Garden with Jen

03/06/2026

Scenes from the gardens at the high school as we transition from Spring to Summer- lots of color just in time for Graduation!

26/05/2026

Busy day working on the HOA community garden- it's on year three and is lush!!

18/05/2026

Too busy to post so here are some shots of my three garden projects over the past month or two!

Ready to transition from spring to summer plantings. 😅 🫠 🪏 🌿

30/04/2026

Shifting baseline syndrome (SBS) is what happens when we forget how vibrant the natural world used to be. Each generation grows up with a more depleted environment and calls it “normal,” simply because it’s all they’ve ever known.

Think about walking through a park and thinking, “This seems healthy.” But maybe 30 years ago that same park had twice as many birds, wildflowers, or insects. If you never saw that version, you don’t feel the loss — and that quiet forgetting becomes the new baseline. Over time, we start accepting degraded ecosystems as normal.

Researchers warn that this shift lowers our expectations, increases our tolerance for decline, and reduces our urgency to protect what’s left.

What helps:

Intergenerational conversations that reconnect us with what nature used to be.

Direct experiences with nature that sharpen our awareness of change.

Remembering (knowing) the past is the first step to restoring the future.

26/04/2026

🌍 This past week, we celebrated Earth Day at the high school! Despite a bit of rain and chilly weather, the Environmental Club, ASC, and science classes had a fantastic day planting their second native plant bed, taking another important step toward supporting local ecology and wildlife. The Courtyard Garden has also been recently certified as an NWF Schoolyard Native Habitat by the Environmental Club!

Special thanks to the ASC for providing the plants that made this celebration possible, to the Environmental Club for their dedication to certifying the Courtyard Garden and using this space to deepen their learning about plants and ecology, and to the Wood Shop students for building beautiful birdhouses that will provide homes for feathered visitors. :) Some of my homegrown seedlings were also given out to students to take home- mostly peppers and tomatoes.

This year's improvements to the garden have been transformative. We've added so much to create a truly dynamic learning space:

🌱 Additional no-dig mounded raised beds (more to follow)
🌱 An edged raised bed for shade plants under a cherry tree
🌱 A small wildlife pond
🌱 A pollinator-friendly nursery bed
🌱 A leaf composting cage
🌱 A native plant habitat bed (over a freshly painted sandbox!)
🌱 Birdhouses built by Wood Shop students
🌱 Enhanced plantings and mulching in the Small Courtyard (Butterfly Garden)

This project over the past few years has involved seriously working out my arms and moving many, many wheelbarrows of materials along with the support of our Buildings and Grounds team who mow the garden space and drop off endless yards of compost and mulch for me—thank you for making this vision possible!

🌟 EXCITING NEWS: I'm thrilled to share that I've been awarded a $10,000 grant from the NJEA HIPP Foundation toward a greenhouse project! Working with fellow WHREA members, we'll be installing a greenhouse kit in the courtyard garden later this year. This opens up incredible possibilities for students—expanded science study, connections to literature and history, math applications, arts projects, and wellness sessions.

Stay tuned for updates as we bring the greenhouse to life!

11/04/2026

Getting a little cramped out here on the balcony!

I use a tiered shelf under the awning to harden off seedlings- does anyone need some hot peppers??! There is a surplus 😅 🌶️

04/04/2026

Balcony blooms 🌷☀️🌱

01/04/2026

Spring bulbs are looking great- there are SO many that I planted last fall and forgot about until now!

Over the course of two days, I transplanted a few flats of homegrown cool-season veggies and herbs in the kitchen garden as well as the culinary arts bed.

Looking forward to sowing more warm-season veggies and flowers this weekend- Happy Spring! 🌷🫛🌱🐇

01/02/2026

26/01/2026

New logo design for the gardening business! 🐐🌿

Our last name, Caprari, is of Italian origin, derived from the Latin word capra, meaning "goat." It originated during the Middle Ages as an occupational surname for a goatherd or goat farmer, and is primarily found in Northern Italy, particularly in regions like Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna.

The new logo ties into this "pastoral" background along with Aesop's fable "The Goat and the Vine." In the short story, a goat selfishly eats the leaves of a flourishing grapevine. The vine warns the goat that its destructive actions will lead to retribution, as the vine will provide the wine used for the sacrifice when the goat is slaughtered. The moral emphasizes that harm brings consequences and that actions have future, often ironic, results.

In the face of climate change, corporate greed, and resource extraction, this story is a powerful reminder that we cannot deplete the environment that sustains us without facing the consequences. Jesse and I love "old world" folklore and art, so all of these things worked so well together in line with my focus on organic farming and gardening methods rooted in environmentalism. We are dedicated to gardening with nature in mind, using nature's own methods to build gardens that are resilient for the future.