Help is on Its Way – Horticulture & Green Jobs

Today was the final day of class for the 2010 Garden N Grow program. The young gardeners spent time in their respective gardens harvesting, weeding and watering. Some of the gardeners plan to continue to harvest crops in the upcoming days.

Sam and a rather large cucumber from his garden.

It was hiding under some leaves and he almost

overlooked it.

After working in the garden, Marlin led the class in an interesting discussion about jobs related to horticulture. Most of the students were familiar with jobs in the field of horticulture and completed the exercise by drawing their version of a scientist.

After first completing very creative individual thank you notes for the Fairview Christian Church, the students completed their photo frame project by adding a label and photos.Each student took home their class workbook, frame, birdhouse, and photo’s on a CD. At the end of class, the pastor of the church joined us and Marlin presented the thank you notes. Students and helpers alike expressed appreciation for use of the grounds and classroom for the program.

Garden N Grow

Class of 2010

When asked “what did you enjoy most in the Garden N Grow program”, the young gardeners provided the following responses.

Drake – “Making stuff like the birdhouses”

Laurel – “Picking my peppers”

Lenna – “Watching my okra grow as tall as me!”

Baylee – “Watching all of my plants grow, then picking them, Yum!”

Nate – “Eating my cukes!”

Sam – “Eating my peppers!”

Josie – “Picking my sunburst squash, and squashing eggs out of a squash bug! :)”

Lexie – “Love working with all of the nice people”

Trading Traits – Plant Development

As you can tell from the attached photos, the garden needed lots of watering on Thursday. Most of the plants are producing lots of delicious vegetables and the young gardeners are quite proud of the bounty. The students have learned many important lessons about growing vegetables both in the classroom and in the garden. Lexie commented that she has only harvested 2 beans from her wax bean plants and Lenna discovered a very large okra hiding under some leaves. Josie got stung by a bee and Lenna came to her rescue. It was a most exciting morning in the garden.

Laurel providing

much needed

water to her

plants.

Drake's sack of lovely peppers.

The topic of today’s lesson was plant development. Marlin began the lesson by asking each of the students to name their favorite vegetable. Drake’s favorite is tiger melon in his garden and Lenna’s is okra. Marlin then talked briefly about genetic engineering and cross pollination. Marlin then challenged the students to create their own version of a genetically engineered fruit or vegetable using a variety of edible items. The creativity displayed by the students was amazing and you can see a sample of the results in the photo below.

Lenna with her version of a genetically altered food.

The young gardeners each selected and painted a bird house using a variety of bright colors. Once dry, the birdhouses can be hung in their gardens or taken home.

Friend, Can You Spare a Tomato

There was a bountiful harvest on Monday. The gardeners picked yellow and scalloped squash, bell peppers, jalepenos and okra.

Laurel, Lexie and Lenna watched a squash bug lay eggs on a leaf. They promptly destroyed eggs and bug!

Deer grazing was noted on tomato plants. Their tell-tale hoof prints were also seen. The three sisters are growing nicely.

After working in the gardens, the young gardeners went on a field trip to the Salvation Army Food Bank. We brought canned goods and fresh produce from the garden. The Food Pantry services 8-10 families every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday during their open hours. Families can only use the pantry every 60 days so that means this pantry is providing food for some 200-240 families in the area.
input by Chris Veach and Gretchen Lathrop

What's it Worth?

The day started with picking produce and squashing bugs. The pepper harvest of all varieties was plentiful. Josee was excited to pick her first scalloped squash. Laurel picked a beautiful bumpy yellow squash, Baylee and Lenna picked onions, okra and beans.

Baylee, Josie, Laurel and Lenna weighed their harvest on scales. Local supermarket sale ads were scanned to determine the cost of the produce harvested. Everyone was surprised how much their family would save at the grocery store while still adding good nutrition to their family meals. Josie produce was worth $11.00

Everyone had fun making bird feeders and learned that birds will eat insects in the garden to feed to their young. Bird feeder also bring unwanted pests such as squirrels and raccoons to the garden.

