Oh Boy, I am a bit behind with my blog. I doc myself 20 grade points...
We have spent the past two weeks planting our crops in the garden. First we directed everyone to their plots and started the 'fun' weeding session. Students were given transplants of eggplant, 4 pepper varieties, and 2 tomato varieties to plant in addition to the seeds for beans, green onions, carrots, okra, sunflowers, zinnias, basil, cilantro, cucumber, yellow squash, and zucchini. At planting, every one was given a little cup of fertilizer to place around their plants. Placement of the fertilizer is important: if its too far from the plant it cannot access it until the roots grow, and if its too close then the roots will burn from the intensity of the fertilizer.
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| Selecting the transplants |
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| Long shadows meant we were out there pretty late planting! |
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I waited until the second week to break it to everyone that the original tomato and broccoli transplants all DIED. I believe it was due to a the pH of the germination medium being too high. We bought in tomatoes from a local place in town for everyone to plant. It was too late for the broccoli, so instead everyone was welcomed to plant anything they wanted in the extra space. I heavily encouraged eggplant (cause we have like 800 available) and Kohlrabi (because its VERY similar to broccoli in that it is the same genus and species, however it was bred for a beefy bulbous stem instead of florettes).
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| Sad little broccoli transplant after 4 weeks of struggle. |
We brought in some new germination mix and recently seeded lettuce, cauliflower, cabbage, and beets.
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| Speckled lettuce seedling. Picture taken over a week ago, they are much larger now! |
We have been getting a lot of rain this past week. I am thankful for the raised beds helping with drainage. As the season goes on the impact of rain and irrigation water from overhead will continue to erode our beds. For now they are safe.
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| Several hours after rain and row middles are almost puddles |
