Monday, July 30, 2012

A Busy and Productive Garden Day!

Morning Glory Blossom
We harvested cucumbers and wax beans under an overcast, cool sky. The donation, delivered Monday, July 30th, to the Salvation Army Soup Kitchen totaled 12 cucumbers, a sizable handful of wax beans and one pea pod.

We also noticed cucumber beetles running a bit rampant in the garden, so we had folks look for (and destroy) those bugs. While cucumber beetles are sort of pretty, they do spread disease to other cucurbit plants. We also noticed some beneficial pollinators in the garden: Bees (see pictures below) and one butterfly that flitted away before we could get a picture or identify it.

We opened a bean and lima seeds and found the parts there-in: the seed coat, the cotyledon (seed food) and embryo (baby plant). 

We placed the stepping stones we made on July 12th around the garden. They were not put in the path for folks to walk on because they were too lovely. They were placed among the plantings as decorations for folks to enjoy. 

We restrung the trellising and hung new signs that hopefully will not blow away. 

We found the five fruiting vegetable plants: Tomato, Cucumber, Wax Bean, Zucchini and Gourds.

Cherokee Wax Bean Blossom
Wax Beans
Dwarf Sunflower Bud
Pollinator on a squash blossom
Honey Bee on a squash blossom
Bumblebee (?) on a squash blossom
Ripening Gourd
Kara and the cucumber picked from the container she planted!
Brenten and a freshly picked cucumber
Emerald picking Cherokee Wax Beans

Kara and Clair harvesting beans
Adrian and his cucumber harvest!
Future corn!
Kara and Clair's harvest basket with their family looking on.

Kenzie putting the final string at the top of the teepee.

The Earthtenders stepping stone

Brenton fixing the trellising string and hanging a garden sign.

Cucurbits & The Three Sisters

Kaiden and his dad exploring the inside of a bean seed

Kaiden looking inside his own bean seed 

The Studley's Stepping Stone

The Harvest

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Update for tomorrow's garden day:

Do to our unfulfilled search for 6-pack transplants, we will be altering the garden activities for tomorrow...

·            Weeding & Watering

·            Picking any ripe vegetables

·            Investigating a lima bean

·            Having Fun!

See you tomorrow!


Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Garden Day this Thursday, July 26th!

Join us on Thursday, July 26th, 2012 from 10am to 11am for Cultivating Kids Garden Day! Come see what is growing in the children’s garden! Help weed, water and and plant some seedlings in the last of the empty spaces in the garden!
Please be ready to get wet and dirty! Also, please remember to dress for the weather! Hats, water and sunscreen are highly recommended. . Older children may attend independently, but younger children will need help from their grown up. 

Thursday, July 19, 2012

How the Garden Grows!

The rate of growth in the children's garden is amazing. Check out these pictures from the July 3rd blog post and see the difference just a few weeks has made! We have now noticed a fourth kind of vegetable growing in the garden! We will look for "fruiting" plants on the next garden day, so we will keep the fourth a secret until then! Thanks to all for helping out in the garden!


Cucumbers

The Three Sisters: Corn (a bit leaned over due to last
night's windy weather) beans and squash

Mammoth Sunflowers

Zucchini

Pumpkins

The Children's Garden

Mammoth Sunflowers and The Three Sisters

Melampodium (foreground) Teepee (mid-ground) and Cucubits (background)

Flowering Melampodium

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

The First Children's Garden Harvest!

This fabulous cucumber was picked from the children's garden this morning! We are proud of everyone who helped bring about the success of the garden! Cheers!

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Stepping Stones!


Today in the garden we made and decorated cement stepping stones! Kids worked together to mix the cement, pour it into molds, letter and finish them with gems, glass and shells.

We also watered, watered, watered! The garden tends to dry out quickly in this beautiful summer weather so it really needed a good, deep watering! We pulled up lots of weeds too! Weeds in the path, weeds in the gravel and weeds where ever they were!

Kids were encouraged to find the two plants that bore fruit, which they did: tomato and cucumber. But they also found a third that previously escaped our notice: zucchini!

We asked the kids if they saw any insects in the garden. A bee, green fly and a dragon fly were spotted!

We were impressed with how all the kids worked together and were patient while going about all the tasks in the garden under a such a hot summer sun!
Cucumber

Tomato

Cucumber-lets

Zucchini

The Three Sisters!

Cucurbits!

Brenten mixing cement for the stepping stone molds.

Nick (left) and Brenton (right) mixing cement. Kids (back)
naming and decorating the stepping stones.

Discovering the zucchini!

Challenging folks to find the plants that are baring fruits!

Identifying a dragonfly.

Watering the Wax Beans!

The kids identified this as a "Common Baskettail" dragonfly.

Dragonfly hanging out in the children's garden!

Amidst the corn!

A group from Chamberlain School visiting the children's garden!

Kenzie facilitating the stone decorating.

Brenten sculpting a moon with the last of the cement mix.

Brenten and Kenzie enjoying a much deserved break!

Our awesome volunteers: Nick, Brenten and Kenzie!

Sophie looking for stuff to water.

 Kara and the cucumber and chives she planted back on the first garden day!

 Clair and the tomato and alyssum she planted on the first garden day!

Below are the stones we made in honor of the local businesses that generously donated to the children's garden!

Elks of Rochester, NH

City of Rochester, NH

Earthtenders of Farmington, NH

Lowe's of Rochester, NH

Studley's of Rochester, NH

Blue Seal of Rochester, NH

Home Depot of Rochester, NH