November, 2014

The Garden Sleeps

The Garfield Garden was cleared of all dead tomatoes and squash plants in early November (with the help of a few visiting first graders who gobbled up any last remaining ripe cherry tomatoes).  We didn't get a picture of the towering sunflowers that the first graders grew but the diameter of their stalks was easily 2-3 inches and were about 6 ft. tall.  A couple of 5th graders helped remove the stalks but we were unable to get all the roots out before the first hard freeze froze them in soil - that will be a job for the Spring.  

Many beds produced large tomato plants which spilled out covering everything and carried quite a few green tomatoes. The Kindergarten bed was possibly the most prolific grower overall, with huge squash plants (were they pumpkins?), tall sunflowers and marigolds.  

Kept in the beds to winter over were some chives (3rd grade?) and some mint in the 4th grade bed.  The Blind/VI classroom has a 'sensory' garden with a few mint plants and two lavender plants which should hang in there over winter and be ready next Spring.

Mr. Robbie kindly ground up some leaves from the school yard and spread them on some of the beds to help feed the soil.  Before more mulch could be put down, we had our first big snow and now winter looks like it's here to stay.  

See you in the Spring!