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.