K-3 Garden Spring 2012

K-3 Garden Spring 2012
A cleaned out garden bed.

Can the Short Hills Garden Beat the Heat?! July 31, 2012

As July turns into the dog days of August, our community garden is mostly flourishing (with a few exceptions) in spite of the weird weather cycles of crushing heat and thunderstorms. The red onions are bulging out of the ground and have been pronounced "extremely sweet and tender" by Mrs. Gibson, who cooked them with chicken breasts. All the staff members rattling around the empty school building have enjoyed the bountiful harvest of tomatoes. We have had to pick them when they are green and ripen them off the vine to foil the chipmunks who love to dive into the red ones. Even the addition of strong plastic netting and a scarecrow could not keep the determined critturs out! We wonder what is catching the attention of the fox visitors.

It is interesting to see the short term effects of the drought on farmers in New Jersey and America and to learn about the ripple effect on crops and food prices in the future. While our tomatoes, zucchini, eggplants, basil, and sunflowers are thriving, our corn ears are stunted and shriveled.  Corn is used to feed livestock, make corn syrup, and even as a substitute fuel for cars, so a bad crop has many long term effects.

Click on the link below to learn more about this problem:


Is Mr. Fox heading for our garden?



Dried out ears of corn







Maybe our Pingry scarecrow looks too friendly! 







Luscious tomato eaten by a chipmunk


Busted by the Ms. Collins roving camera eye...



At least Mr. Corvino beat the chipmunks to the zucchini squashes...



Sweet red onions
 
Eggplants are thriving...

Mr. Buckley reaps his reward after working hours in the heat1


Our first potato out of the ground...
 

Pingry's Newest Little Gardeners-SH Summer Enrichment Camp-June 2012


Ms. Smith-Willis was thrilled to see the eagerness of the incoming kindergarten students as they were introduced to the summer garden. They learned to work in teams, observe details, move carefully around the beds, use the trowels to plant flowers, properly fill and carry the watering cans, and harvest mature crops with care. Ms. Smith Willis's son, Lloyd Willis, Pingry class of 2016, was her able assistant, and the little ones loved the interaction with an older Pingry student. At the end of each camp day, the students went home with plastic bags of basil, mint, baby carrots, and anything else that was ready to harvest.







 

Learning about George Washington Carver from the Smart board



Girl campers share scrubbed and cut baby carrots

Planting a sweet potato




           



Ms.Collins checks out the racket! What's going on out there?

Ms.Collins checks out the racket! What's going on out there?

Reading the chore list...

Reading the chore list...
Checking out the chores before heading out to the garden to get a few things done.

Hard at work!

Hard at work!

Filling the wheel barrow

Filling the wheel barrow

Wonderful, nutritious soil!

Wonderful, nutritious soil!

Aerating soil

Aerating soil

Deep, dark, rich soil!

Deep, dark, rich soil!

Checking out the veggie flats

Checking out the veggie flats

What are we growing here?

What are we growing here?

Watering the veggie flats

Watering the veggie flats

The woodchips finally arrived!

The woodchips finally arrived!

Spreading out the wood chips!

Spreading out the wood chips!

1SW has one last FROZEN work day in the garden!

1SW has one last FROZEN work day in the garden!
Brrrrr! It was cold, but we managed to get a little more raking, digging and fertilizing done.

Our teacher finally put down the camera for one minute... Smile!

Lots of teamwork by garden groups!

Rocks to cover an unsightly drain... soon to be the home of our beautiful bird feeder from a special elf!

There's lots of raking to do and we had fun doing it!


We all worked together and a lot got done!

2 and 3rd graders working together!


This is how you do it!

Mrs. Euwer demonstrates her garden technique in her snazzy garden boots!

More composting!

Shoveling is harder than you think!