Compost and Crop Rotation

Calling all kids! Calling all kids! It’s time to turn the compost!

Talk about a good time–I don’t know which they enjoyed more–shoveling dirt or handling tools! New toys, is more like it. Young people are always looking for the latest and greatest and if they can’t find that, well then, they’ll settle for something new. New to them, that is.

Fine with me. Our middle schoolers and upper elementary students had a field day with the job of turning their heap of hay and weeds AND they were being productive. An awesome combination in my garden journal. Better yet, as they worked their way through, they were amazed by the dirt they had “grown.” Composting is pretty cool.

While these composters were at work, another group was busy pulling out the broccoli. The broccoli eaten, the plants bolted, it was time. Besides, it was time to plant our scallions. As part of our crop rotation plan, we will follow our “leaves” with “roots” as in bean, leaves, roots and fruits. If you dance around and repeat this order in a sing-song tone, the kids tend to remember it. They also roll their eyes, snicker, giggle and refuse to dance with you–but they do remember it.

But of course, before we can plant we must remove the weeds. A job more fun when done with friends. Avoiding roots and other buried treasures in our dirt bed, the kids planted their onions and covered them with a nice layer of soft dirt.

Peering into the bag of leftover onions sets, one boy asked if he could have them. As in, take-them-into-your-classroom-hide-them-in-your-locker-and-cause-ruckus, have them?

No. He wanted to plant them in his home garden. I smiled. There was no way I could resist that kind of enthusiasm, so of course, I handed him the bag.

Moving right along, the lower elementary kids descended upon the garden and I had to give them some bad news. It’s not always “sunshine and candy” in the garden. Nope. Sometimes gardeners (a.k.a. me) miss weather cues (too busy to watch the weather channel) and are caught off guard by surprise frosts. Not good when you have fragile vulnerable Lima transplants in the ground. Yep, you guessed it. Frost-bitten.

Back in the old days, farmer kids had to rely solely on their garden for food. Lucky for us, we don’t have to rely on our crop for survival. But hey–look at our potatoes! Heads turned. See how wonderful they’re growing?

Ooohs and aaahs abounded as they forgave me, then we toured around the garden for a focus on the positive. Our carrots are sprouting, our sweet onions are doing well…

Then, to make it up for my error, I suggested we engage in a bit of transplanting (one of their favorite things to do!) We began with oregano.

Discovered this little guy along the way. Ugh. Unwelcome in our garden, he was dispatched to another section of the yard.

Added some lavender. One child mistook it for rosemary, whereby we did a “smell” comparison. They touched the rosemary with one hand, the lavender with the other and compared. Spicy, strong, soap, perfume… We had lots of observations, to which I added, “One smells like the kitchen, and one smells like mom.”