The upcoming trip to the Salvation Army Food Bank was discussed. if desired everyone can bring a canned good from home to donate. Gardeners can donate from their Monday's garden harvest if desired.

Miss Kathy brought delicious pumpkin and zucchini bread for a snack.

Bountiful Harvest

We all worked in the gardens today. We did some weeding, bug patrol, and harvested beans, squash, okra, onions and peppers!


The lesson today was about how to preserve the foods harvested from the gardens. Glenda Kinder, Nutrition Specialist with University of Missouri Extension Service talked to the class about how to preserve produce.

The students learned about food safety, how to store produce and how to freeze food. Frozen grapes were a delicious teaching tool.

After the lesson, the gardeners made invitations to the garden party/picnic coming up next month.

What's Up, Doc?

Lenna's okra blossom

"Today I learned how to paint leaves on picture frames. Mr. Marlin talked about diseases on plants and how diseases spread" - Baylee

"I killed aphids in my garden today" - Josie

Josie's squash is infested with aphids, so Josie and Lexie picked them off today. This was a good lead-in to today's lesson about diagnosing problems in the garden. The young gardeners learned what kinds of things affect their plants, like animals, insects, the environment and diseases. They have seen insect and animal damage, and disease (bacterial wilt). They learned how to diagnose problems by looking at the symptoms, and comparing to normal plant conditions.

After the lesson, we worked on the picture frames we painted a few weeks ago. We took leaves from the gardens, put a layer of green paint on them, and pressed them on the frames to transfer the leaf print. The results were pretty cool!

Josie took this picture of her purple pepper

It's a Plot!

We've hit a dry spell, so the young gardeners watered their gardens today. Today's lesson was how to plan a garden and make the most use of the space, and Master Gardener Fred Deckman was on hand to help explain it all. The youngsters cut out pictures of plants for their fantasy gardens, and presented their gardens to the class. Snacks were mud and bugs, beetles and ants- yum! (chocolate pudding, gummy worms, raisins and chocolate sprinkles)

Here is a spotted cucumber beetle. Picture taken by Chris Veach last Monday in one of the gardens.

Good, Bad and Beautiful Bugs

We had our first major garden casualty - something, possibly a raccoon, ripped out Josie's squash plants. One is lost, though she replanted the others in hope of saving them. Deer tracks were also spotted in her garden.

We had some rain last night, but not enough to keep us out of the gardens. The young gardeners spent some time with Mr Marlin and Miss Chris looking for and identifying bugs - both good and bad. When bad bugs were spotted, like squash bugs, they were picked off and - squashed!


In this picture Drake's mom inspects Drake's plants, while Nate and Drake look on.

During class the young gardeners learned all about bugs: the stages of growth, about the parts of a bug and about bug mouthparts - chewing mouthparts like caterpillars or piercing-sucking like aphids and mosquitos. They learned that 98% of all bugs are beneficial.

Miss Chris showed slides of both good and bad bugs, which led to a lively discussion. Then the gardeners each drew a wanted poster of a bad bug. This is Laurel's cucumber beetle -

Fruit or Veggie?

Our young gardeners were excited to peek through the leaves and see their fruits and vegetables growing so well. one of Laurel's jalapenos is almost ready. Nate got to bring home two cherry tomatoes. Drake brought home a yellow squash. We saw lots of good lady beetles helping the garden and squashed the harmful cucumber beetles. No need to water as the gauge measured over 1" of rain. The corn, beans and squash in the three sisters garden are coming up nicely and are almost a foot high. The seed bombs planted in the garden have dissolved and are beginning to sprout.

In class the students learned the difference between fruits and vegetables. Some things we commonly refer to as vegetables are actually fruits such as tomatoes, squash and cucumbers.

Everyone enjoyed the feast of fruits and vegetables with dip thanks to Drake and his Mom.

Miss Cass made lady beetles out of flour and salt clay, then baked them. Our young gardeners had fun painting them with red and black paint.

