The burst of yellow

Welcomes the small bee

Doing his day job

            

     The pumpkin pushed hard

       On the bonds of its cage

     Trying to escape

  

A shy ear of corn

Poked through the sheltering leaves

And whispered, "I'm here..."

         

          

    The pepper was green

    Until, kissed by the hot sun,

    It showed its red self

                                              

Make your own garden at home with a little help from this book !!



Water Weed and Wait                

 By Edith Hope Fine & Angela Demos Halpin

             Reviewed by P. Mennen

This story is about some kids at Pepper Lane Elementary School. They planted some radishes in their classroom and wanted to make a home for them. They decided to make a garden with their teacher Miss Marigold. They found a place right next to the playground and decided that would be a great spot. They handed out flyers In their neighborhood to ask people to help make the garden. The person next door wasn't very nice and wanted to know what the noise was because it was his property. They didn't ask for his permission for using his property.

Will mean old Mr. Barkley stop them from making their garden? Read the book to find out what happens next! I liked this book because it reminded me of making our school garden!



Ms. SW takes two days of classes at the New York Botanical Gardens

The GWC section of the family garden.

                 

                          A portion of the Howell Family Garden.

Basil and Oregano planted together.

4x12 teaching raised beds!




Companion planting, flowers and tomatoes.




 On the weekend of July 16 & 17th, on all that heat... I went to the NY Botanical Gardens to spend some time in the Howell Family Gardens. I took several classes about fall vegetable gardening, pruning, companion planting, cold frames and making our garden a three season garden. At the gift shop I bought two (2) books. One called Weed, Water and Wait and one on George Washington Carver. There was also a nice section of the family garden dedicated to Dr. George Washington Carver! Stay tuned for a book review to arrive on the blog by a summer garden student!

Check out the new crops in the garden!

Cantaloupe, July 9, 2011

Squash, July 26, 2011

Gourds, July 26-11

Melons July 26-11



Jalapeno pepper July 15, 2011

 In June, lots of new crops were planted in the garden with the help of the Summer Enrichment students. Peppers, egglplant, basil, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, melons, gourds and cantaloupe were all planted and are growing strong! Beets, lettuce and mint were harvested and enjoyed by the students and their families. All the old crops have been removed from the beds and the next task of conditioning the soil has begun. Lots of flowers and dusty miller was planted outside of the fence and a few new things will continue to pop up during the summer months. If you're in the neighborhood, come by and take a peek!

The Pingry Pumpkin Patch is coming soon!

Both pumpkin beds weeded & flowers sprouting! June 2011

Giant pumpkin beds July 16, 2011

The regular pumpkin beds-weeded!

       

A giant pumpkin growing outside the fence!

A little green pumpkin growing outside of the fence!

The regular pumpkin seed sprouts!

   The giant pumpkin seed sprouts!

The weeded giant pumpkin bed on June 26, 2011

Wow! Who knew that so many pumpkins were going to grow OUTSIDE the fence??? Now, we're busy hoping that the deer and other NJ critters don't eat them! Ms. SW has been in the garden watering, weeding and tackling the fence around the Kindergarten pumpkin beds! Two spider bites and one tetanus shot later, the pumpkins are finally growing! On June 22nd Ms. SW weeded the  pumpkin beds for the first time with lots of help from the Summer Enrichment pre K students! There were no yellow flowers in the beds before we weeded. Within 24 hours, there were giant yellow pumpkin flowers blooming! Put on your thinking caps and see if you can figure out WHAT happened to make the change? Here are some pictures taken throughout the watering and weeding process!

The DeVito Corn Field...



This is the corn that was knocked over on July 9th.

The corn is growing nice and tall!



Which raised bed of corn had some extra help?

Hey! What's this?

Back in the spring, class 1-O planted corn and sunflower seeds sent in by the DeVito family. Well, the chipmunks and squirrels dug up and ate the sunflowers! They were supposed to help the corn stalks grow nice and tall! Then we had a big rain storm and some of the corn was blown over! So, Ms. Smith Willis went out and "added something yummy" to one raised bed full of corn and tied up the corn stalks to help them try to continue to grow throughout the summer. Can you guess which raised bed of corn had a little help? Now that it's almost the end of July, look what's growing!!!

The Miraculous Journey of a Georgia eggplant seedling!

Eggplant July 9, 2011

July 12, 2011

July 14, 2011

July 26, 2011 - two eggplant fruits!





Remember that eggplant seedling Ms. Smith Willis brought back on the plane from Georgia? Well, here it is! Look how big it's grown! It's had quite the journey... beginning in a Wal-Mart in Georgia, then under seat 16D on the flight home, to the 1SW classroom, to being planted by class 3M, to growing all spring, surviving a giant aphid attack in July and finally producing four (4) dark purple fruits! Mr. Corvino harvested the first one, followed by The Gagliardi family harvesting the second one! Be sure to ask them if they were delicious or not so delicious! What an adventurous journey our little eggplant seedling had! Who knew it would grow so big?

June 2011 helpers plant goodies for the summer and fall!

Planting gourds.

After planting basil, they watered.

Harvesting a ripe purple pepper!

Wow! Look at the giant pumpkins! It's growing outside of the fence!

     

Watering the basil and tomatoes.

Planting and watering peppers.