The Parks and People Foundation have awarded a $1,000 Neighborhood Greening Grant to the Baltimore Montessori Public Charter School. The grant will directly support “Gourd Season,” and allow Alex Geiger and I to further enhance the green infrastructure at the school by adding capacity to establish growing beds, red wiggler worm vermicomposting, and bee keeping to pollinate our crops. Denzel Mitchell the Green Coordinator at BMPCS, is an experienced beekeeper and will maintain the school’s hive.

Alex Geiger has been generously supported throughout the Spring and Fall 2009 academic terms by an Undergraduate Research Assistantship Award granted through the UMBC Office of the Provost. We now intend to see “Gourd Season through a full cycle of planting in April 2010, growth and pollination in Summer, harvest in October 2010, and crafting in March 2011. We plan ahead, like good gardeners.

Green project pilot by Timothy Nohe and Alex Geiger
Research assistance provided in part by the Office of the Provost, UMBC

We’re growing Canteen, Snake, Dipper and Bottle Gourds

Kids at the Baltimore Montessori Public Charter School are growing gourds that they will make into bird houses, animals, drums, rattles and banjos.

Students are learning about crops and caring for their neighborhood in the Greenmount West and  Station North Arts and Entertainment District of Baltimore.

Kids planted canteen, long-handled dipper, birdhouse and snake gourds in early June in a planter box, and temporary 55 gallon drums. In the fall, the fruit will be harvested for drying in the winter months. During the Spring academic term, the harvested fruit will be prepared for craft projects, including: water dippers, bowls, bird houses, musical instruments, and figurative sculptures. These uses of gourds are ancient, and allow for integration of lessons on the cultures of Indian, South American and African peoples.

Alex and I will lead enrichment workshops at BMPCS encompassing the full cycle of planting, nurturing, harvest and craft. In the workshop we will discuss the aims of the program in language appropriate for children ages 6-9.

Here’s how we described the work in interpretive signage on East Landvale and Federal Street planting sites:

African, Native American and South American people have grown these crops for thousands of years. We respect these traditions, and want to experience what it’s like to see something grow from a tiny seed, to a green vine covered in flowers, to big fruit. We’ll then harvest gourds for drying and decoration. When we do this work together, we learn to respect the earth, the changing seasons and nature.

Our curriculum addresses:

• time and the seasons
• the role of the farmer
• the training, care and pollination of the plants
• harvesting fruit at the first frost
• the fallow winter cycle of drying and seed harvesting
• the cultural traditions of gourds, from Native America, to Africa, Asia and India, to Underground Railroad songs associated with flights to freedom
• the creation of utilitarian and decorative objects from the gourds in spring

We hope to continue the farming cycle by planting in a revitalized green space that will be redeveloped on a huge asphalt playground. This redeveloped lot will capture storm run-off, and provide a vegtable garden, play and learning environment for the students.