What is the Potager Pollinator Garden?
A. Potager is a French term for kitchen garden – a fusion of the gardener’s desire for vegetables and a plot that is beautiful as well as useful and productive. The potager area mixes organic vegetables with native plants. Flowers are an important ingredient for beauty and pollination, and have been carefully selected to compliment the vegetables. Q. What are transition field plots? A. Transitioning conventional gardening and farming practices to Certified Organic requires a series of crop rotations to improve existing soil’s fertility and structure and to sequester previously applied chemicals. Three years of approved organic management must occur before harvested crops can be sold as or be labeled organic. USDA’s planned crop rotations include organic field peas, plowed in and followed with buckwheat and then crimson clover. Q. What are bioswale and rain gardens? A. Stormwater from USDA parking lots, rooftops and walks will be redirected to bioswales that filter and infiltrate runoff
