Friday, July 13, 2007

First Donation for Food Pantry



Today there was a lot going on in our garden, but the highlight was collecting 15 radishes to be delivered to the food pantry. This will be our first donation from the school garden.

Our master gardeners, Mrs. W. & Ms. R. showed the kids how to thin the carrots and cover the shoulders of the carrots by mounding up the soil. They also showed us that a few of the tomato plants have developed yellow leaves. Kate, who is new to the garden project today, works carefully to collect the leaves in her growing discard pile. "Now kids, remember, when you have a disease on your plants like this, you shouldn't compost those leaves", advises Chris.
"What's a compost pile?" asks one of the boys.
"Next time Mr. P. is here, we'll have him tell you all about what's OK to put in a compost pile".

That's ok with the kids because there is journaling and weeding to do. Alison notices that her beets have grown a lot from last time. Dylan uses a ruler to measure the sunflowers in bed #2. The one on the right is about 15 inches and the other one is just over 13 inches. Alison, who was working on her journal nearby, said; "Hey, these are just the opposite." "This sunflower on the left is the biggest, it's 21 inches tall and the other one is only 1 foot tall."

OBSERVATIONS:

  • Both cabbage plants in bed #1 are 14" across.
  • Our tomato mulch might be working too well. With the recent rains the tomato beds are still wet, so we made a note in the mailbox notebook to hold off on watering tomatoes for awhile.
  • There were several insects noticed in the garden today, including our first grasshopper. It was invited out of the garden.
  • The tomato plants are almost taller than the supports we made last time. Now what?
  • The morning glories are finally tall enough to start climbing the fence.
After weeding, thinning and harvesting, there are several empty spots. Kids gather to decide what to plant. Radishes are a popular favorite as are bush beans & lettuce. Everyone works together to get the new seeds planted and watered. Soon, our class is done for another week. Next time we'll watch to see if these new seeds have germinated and see if there is any more to harvest to share with the food pantry.

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