Garden.0

This summer we started our first, real life, grown up garden.

image credit: etsy VintageGardenArt

Last school year was a train wreck. Despite a promotion, several students moved to less restrictive placements, and tons of individual student growth, morale was at an all-time low. Summersixteen, the garden was the perfect place to hide.

I generally have a black thumb, save for this plant we've had for years that  fourth grader kept alive in the back of my classroom instead of unpacking her backpack every day in the 2012-13 schoolyear. W., however, was raised by farm ladies who mean serious business, and designed a gorgeous garden for us.

In late June, we started with:
- 1 row of yellow squash from seed
- 1 row of zucchini from seed
- 1 row cucumber from seed
- 4 tomato plants (3 indeterminate, 1 determinate <--- we'll come back to this)
- 6 basil plants
- 1 mint plant
- 3 rows of corn from seed
- a bunch of marigold plants

Awww, baby garden!

RIP, guys.

Elllioooooooott

We lost both squash to this soil fungus, but the dukes persevered and are *delicious*.

#thatsONEnacho

I assumed tomatoes would grow early, and like crazy. We're still waiting on them. One plant finally popped this week with two tomatoes; another just has one big one. One plant has three, all from the same teeny stem,  and one, tons of cherry tomatoes that've been green forever.

July 14, still green August 11.

Tomatoless until Aug 8ish.

Corn is exciting. It goes through so many phases, and seeing silk evokes strong ties from the earth to my kitchen.  We fully acknowledge that without a fence, we'll most likely lose the corn to deer. They've started stopping by, but it's fun just to walk through and water plants that've own grown me by at least a foot.

If we get moving, we can plant another round of summer veggies, and it's prime time for winter planting: for MD, thyme, garlic, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, spinach, radishes, turnips and shallots. The garden has been so helpful in finding balance, I'm looking forward to keeping this up into the school year.

Have I mentioned water collection buckets? LOVE the earth!