The day finished with a rousing game of launching lady beetle bean bags on the sheet.
Blog input provided by Chris Veach

Zoning Out

The gardens are looking good! A little wet again today, though we did a bit of weeding, and picked some squash bugs off the plants. Drake harvested a pepper, and Nate picked a tomato.

Today's lesson was about Hardiness Zones. Kansas City is in zone 6. The young gardeners learned about the first spring frost free date (May 4 here) and the fall first freeze date (Oct 18) and what that means for planting schedules. Then they learned how to use seed catalogs and planned gardens for next year.



Lala Kumar, horticulture specialist, was a guest speaker today. Lala has worked in several different countries - and several different hardiness zones. He talked about different climates, such as temperate (here) sub-tropical, tropical and arid. He discussed which fruits and vegetables grow in the different climates.

Pistils, Petals & More

Rain today. The gardens looked good, but it was too wet to work in them. An earthworm was spotted, a good sign!

Today the gardeners learned all about flowers - the parts of a flower, the function of each part, and how a flower reproduces. They learned about solitary and composite flowers.

Here Drake examinined a yellow day lilly, and a Rose of Sharon flower.


After the lesson, the young gardeners made their own flowers out of plastic straws and colorful duct tape - not the gray kind - pink, yellow, green and white. They came up with some beautiful creations!

Sand, Silt or Clay - Soil

Today was a particularly lovely day in the garden with mild temperatures and plenty of sunshine. All of the gardens are thriving with the great growing conditions and exceptional care provided by the gardeners.

Laurel discovered a small yellow squash and expects more in the near future as the plant has lots of flowers.

Soil was the focus of the class today including soil composition and the many benefits that soil provides plants. including, anchoring roots, providing nutrients, air and water. The lesson continued with an interesting discussion about the 3 soil components of sand, silt and clay and how soil varies from one area to another. Afterwards the young gardeners conducted 2 experiments. The first experiment allowed students to see how clay, silt and sand are separated by adding water . The heavy sand fell to the bottom follow by the silt and lastly the clay.

Next they each took a handful of soil, added a small amount of water and proceeded to evaluate the soil texture as shown in the photo below.

Lenna got a little muddy with the clay she was experimenting with but fortunately it washes off and she didn't mind, too much.

Shine On! Photosynthesis

Monday was a beautiful day in the garden and all of the plants are doing very well. The gardeners spent time weeding (as usual) and watering. Hard to believe that after so much rain the gardens now need water. We also spent some time tying up tomato plants and learning how to remove unwanted suckers from the plants. Every garden looks great filled with healthy plants with lots of flowers and small vegetables. The students can clearly see the positive impact of sun, water and good soil on their plants and seeds and seem to be very pleased with the results. All of the adults have been very impressed with the enthusiasm and hard work displayed by the young gardeners.

Lenna found a couple of okra buds on her plants and shared with everyone.

The topic of today’s lesson was photosynthesis, which included a review of the 3 things that all plants need to thrive, light, water and oxygen. Most students were familiar with the basic concept of photosynthesis and Marlin did a great job of further explaining the scientific details of how it works and why the process is so important to sustaining life on earth. Afterwards, the students conducted a related experiment. Each student cut out several paper shapes, which were in turn paper clipped to a few plant leaves in the garden. After 2 weeks the students will compare the covered leaves to the others to see the impact. Should be interesting to see what happens.

The students made ladybug beanbags, which will be used for an outside game at a later date. We were very fortunate to have Nate and Sam’s mother Genenve and sister Louisa join the group today to help maintain the gardens while the boys are away at scout camp.

Grow, Grow, Grow Your Beans

A discussion about chocolate chip cookies started today's lesson. Just as you need certain ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies, plant growth requires certain ingredients. They are: water, light, air and nutrients.

The young gardeners designed their own experiments varying one of these ingredients, and made predictions about what would happen. Then they planted beans in various nutrients, or with different amounts of water or light. They'll check their beans in a couple of weeks to see if their predictions were accurate.


