Friday, July 19, 2013

Learning Garden brainstorming with Taiwanese students visiting SMU

On Thursday July 18th  I had the pleasure of working with visiting students from Taiwan. We decided  to label the plants in both English and Mandarin. This gave rise to the idea of making laminated labels for the plants in the Learning Garden in all the languages of people likely to visit the LG.

 
We also collected seeds from our bed of greens, and trimmed the remaining scapes from our second garlic bed.
 
 
We did a little hand pollinating in the greenhouse on the tomatoes.
 
 
We had a lot of fun in the Learning Garden!
 
 
 
 
 

The Learning Garden at SMU receives help from vsiting Korean Students

 

On Wednesday July 17th The
Learning Garden at SMU received some help from 14 visiting Korean students. The students helped me remove the scapes from our garlic crop to encourage the energy flow of the garlic plant downward into the bulb.



We also discovered a small maple tree growing near one of the beds. We dug it up and potted it to add to our native plant nursery.
I think it is a big leaf maple time will tell.

 

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Large Tomatoe Plants Need Repotting

This spring I underestimated the size of the pots I would need for the heirloom varieties of tomatoes we are growing in the greenhouse. That said I really needed to get these big plants into big enough pots for them to thrive for the rest of the growing season. Here is how it went:
It is hard to tell how big this plant is this is only a two gallon pot
 
 
This pot is three times bigger!
 
Our greenhouse at SMU has tables that can be taken apart to give plants more head room
These large tomato plants now have enough growing room and enough soil to produce well into the fall growing season possibly yielding tomatoes through November.
The basil is now located nearer the door and is easier to harvest.
Come by the greenhouse and snip some basil it just keeps it healthy and bushy!
 
Our Stocky Red Roaster Pepper Plants are HUGE! They are blossoming now and I hope to see peppers forming soon. I have seen bees inside the greenhouse but some hand pollination would help.


Monday, July 8, 2013

The Learning Garden is Growing very Well

I have been away from my blog for some time. I hope you haven't missed me too much. Here is some of what has been happening this summer in the Learning Garden. I want to start with a poem I wrote.

Now
Now you need to be out
in the Garden Learning
You need to be outside enjoying
this absolutely perfect weather
You need to embrace these beautiful days
as if they are all you will ever have
remember
everyday you are not suffering
is a miracle.
Do I need to tell you this?
I am not sure,
but I do anyway
just in case
I do need to.
 
 
Here are some pictures of some of the vegetables growing.
 
A student grew this corn from seed it is three feet high in early  July! 
Zucchini squash plants
 
Amaranth
Quinoa
Basil