Under Phil's tender loving care, these vegetable plants are thriving! To harden off the home-grown veggies, we are taking them outside during the day and inside overnight. This method will allow them to thrive in sunlight and develop strong stems (in response to wind) while being protected from cold nights.
Today, March 29, students will plant some of these veggies in the TMS garden. I'm worried about the anticipated 32 degree nights next week. I intend to plant only half of these plants this week, in case they die in the cold next week.
The peas, lettuce and spinach are slowly growing. You can barely see the lettuce in the upper right corner (the spinach is off screen). We are protecting this plot from bunnies with a deer-mesh screen that we fix down around the garden frame. I think the temperature is almost TOO cold.
Chives are thriving from last year. When they bloom, the students and I will enjoy tasting them. I have not seen the oregano growing yet, and don't know if it survived the winter.
The garlic we planted last fall is doing fine. I will watch for garlic scapes (the flower bud of the garlic plant) to grow. Stay tuned!
Strawberry plants! Of course, there's no fruit yet. First will be the flowers, then tiny green strawberries, followed by white and finally red! Note for March 29: only the leaves are showing so far.
It all starts with compost -- school vegetable and fruit scraps, layered with leaves and garden waste. We covered these scraps with leaf compost today. When it gets warmer, we'll explore some more.
Favorite activity for students? Finding bugs, worms and creepy crawlies! Today the driving wind meant that the compost pile and garden soil was off limits. But the woodchips turned up worms, millipedes, spiders and sow bugs (pill bugs, roly-polies, and isopods).
My personal focus this year will be to manage the tools more carefully: cleaned and stored. My other personal focus is to better understand soil. Nothing like keeping things interesting by setting learning goals for everyone!
Under Phil's tender loving care, these vegetable plants are thriving! To harden off the home-grown veggies, we are taking them outside during the day and inside overnight. This method will allow them to thrive in sunlight and develop strong stems (in response to wind) while being protected from cold nights.
The peas, lettuce and spinach are slowly growing. You can barely see the lettuce in the upper right corner (the spinach is off screen). We are protecting this plot from bunnies with a deer-mesh screen that we fix down around the garden frame. I think the temperature is almost TOO cold. 
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