What's growing?!

It's summer & I have some time to tend the garden, clean out the sheds & plan for classes and garden planting for the coming school year. Planning a school garden is different from planning a home garden or a farm. I want the plants to be exciting and interesting and beautiful to the students; Ideally I want to be able to plan multiple lessons around each plant; I want some plants to be familiar and some to be surprising; I want hearty plants that can recover when kids bump into them or step on them accidentally!

Here are some of the choices I made this year:

Gourds!
This year we planted three types of gourds -- Apple gourds, Corsican gourds & Speckled Swan gourds. We'll use these gourds once they've matured and dried, to make birdhouses, bowls and musical instruments. Gourds have been discovered in archaeological sites dating from as early as 13,000 BC, and their history of uses over time and cultures is fascinating. They make great teaching tools & the seeds are big & perfect for little hands to plant. The vining plants have grown well over our garden tunnel & the gourds look so cool as they hang down into the tunnel.

Cherry Tomatoes!
This winter we planted six varieties of cherry tomatoes -- cherry tomatoes of different sizes & shapes,  colors & tastes.  Cherry tomatoes are great in a school garden -- sweet, small & perfect for kids to pick and eat right off the vine. We use them to make salsa & salads, too!

Three Sisters Garden 
By the time Europeans arrived in America in the early 1600s, the Iroquois had been growing the 'Three Sisters' -- corn, beans & squash -- for over three hundred years. The plants, grown together, are 'companion plants'-- plants that support each other in various ways. In legend, the plants were a gift from the gods, always to be grown together, eaten together, and celebrated together. In the vegetable garden, the corn grows up to be a support for vining beans, the beans add nitrogen to the soil, and the squash creeps all around the ground, providing shade for the other plants -- keeping the soil cool and blocking out weeds. This summer, we're growing a new kind of corn, Glass Gem, a type that we can use for popping. Last fall we saved the dried seeds of our Scarlet Runner Beans & planted them again this year -- the red flowers are lovely, and a hummingbird magnet. Lastly, butternut & delicata squash vine around under everything. It's such a fun scavenger hunt to separate out everything at the end of the summer! It's a jumble of plants -- and beautiful!

Phew! That's a lot! And just the beginning! Stay tuned for more! And -- come by the garden to see our pumpkin patch, flower & herb gardens, a dozen types of peppers, fairy tale eggplants, the willow tunnel, and ballooning tomatillos... It's magical!