garden

After locking up I walked around outside to see if things were growing in the garden yet, and if they had done any damage.  Whenever I seem them out of their borrow they are nibbling on wild flowers, in other words, the weeds in the yard.  But that may well be because that is all that is available so far this year.  Once that garden is producing delicious vegetables, it may be too much to pass up.

Pocahontas Times Article on Good Earth Garden

The Pocahontas Times has published an article on the Farm to Schools program in Pocahontas County that mentions the garden planted by the 3 through 5th grade students of Hillsboro Elementary School in the Good Earth Garden of Pearl S. Buck Birthplace.  It also includes photos of the the students' visit to the garden on Thursday, May 3.

Click the link to read, "Farm to School teaching students about gardening, healthy foods."

(Photo by: Suzanne Stewart)  Farm to School AmeriCorps volunteer Adrienne Cedarleaf, talks to students from Hillsboro Elementary School. 

Landscaping the Grounds of Pearl S. Buck Birthplace

It's Spring, so things have started to bloom around the birthplace.  I'm fascinated by the different pace at which this happens, especially by the large maples in front of the house, which are already green and bushy at the top, but only starting to reveal their leaves on the branches closer to the ground. I suppose that's what happens when I tree grows so tall and majestic. Higher branches reach up for sun, lower ones are blocked by their shade.

That's not all that is changing on the grounds of the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace, where we're giving Mother Nature a little assistance.  If you stop by and walk around the back of the Stulting House, you'll see that our large Good Earth Garden has been "plowed, disked, and tilled," and tomorrow students from Hillsboro Elementary School will come to the Birthplace to do some planting.  Let's hope the garden is as fruitful as last year, when at least 600 lbs of produce were donated from it to local food pantries.  We hope to meet or exceed that amount again this year.  The gardens are a valuable teaching tool, that make the grounds more enticing and appealing.  It's gratifying they can also meet this real need.