What happened to that cute little garden you used to take care of Bonnie? The one with all the little hands and feet helping?
Don't
you worry, the little preschool garden is still going strong and we are
doing monthly gardening classes. Let me catch you up...
last time we posted was in June about
the preschool garden and warm season veggies were sprawling. July came
and we cleaned up and planted our pumpkin patch for fall.
September
started with our wonderful students moving up to their new classes and
it was time to come out to the garden. First order of business? Sun
protection because no one told Mother Nature that September is the time
for cooler weather- at least not here in Texas.
So my friends and I fashioned some sun hats out of newsprint and got on
out to the garden.
First order of business- observation and
exploration. Those kids wanted to see what was going on since their
last visit. And what in the heck was this vine growing in the veggie
garden?? So we talked about how cool pumpkin vines are because they have male and
female flowers. And what they really like is insects who help them
pollinate the flowers. We checked out the female flower with the baby
pumpkin on it, just waiting to get pollinated so it can start growing.
Here is our trellis, beautifully covered in pumpkin vines The vines took a late summer beating from the aphids but we just kept giving strong sprays of water to knock them off. Some vines did have to be sacrificed as aphid food for the greater good.
We got about 5 great big pumpkins, 4 of them growing on the trellis. Here they are just starting to turn orange. In fact, one started growing and got caught in between the trellis metal bars so it is now stuck there. Guess we'll have to take a hacksaw to that one. Perfect prep for pumpkin pie??
