Sun, Fun, and Friday!

Today we had probably the calmest two classes I have ever seen at the garden. The first class I had last semester, and they've since changed teachers. Two of my kids I worked with personally previously it was wonderful to be able to work with them again. They are now third graders, and so big! At first I didn't even recognize one of them! They were so excited to be able to see the garden, and kept asking "do we have any beans, squash, radishes?" all plants they had grown previously. They also wanted to know where their plants from last year were. I had to explain that we harvest all the vegetables at the end of each growing season and use them in the harvest festival. I asked them if they came to the harvest festival and both of them shook their heads no, so hopefully they will this year! This class has been learning about the different parts of a plant: roots, stem, leaves, and flowers, so instead of asking them to draw what a plant needs, I had them draw the different parts of the plant and explain to me why each part is important. They were so eager to tell me everything they had learned, I was so excited!

The second class we had this afternoon was a class of kindergartners. They had never been out to the garden and were so excited to be in it they couldn't help but break out into a run once in awhile to get to the next bed. We went over the rules several times, but I think it might be best with the younger classes to start off each week with the rules so they have a solid reminder. For the kindergartners I spent most of the time showing them everything in the garden from the sunflowers to the beets to the aloe. I also let them taste a couple of different things including dill, collards, and kale. One of the girls was hungry and kept wanting more whereas the two boys were a little pickier about what they ate. I told her we had to wait to allow the plants to mature so we could get the most from them. I absolutely love kindergarten classes because I can be a little bit whimsical or play follow the leader and they love it. We pretended the trench the sunflowers are in is lava to make sure we didn't step on any of the sunflowers, and played follow the leader when they kept running through the garden.

Finally, we did some maintenance for the garden. Everything is starting to look great, but a garden always need work done! We turned the compost (to the best of my knowledge) and added some water because it looked extremely dry. We also poured more water on the papayas since they look like they're struggling a little bit from the transplanting. Lastly, we weeded since weeding always needs to be done. As long as we can keep ahead of the sedge, then we're in great shape! Well until next week!