After a chilly weekend, I whisked off a little early to the garden this morning to check on our beloved plants. Much to my dismay, I discovered that someone else had been going through our garden this weekend and not in a friendly manner. Our eggplant and pepper plants had been pulled from there beds; veggies, roots, and all, our fence surrounding the Three Sisters Garden had been knocked down, tomatoes were pulled off the plants, our pineapples had been yanked out and tossed about, sweet potatoes were torn apart, and so on. The general trampling of the garden was pretty disheartening. Immediately I went to checkout the watermelon. Many of my students have named it and standing around the watermelon at the end of class, recapping what we have learned that day, has become somewhat of a ritual. Sadly, someone seems to have made off with not only the watermelon, but the entire plant is nowhere to be seen. With such vandalism going on in the garden, you would think it would put a downer on the mood, but instead Alina, Sydney, Breen, and I got our hands dirty, grabbed our tools, picked up what could be salvaged, and went to work fixing what could be fixed. Facing this obstacle with a positive attitude will allow us to get the garden in tip-top shape again!
When our classes came out, we took a little detour from the garden itself and did things a little differently. As part of our weeks lesson, first we discussed the benefits of good bugs in the garden and the destruction some bad bugs can cause. We talked about where to find the bugs and what they looked like. As a group we then trekked to the compost pile to see how our "soup" was breaking down and see all the insects that were munching away on it. We also added veggies and fruits left over from the school cafeteria to the pile. What was different was that today we ended with a discussion about the damage the garden had been subject to. The disappointment
on my students faces after telling them that the watermelon was gone was upsetting, but their excited buzzing about getting the garden fixed up and planting more things with a "fresh start" really outweighed their gloom. Having all three of the classes express their concern that someone would do that to "their garden" and talking about how much they "love" their garden really proved what a great purpose the Edible Peace Patch stands for.
After a chilly weekend, I whisked off a little early to the garden this morning to check on our beloved plants. Much to my dismay, I discovered that someone else had been going through our garden this weekend and not in a friendly manner. Our eggplant and pepper plants had been pulled from there beds; veggies, roots, and all, our fence surrounding the Three Sisters Garden had been knocked down, tomatoes were pulled off the plants, our pineapples had been yanked out and tossed about, sweet potatoes were torn apart, and so on. The general trampling of the garden was pretty disheartening. Immediately I went to checkout the watermelon. Many of my students have named it and standing around the watermelon at the end of class, recapping what we have learned that day, has become somewhat of a ritual. Sadly, someone seems to have made off with not only the watermelon, but the entire plant is nowhere to be seen. With such vandalism going on in the garden, you would think it would put a downer on the mood, but instead Alina, Sydney, Breen, and I got our hands dirty, grabbed our tools, picked up what could be salvaged, and went to work fixing what could be fixed. Facing this obstacle with a positive attitude will allow us to get the garden in tip-top shape again! 
When our classes came out, we took a little detour from the garden itself and did things a little differently. As part of our weeks lesson, first we discussed the benefits of good bugs in the garden and the destruction some bad bugs can cause. We talked about where to find the bugs and what they looked like. As a group we then trekked to the compost pile to see how our "soup" was breaking down and see all the insects that were munching away on it. We also added veggies and fruits left over from the school cafeteria to the pile. What was different was that today we ended with a discussion about the damage the garden had been subject to. The disappointment 
on my students faces after telling them that the watermelon was gone was upsetting, but their excited buzzing about getting the garden fixed up and planting more things with a "fresh start" really outweighed their gloom. Having all three of the classes express their concern that someone would do that to "their garden" and talking about how much they "love" their garden really proved what a great purpose the Edible Peace Patch stands for.
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