Planting their bean experiments



The gardens are looking good! Baylee and Josie are weeding Baylee's garden while Lenna looks on.

Coddle Those Cotyls

First thing this morning, the young gardeners examined their plants and began weeding. Baylee noticed that her squash plant had a bright yellow flower.

Lexie counted 9 flowers on her squash. We also spread new mulch between each garden to provide a dry place to walk. Several of the students commented that the mulch made the gardens look better. Jeff was kind enough to share some organic fertilizer to be used on the tomato and pepper plants.

The topic of today’s lesson was learning about seed germination along with the 5 parts of a seed. We talked about and looked at several different types of seeds including marigold, poppy and bean seeds. After the seed lesson, each student made seed bombs or seed balls. This included seeds, compost, clay and water and can be placed on the ground to grow perennial flowers.

Nate and Sam working on their seed bombs.

Seed or Weed - What is a Weed?

Today was all about weeds!

We learned what weeds are - Drake
We learned how to prevent weeds - Josie

Weeds are anything you don't want growing in your garden, and they compete with your plants for nutrients, water and space. So it's important to remove or prevent them by weeding and mulching. Our young gardeners didn't get to do much weeding today because the gardens are too wet. We surveyed the gardens and check the rain gauges - 1.3 inches since Monday!















Laurel found the first Anaheim pepper and tomato in her salsa garden!

After surveying the gardens, we went inside and painted picture frames. We'll decorate them later with imprints of leaves from our plants. We'll use the frames for pictures of us in our gardens!

Three Sisters Garden Beans, Corn & Squash

After discussing the benefits of companion planting, the gardeners in training constructed a bean tepee to be used for a three sisters garden. Since it was very muddy in the garden, we decided to wait to plant the seeds until the ground dried out a bit. The students did a great job working in two teams tying the bamboo poles together and then placing them in the ground.

The third step involved fastening string around the bamboo poles to create a ladder for the beans to climb. The final step will be to plant corn, beans and squash in and around the structure.

After completing the tepee, each of the the students made and decorated a rain gauge under the guidance of Chris Veach. Drake commented that making the rain gauge was his favorite thing that we did in class today and that he plans to use his at home.

Thanks to Baylee for bringing the snack today, yummy cupcakes!

Lasagna Gardening

Today we created a lasagna garden. Here two of our apprentice gardeners are dumping a bag of grass clippings to create another layer.













"We did lasagna gardening. We planted a few sunflowers in it, then we got marigolds for our gardens." Lexie Cree


"My garden has a lot of radishes left from Mr. Jeff last year." Nate Harmon

Planting Day

Prepared beds, ready for our plants!






"The Salsa Garden is fun. I can't wait to see my plants in bloom!" Laurel Cross



"Today was a cool day. We made our gardens with some help with the adults and master gardeners. I had so much fun and I can't wait to come back! They are helping us meet new friends and teach us things we need to know when we're older. I would recommend this to anyone and everyone!" Lenna Mueller

Growing Together

Today in our first session we got to know each other and learned some rules of the garden - be safe and respect others, protect wildlife and 'don't step on stuff'.

After a get acquainted ball toss game, Jeff gave us all a lesson in 3-seasons of crops. We got to see the early spring crops ready for harvest, including lettuce, kale and kholrabi.

Today's lesson was 'Why there is hunger' and a crossword puzzle illustrated reasons some people go hungry. Our youthful participants did a great job answering the clues!

Everyone got to pick what type of garden they are going to plant. Choices were sunshine garden, holiday garden, salsa garden and wierd garden - I can't wait to see them!

Here is a 'before' picture of the garden. By Monday this will be tilled and marked off in plots, ready for planting. Monday is dig in the dirt day!

Check back often to see our gardens grow!

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog for Garden N Grow 2010. Thanks to Fairview Christian Church in Gladstone Mo. for providing the classroom and garden plots for our program, which starts June 3 and runs through August 9. Check back often for updates on how the gardens are growing!

Here is the link to last year's blog - http://gardenngrow.blogspot.com/