It’s a very exciting day when you visit your garden and discover your seeds have sprouted. (Germinated–for you scientific types out there.) Last week Lower Elementary worked hard to plant their red beans and this week?
Simply marvelous. Gorgeous, really. Bean sprouts are one of my favorite sprouts in the garden and you can easily see why.
How cool is it to actually see the bean you planted–in action? Well, not “live action” as in “motion,” but it feels the same to me!
The kids really enjoyed these new sprouts, as well they should. So it’s no wonder those little guys and gals were ready to dig in to their corn row.
First came the tilling, aka weeding… And next comes the planting!
But they weren’t the only ones busy planting this week. We had Upper Elementary sowing pole beans along the fence. If you remember, these are the same group of kids who plowed along the fence, tilling and weeding and prepping it for seed. So this week, they finished the job.
And as if pole beans weren’t awesome enough on their own, what’s extra neat about these pole beans is the fact they are the “harvest” from our spring garden. After our seed fundraiser, we had a few packets leftover and what better way to use them than to replant for another seed fundraiser!
I mean, our first one was so successful that now we have colorful gloves, plenty of shovels and magnifying glasses (with which to inspect our leaves for bugs). Since organic gardeners don’t use toxic pesticides, we need to pluck and chuck our insects–but we have to see them first. 🙂 Now we can!
Off to the pumpkin patch and our amazing Middle Schoolers. They had the task of transplanting our pumpkin sprouts this week. They’re transplanting sproutlings instead of sowing seeds, because pumpkins take almost 4 months to mature and we simply didn’t have time to wait until school started. These are ones I began back in early August.
Transplanting is easy, but can get tricky if not handled with care. So first, gently remove the sprout.
Place in a pre-dug hole–pre-dug by you.
Pat the dirt in and around the base, but not too firmly. Plants like soft beds of dirt, not hard. (Love the nail color.)
Build a well around your sprout and water thoroughly.
This will ensure your little pumpkin (hey–I can actually say “little pumpkin” and mean it!) will get all the water it can. Water is vital to a young sprout, especially in our hot Florida climate. Kindergartners were out in full force this afternoon planting their squash. Last week they had a lesson on how to plant seeds and this week they did so! (No pictures, because we were racing against the rain clock.)
All in all, it was a fun week! Lesson-wise, the Middle Schoolers received their first garden quiz: Organic Gardening Essentials Quiz and Lower Elementary received a revised first lesson on seeds: Starting from Seed_LE Upper Elementary was “saved by the bell.” No quiz from me until next week!
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