For everything there is a season...

The fruit of our hard work certainly was evident today in the Edible Peace Patch Garden. Not only is everything thriving, but at least half of the plants are producing fruit, or at least have flowers, a sure sign that some delicious fruit or vegetable will be visible soon. It’s so wonderful to see the plants producing all of this food, growing without the need for any of those harmful chemicals we find in regular, store-bought produce. The best thing is seeing all the kids’ faces when they see the enormous watermelon and all the other stuff that has come up in the last week. They always have the most sincere form of wonder when they see everything growing, and we have been able to share with them a few of the vegetables that have come up, like the radishes that we harvested today.


We had first graders come out to the garden today, a very rambunctious group of exceptionally curious children. Our lesson was on soil, its benefits and the different types of soil we have in the garden. We showed them the soil in the beds, the sandy soil near the Three Sisters, as well as the compost and the horse manure. Not unexpectedly, the kids found the horse manure the most interesting, and apparently gross (a chorus of shouts of “eeeewww!” and “it’s stinky!” rang out as soon as we told them what manure was). The compost was a winner as well, and surprisingly many of the kids already knew what the compost was for, which meant that they were easily distracted from the lesson by the many bugs hiding in the compost. Luckily, the next lesson we have planned will be about the different types of bugs we have in the garden, the good ones and the bad, and how they affect the plants that are growing. Most of the kids are fascinated by the bugs, and a few of them already know quite a bit about them – one of my first graders today knew that the bees pollinated the plants. We will also be letting the children taste some of the stuff that we have in the garden, especially the radishes and the beans. Hopefully the watermelon will be ready soon so that we can crack one of them open and share with our classes.



Our herb garden is doing great as well – the amaranth, basil, and nasturtiums are all growing beautifully. The pineapple looks just as great as ever, though I think most of the frogs taking refuge in them have moved to different parts of the garden. I cannot wait for our end-of-semester event, so the kids, their parents, and the teachers can all enjoy the Edible Peace Patch as much as all of us do.