Garden Club: Fall 3

October 17, 2012
BULB Planting Day.  The TEAM gardeners were out on this overcast day to plant some garlic cloves, daffodils called Ice Follies, tulips, and a few mystery bulbs donated by Ms. Bikkina.   We had some new gardeners from the Fifth grade that included Brigitte, Anthony, Cody, Grace and Zahmir.  And then we had a reunion with our experience gardeners.   Now Sixth graders, Kasim and Messiah played in the dirt and our returning now seventh grade veteran Shawn arrived to finish up the job.  It was absolutely wonderful to see these guys and they all seemed to have terrific and restful summers.  The season has wound down, the last of the clean-up has been done and it is time to let the soil rest and rejuvenate.  In the meantime, plans for next Spring are beginning to form and while entries will be much more sparse, please check in every once in a while to see what is cooking for Spring 2013.

Keep warm this winter and think green thoughts.  This has been a fantastic experience and I look forward to seeing everyone out in the garden, getting dirty next planting season.  Signing off for now.

Garden Club: Fall 2

October 11, 2012

Mother Nature is an amazing woman.  All summer, our pea plants struggle to establish themselves.  The odds were against them, the conditions too dry and scorching.  But take a look at the photograph with the ugly, shriveled watermelon vine and what do you see?  A thriving pea plant!  Here is an important lesson, never giving up no matter the odds.

Today was partial Fall clean up day and as you can see by the pictures, much was cleared away.  But why touch something that is doing so well?  So the tomatoes stayed, some herbs, the pea plant and the beautiful marigolds.  A note on the marigolds, I have been told that these plants are wonderful self-seeders so perhaps we will have marigolds a plenty next year as well!

Garden Club: Fall 1

The look of the garden might suggest a lush summer but we all know the truth of that.  But the grape tomatoes continue to be fantastic producers.  In fact, a few seeds have already taken root and are sprouting up eensy-weensy tomato plants.  Less active have been the two squash plants that were very disappointing although I have heard from other gardeners in the area that this season was not a good squash season generally.  Some reading up on what makes for happy squash plants is in order.  Thinking about next Spring, it must be remembered that the tomatoes and peppers need to be planted in the other box .  Another suggestion is to plant the tomatoes in large containers.  TEAM gardeners can tackle this question in the Spring.  Also, I think for the peas and beans next year we should create a different type of scaffolding system, less like a tripod and more like a fence.  Native Americans used to plant corn and once the stalks were established, planted the beans, using the stalks as support.  Really interesting idea.

Boy oh boy did the marigolds thrive.  Even if it is a wives’ tale that marigolds prevent bug infestation in tomatoes, I think having the wonderful color throughout the summer makes their inclusion in the garden an important consideration!

Did some weeding and some watering and have included a picture of some of the things we planted last Spring.  Some of the plants not represented include :  culantro (Alex’s suggestion), jalapeno (5th graders’ suggestion), basil, peppermint and thyme as well as our wonderful varieties of tomatoes.

Garden Club: Summer 5

Garden Club:  Summer 5

After a four-week hiatus, I was back in the garden and thanks to Ms. Nagle and Mr. Quijano, the garden has managed to suffer the terrible heat and arid conditions amazingly well.  We had a tenant living on one of the tomato plants, a huge caterpillar covered with small white modules.  After a little bit of research, I discovered that this caterpillar had a load of eggs clinging to its back.  Apologies for the fuzzy image but it was all I could get with my limited technology.  As best as I can determine, this is a moth caterpillar, not a “good” caterpillar to have in the garden.  As will be noted, some caterpillars turn into beautiful butterflies and the damage they can cause to a garden is minimal.  But many moth caterpillars as well as hornworms, army worms and cut worms can devastate a garden with their eating habits.  In the future, to attract good caterpillars to the garden, plant dill or parsley, making sure that you do so away from tomato plants.  Also remember that gardens need insects to be productive.  Without bees to pollinate squash flowers, we would have no squashes and that includes watermelons!

Happily we had loads of bees that were attracted to the herbs particularly the basil and the peppermint but we still have only a few baby squash to show for all the bees’ efforts.  Baby carrots and cherry tomatoes are ready for the table as are much of the herbs we planted which have gone to seed and now should be pulled to make room for another planting.  Also poking up a healthy head is some of the lettuce that was planted as seeds in early June.  Almost time to make a salad!

Gave the garden a serious watering, making sure that the water drained down well below the surface, giving the finger poke test to check on the degree of saturation of the soil. 

June 13, 2012: Garden Club Meeting 6

The scholars came late today causing great worry as this was to be our last meeting of the Spring.  But they did arrive, the fifth and sixth graders spilling out of the school together in a jumble of final day excitement.  And the timing couldn’t have been better.  While it was sprinkling earlier, by the time the gardeners arrived, the clouds had dried up and we had a great time. Because many of the gardeners would only be able to see the garden virtually (we gave them this blog site address), we had them plant a tomato plant and a little purple basil plant in a small pot to take home, along with a radish or two that they harvested from their very own TEAM garden. There were so many radishes! After potting their plants, we had them plant some mixed lettuces that we could harvest either over the summer or at the beginning of the school year. When we had surveyed the garden we realized that the tomatoes, carrots, peppers and peas were all plainly visible. We were sad that Shawn, a 6^th grader, was not able to make it but, A’Kayla made and brought his pot of plants to him. There were lots of hugs at the end, and I look forward seeing them in the Fall for a lot of harvesting!

Summer Visit One

June 21, 2012: Garden Club 7