Coming back to the garden for our second planting season!

club flier

September update

Six girls (our of about 16 in the club) plus siblings and moms gathered with Mrs. Friedman on Sunday morning to check on the garden! This meeting was called because there were plants growing that were previously hidden under other plants' foliage, and needed to be discovered and appreciated!

The girls and preschool students have not been at the usual school site, so they haven't seen as much of the garden growth as otherwise, so we made a point to get together and see what's been growing.  We are excited for them to go back to their usual campus and eat sweet little tomatoes during recess!

It was super fun and everyone took home a sampling of the produce and lots of flowers!  Next year we definitely need to stake the tomatoes early and often- they are just piles of vines in most places!

A great surprise that we forgot we had planted!  Star of David Okra- a variety developed in Israel.  I (Mrs. Friedman) researched whether it was permissible to grow this variety in light of the recent shmitta year.  I called the company to find out when the seeds were gathered (was it during shmitta?) and asked a rabbi knowledgeable in this area what the findings would mean for us halachicly.  It was approved!

 Our corn stalks grew great and tall, but died at some point recently, and most of the ears were under-developed.  It was still fun to peel open the husks and pull apart the silk tassles!

 Beautiful flowers grow on bean plants, including our foot-long red Chinese beans that grew over our "mini St. Louis Arch."

 We found some more surprises...incredibly overgrown radishes (they probably were ready for picking 3 months ago!) and CARROTS!!! They looked perfect.  They were probably slow to mature because of the shade from other plants crowding the raised garden beds, but they survived!

 And this is what we think of rotten corn and overgrown radishes!!!

 Corn stalk roots are so cool!

 The girls with all the produce- tons of tomatoes, red okra too, and the other things described above.

Each girl got to bring home lovely zinnias and fragrant marigolds in different varieties! We grew the zinnias from little tiny seeds...how proud we are that they produced such beautiful flowers!

Discovering what on earth is a tomatillo!!!  It's also called a "ground cherry" and is not related to a tomato.  They are fun to harvest because you peel back a papery husk and it makes a pretty shape.  Eating them?  Well...hard to find highly appealing recipes beyond roasted salsa, but we'll have to keep looking!

Thanks, Usprich and Howley families!  Hope you enjoyed your produce!

Garden video tour, July 29, 2016

Mid-July Garden Update!!!

Mid-July Garden Update!!!

I've heard from multiple families that they've gone and picked squash, tomatoes, eggplants, and more!  Here's my photos for you to see of the remarkable growth, bli ayin hara (in this case hoping to keep away the squirrels and pests!)

Whoever is checking on the garden next will get to take home eggplant, zuchinni, and squash!  And I recommend you taste the mild 18" beans that are climbing up one of the arches.

We haven't seen a lot of actual vegetable growth with the cucucumbers, but let's stay hopeful.  Also, i still haven't staked the tomatoes.  IY"H this week.

Check out the beautiful growth!

ZINNIAS planted from tiny seeds by your daughters :)

ZUCHINNI planted from seed by your daughters :)

SQUASH and 18 inch Chinese beans planted from seeds by your daughters :)

 EGGPLANT growing very nicely

OKRA looks good but must have been a late bloomer, not sure why.  Okra will grow to a tree like plant 6 feet tall or so, and is extremely heat tolerant and productive.  Marigold next to it.

BOK CHOY Asian greens planted from tiny seeds by your daughters :)

Some serious construction at the school!! 

June 15 garden update:

For Parents AND OF COURSE STUDENTS TO READ TOO!!!

Everything is sprouting, and some things are growing tall already!  I can tell that the girls (with the kind support of their teachers!) took really good care of the garden in the last month of school.  Let's all pitch in to keep this amazing project alive over the summer!  It won't be hard, and the rewards will be many!!

Here's my photos of everything sprouting and growing.  Zinnias, cucumbers, sunflowers, flax, corn, beans, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and more!

The 4th grade girls will remember doing a flax growing project connected to studying Yehoshua  with me when I was their long term sub!  (The spies in Yericho hid among bundles of flax on the roof of Rachav's inn!)  The rising fourth graders hopefully will have a really special opportunity to see full grown flax when the learn Yehoshua this fall, IY"H!  I hope the new teacher will incorporate a garden visit to that perek study!)

Please sign up for watering, we need someone today or at the latest by Monday.  We need at least once a week to keep plants alive if there is no rain!  You can share your photos and note on the blog too- just email it to me!

- Mrs. Friedman

Off to a great start

Our first meeting with many enthusiastic beginning gardeners

Photo from Mrs. Friedman's trip to Home Depot to buy supplies- they cut all the wood to order, and helped carrying about 30 bags of soil to my car!!

During our work party on Sunday morning we built and painted the garden beds, and in a recess work party on Wednesday we filled the beds with a combo of top soil and garden soil meant to help vegetables grow well.  The girls did a good job sharing hammers and paintbrushes, and a lot of teamwork happened as they carried so many heavy bags of soil to the right places.

We built four beds like the ones pictured here.  Everyone got to do some of the hammering and screw-drilling.  The girls will take turns with different planting tasks.  For the first day we planted the live plants that were purchased: eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, and marigolds.  Everything else will be planted from seed in our next work party, Sunday morning.

Still to do:
plant seeds for corn, cucumbers, okra, zinnias, snap peas, carrots, and everything else
nail in hoops for beanstalks
stake tomatoes
build bed in front of school, paint, plant, etc
let every girl paint her name as a founding member of the club