March Garden Tips!
Now that the weather is starting to get warmer, this is a good time to revisit your garden and start getting your supplies and areas ready for your transplants! Make sure you have enough tools and gloves and clean up any fallen debris and garden messes you have been pushing off all winter! Eliminating hibernating […]
February Garden Tips
February’s tips come from our fabulous garden tech, Jake Torok. Get your supplies ready! Seed starting is just around the corner. Start looking at your seed packets and taking note of which ones need to be started in order to be able to be transplanted outside as soon as their tolerance allows! Peppers, thyme, and […]
Gardening in January in west Michigan? Yes!
This month we installed a regenerative, no-till school garden at Godfrey Early Childhood Center in Wyoming. We were greeted with sunshine as we engaged in the process of covering the ground with cardboard, paper, leaves, and mulch. Soon a blanket of snow will cover the layers causing them to break down and create a […]
A New School Garden Install
Super Garden XV! Our recipe for a new garden at Godwin Middle School Ingredients: A big dump truck full of wood mulch (10 yards) A truck load of composted mulch (7 yards) At least 20 yard-waste bags of fall leaves Many sheets of cardboard from collapsed boxes 20 – 7th and 8th grade students 7 […]
Bugs in Our Garden!
Summer garden students could hardly contain their excitement as they turned over rocks, looked under plants and dug in the soil in order to observe the abundance of bugs living in and around their school gardens. They compared the creatures they captured to pictures that revealed which ones were beneficial to the garden and which […]
H.O.P.E. Gardens Receives Farm-to-School Grant
In August, H.O.P.E. Gardens and the YMCA of Greater Grand Rapids were awarded a USDA Farm-to-School grant. This competitive award is granted on an annual basis to organizations that support planning, developing, and implementing farm-to-school programs. H.O.P.E. Gardens will use part of this grant to install a new fence for Wyoming Regional Center, a program […]
Spreading H.O.P.E. During COVID-19
The state-wide closing of schools last March due to COVID-19 presented us with a challenge: How could we involve students in school garden planting when we were not able to work together in person? We also wanted to support students and families while under the stay-at-home order, so we decided that if the students couldn’t […]
Mrs. Smith Reads Books About Gardening & Our New YouTube Channel
Watch and listen to Mrs. Smith read some of her favorite books about gardening! You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel for more videos here.
Mr. Rich is planting Peas at Parkview
Learn how to plant peas in a regenerative garden at Parkview Elementary. Mr. Rich shows us how easy it is to plant in this no till school garden.
Rich’s Garden Tips: Gardening in your landscapes [VIDEO]
In this video, Rich teaches us about gardening in your landscapes using natural untreated wood chips as a cover. Perennials are popping up including chives, parsley and mint. Garlic is proving strong in more ways than one.