We don’t believe it’s a controversial thing to say. It’s not a way of saying that other people or lives matter less, it’s a way to say out loud what we want to see: for Black lives TO matter, to everyone. And in our world, that is not yet a reality.
Posting this now could come across as “jumping on the bandwagon”. We share here as a way to make it clear where we stand as an organization – we want to see an end to violence being enacted on Black people by an unjust system, an end to police brutality, and we want to actively participate in ending those things. There is also a great deal of systemic racism and inequity within the food system and farming, and if we value the work we already do in School Gardens, we need to make those issues a more intentional part.
We’re not as far along as we ought to be; we should have said it out loud years ago, instead of waiting until after David McAtee, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Nina Pop, Sean Reed, and far too many precious lives were violently ended.
It’s not enough anymore to just NOT be racist; we’re working on what it actually means to be an organization and people who are actively anti-racist.
We know this work of learning and unlearning is difficult, uncomfortable and sometimes painful. We also know that it is deeply important and those challenging feelings are so small compared to the actual pain and suffering that racism causes. Here are just a few of the resources we’ve been learning from lately:
Some of you may have noticed we recently ran out of materials to assemble trellises for the snap pea porch pots. We’ve still been sharing those container gardens but y’all will need to get creative with your own trellis-building!
Yum! Cascadia Snap Peas freshly-harvested from a school garden
If you have any circular metal tomato cages around, those are just right for trellising snap peas in a bigger pot (they also work well for cucumbers and other vining plants – not just tomatoes!). They often are available in some fun colors, too.
Metal tomato cage
Here’s a great photo from One Hundred Dollars A Month of a tomato cage being used as a snap pea trellis. They’ve gone the route of flipping theirs upside down, but that leaves some pretty pokey bits sticking out and in our experience it works just as well right-side up. (Don’t get confused if you visit their site and see gardening tips – they live in Maine so the climate and seasons are somewhat different than ours in the Pacific NW.)
These peas are growing in pots with tomato cages for trellising
This Pea Tripod Tutorial from Seattle Urban Farm Company is pretty simple and could be done with smaller/shorter sticks fairly easily, to make it fit into a container garden.
Finished pea tripod from Seattle Urban Farm Company tutorial
**This post has been updated as of 5/12/20 to reflect changes to pick up schedule on Fridays, and how long ordering will be available for the week.**
You might be thinking to yourself – how does an online Plant Sale work? – and we definitely understand your curiosity about that!
Please read all the way through before visiting the shop and placing a plant order
We’re excited to offer plant sales online this year, and hope this new format might allow more folks to take home our lovingly-grown plants than ever before.
We’ll operate a no-contact pick up process over the course of several weeks, which is really different from the one-day in-person Plant Sale from previous years!
The online Plant Sale kicked off 5/6/20. **Each week the “shop” will open Wed 5 pm – Thurs 11:59 pm, or it will close when we’ve received 80 orders for the week (whichever comes first).** Different plants will become available as they are ready and healthy enough to sell – here is the list of all the plants we will have at some point during the course of the online Plant Sale:
We will not be doing any in-person/on-site orders; please do all of your ordering online through the website. We will be unable to make any changes to your order during pick up – if there are changes you need made to your order prior to pick up, please text/call 360-200-8918. Changes to your order may result in your pick up time/date being rescheduled.
We realize not everyone is able to pay via credit card or other online routes, so if you have no other option than cash or check please reach out to us before placing your order so we can make the necessary arrangements.
EBT/SNAP We are also able to take EBT as payment for edible plants. Since we will be doing a majority of the orders online with credit card and no-contact pick up, we will need to make special arrangements for any transactions that involve EBT. Instead of ordering online, please contact us if this option is something you’re interested in. We want to make this work, and though it may not be particularly graceful yet, we will do our best to figure it out.
We ask and encourage everyone to use their best judgment and limit the numbers of plants they order so more of our community members are able to participate in growing their own food.
This whole process may take a little more cooperation and patience than usual from our staff as well as our community to keep everyone safe and healthy, not only as we work out the hiccups in our new system but as we maintain physical distancing to the best of our abilities. With that in mind…
ORDER FULFILLMENT & PICK UP Orders will be filled and ready for no-contact pick up at The Northlake Garden,2210 Olympia Way, Longview, WA 98632 on Friday afternoons, based on the first letter of your last name.
**Times listed below may have changed since the first week of the sale – please take a second look:
Last Name A – F: 1:00 – 1:45
Last Name G – L: 1:45 – 2:30
**Last Name M – R: 2:30 – 3:00
**Last Name S – Z: 3:00 – 3:30
If the specified time/window does not work for you, please contact us at 360-200-8918 to make other arrangements
When you arrive at your designated time on Friday, please pull up to the curb closest to the Northlake Garden (along Olympia Way), facing Ocean Beach Hwy and remain in your vehicle.
Have your order number and last name ready to provide to a School Garden Team Member, or **better yet (if it is possible for you) already have it clearly displayed in your passenger side window when you arrive**. If you are unable to make it to your scheduled pick up time please contact us at the phone number above as soon as possible.
We have a limited number of boxes (cardboard or otherwise) available, so if you’d like a container for your plants please plan to bring your own.
We will maintain 6-foot physical distancing for the safety of our staff and customers and we ask that you wait until we set your order next to your vehicle prior to getting out and loading it.
If you need some assistance with loading your order, please let us know!
Please stay home if you are sick or have been in contact with anyone who is sick. Ask someone who you haven’t been in close contact with to pick up your order, or get in touch with us for no-contact delivery: email info@lcschoolgardens.org or call/text 360-200-8918
Ways that we’ll be staying safe:
Our staff will wash their hands regularly; we’ll have hand-washing stations set up to make this easy.
Staff will wear face masks and clean garden gloves to avoid the spread of germs when touching plant pots and trays.
Often-touched surfaces will be cleaned and sanitized frequently.
Bird’s Eye View Map & Brief Directions for Plant Sale Pick Up from Northlake Garden
COMMUNITY In these challenging times, we know that many of us can’t afford to purchase plants. That’s just a reality for a lot more folks than usual, so please reach out if you are in need of plants and cannot pay for them at this time. We want to do what we can to make sure as many folks in our community as possible have access to food they can grow in the coming months. Email info@lcschoolgardens.org or call/text 360-200-8918
Do you have an abundance of resources and can help cover some of the cost of plants for families or folks in need? Donate here and write in the description “Gift Plants” and we will continue to share plants with the community as long as we have them available.
GIVING CREDIT! THANK YOU to our friends at Tilth Alliance in Seattle, WA for all their help with the process of getting our Plant Sale online, and the wording to share. We hope that their recent (annual) Edible Plant Sale was a huge success!
On the morning of February 7 and 8, we will offer, as we have for many years, our School Garden Volunteer Training. If you are interested in helping out with our local Longview/Kelso school gardens, or are developing a program in your school or community, this class is for you!
These identical classes run from 9:00 to 12:30 – choose Friday 2/7 or Saturday 2/8.
Both classes take place at Northlake Elementary and are free as always. Register here for all classes.
On those same two days, in the afternoon, we are offering a Gardening 101 class on Friday 2/7 from 1:30pm to 3pm.
The class on Saturday 2/8 is Pruning 101 and runs from 1:30 to 3:00pm.
In both classes we will do some learning in the classroom and then head out to the orchard to do some hands-on work.
Both classes take place at Northlake Elementary and are free of charge. Register here for all classes.
Register here for the Volunteer Training and/or Gardening Workshops in February 2020
