Who's having a feast in the garden?

SOMETHING has been nibbling all of our hard work! Here's what's left of our corn and cucumbers...

 

Math for Gardeners!

Is your math brain ready for school? Brush up on your math skills and see if you can do these math problems for gardeners!

Someone has been busy looking for "end of season" garden tool sales! She found lots of kid sized gloves!
They cost 6 dimes each. How much did each pair of gloves cost?

Someone also spent a Saturday washing off all the tools we already had. Now they're nice and clean and ready to be used!

Lots of medium sized gloves were also on sale! They were the same price as the kid sized gloves. Someone bought
20 pair. How much did they spend for all the medium sized gloves?

These are the new hand rakes that were in the "sale" bin. The secret shopper bought 4 reds, 7 greens, 5 blues, and 4 yellows. How many new hand rakes were bought in all?

These are kneeling pads, so we won't hurt our knees on the wood chips when we work. They cost $1 each. The secret shopper bought 20 kneeling pads. What was the total cost of the kneeling pads?

Groundhogs: Pests or Gardeners? By K.Miller

How Groundhog's Garden Grew
By Lynne Cherry

Reviewed by K. Miller

This story is about a groundhog who learned how to garden. First he was stealing from a neighbor's garden and the animals caught him. They told him to grow his own garden and he said he didn't know how. So, a smart squirrel taught him how to grow a garden. Read more and find out if he was a good gardener or a pest.

I liked this book because it reminded me of planting our garden in Short Hills. Also, the illustrations were really good. Sometimes the author/illustrator would put pictures around the edges of the pages. The pictures were of plants, seeds and things that are pests and things that aren't pests. My favorite picture is the one where Groundhog is getting out of his burrow in the spring and he and squirrel are cutting up potatoes to plant in the garden. Also, I liked the end pages because they had lots of pictures of things we grew in our garden. This is a good book to read!

Learn about Dr. George Washington Carver!

The Little Plant Doctor: A Story About George Washington Carver
by Jean Marzollo
Reviewed by J. Smith

This book tells about Dr. Carver when he was a little boy.It teaches you about how he helped people learn to grow their gardens better. He was too sick and weak to work with his brother on the farm, so he helped with the family garden. He also had a secret garden that no one knew about in the woods. At his secret garden, he learned about plants and
how they grew. Then people started to call him the "Little Plant Doctor".
I liked this book because he helped people with their plants and grew up to be a famous botanist. I also liked the illustrations, especially the page where he is hugging the little tree he planted. I recommend this book if you want to learn about George Washington Carver as a little boy.

Summer Harvest

        While carefully pinching off basil leaves, Alivia recalled from class that ladybugs help to control aphids in the garden.

                               A Pingry pupil picked a pretty perfect purple pepper!

A juicy cucumber!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mrs. Gibson (and some hungry chipmunks) have been sharing the bounty of the garden. It is fun to see the eggplant, peppers, cucumbers, pumpkins, and melons ripening in the combination of August sun and rain. As a taste tester, Mrs. Gibson can report that the few ears of corn harvested before the "critturs" gobbled them up were exceptionally sweet and tender. The purple peppers were a little bitter but interesting in an omelette and the cucumbers were delicious in a Pingry garden salad!

A chipmunk salad bar

There are some chubby chipmunks running around!

A garden salad of  peppers, one tomato, cucumbers, and basil-mmmmmmm

 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!