November was uncharacteristically busy for the Learning Garden. It saw the start of our Early Blue Violet program. We spent the early month clearing most of the annual beds. We donated almost 100 pounds of potatoes, apples, squash, tomatillos, green tomatoes, and kale (I think). 

Last spring when volunteers were doing a lot of garden cleanup and we were contemplating moving our compost bins, the debris was kept under tarps in anticipation of the move. As they say, compost happens. We got seven garden carts worth of compost and used it to amend our beds. We have opted not to move the compost bins at this time so we re-started the process with our abundant garden debris. 

We picked up thousands of Early Blue Violets and got our allotment planted out in three beds. One bed has the violets surrounded by weed cloth. Pea gravel will be used in the second bed and bark (hopefully Alder) in the third bed. 

After planting, it was discovered that the little plants were being pulled out (likely by crows looking for insects? worms?) so we added bird netting to protect them. It was definitely a learning process. We were working with what we had on hand, so we got a little creative.