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.

Our first harvest

Today was a great day in the garden!

It's been 2 weeks since our students met together. Many were amazed at how much had changed. A mailbox is now in place inside the fence to hold the watering journal and the cultivators for weeding. Families have been taking a turn watering and even one of our STEP volunteers stopped by the school, saw the garden needed a drink and figured out how to make the faucets work -- thanks, Gary!

Visitors to the garden today include one big sister and her friend who stayed and helped with the work. Thanks, girls! While thinning the radish plants kids discovered that many of the radishes were ready to be eaten. Pretty soon everyone had radishes and were munching on our first harvest.

Kids found at least 5 different kinds of weeds and noted them in their journal along with a sketch. There was a lot of weeding to do, but with the help of our 7 adult volunteers, we had the beds looking good in no time. Our AmeriCorps volunteer had the kids do a role-play activity from Mazon.org which was designed to help kids learn about hunger in our community.

The tomatoes are looking good with flowers on most of the plants. Students helped with the drilling and hammering to make collapsable "ladders" to support the plants as they grow.

There is good growth in one bed of cabbages, but something is eating the other cabbage plants. Here is a photo of the leaves with lots of holes in them. Click on the photo to see it up close. The only insects our students found this week were ants.

What do YOU think is eating this plant?

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