Kids Garden Class 2017

thistlebloom

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Time for an update. :)

The kids garden plants are growing, and the seeds they planted have come up. The Cafe corn is very sparse for some reason, it should have been over planted for the size of the corn plots and the amount of seeds I gave them.

The potatoes are doing great, the tomatoes are blooming and a nice green.
The peppers look awful. I'm wondering if the fact that they were in peat pots has anything to do with it?
They have been fertilized twice with fish emulsion, once by them and once by me. And I finally put a granular fertilizer on them so at least they aren't the color of lemons anymore.

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The kids love to hate fish emulsion. They get all dramatic when I tell them that's what we'll be watering with. The groans and melodramatic gagging are all part of the experience I figure, and it will at least be memorable to more than one of their senses.
This is them saying FISH EMULSION ROCKS!! haha

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Our Big Fat Word of the Day last week was actinomycetes.
We found some to look at with the hand lenses in the piled up straw and also in a small pile I have of wood chips.
Yesterdays BFWOTD was photosynthesis, which I'm repeating from last year, but since nobody could tell me the meaning it doesn't hurt to go over it again.

We repeated the leaf in water experiment that we did last year also. They liked "seeing the invisible" function of a leafs respiration.

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I'm happy to report that the two trees we released ladybugs in have eggs, larvae and pupae! The kids got their hand lenses and went on a quest to see if they could discover evidence that the ladybugs did indeed stick around.

They were as excited as I was to see all the stages of the ladybugs life cycle on the trees. Last week we applied
Tanglefoot on the trunks to keep the ants from farming the aphids and it is working well.

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And of course the reason they all come to my class...

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A cute story about one of the girls whose mom stopped by to pick her up. The kids had planted their Red Swan bean seeds and other vegetable seed that day. This particular kiddo is all about her pig project for 4H. She's actually too young to be in 4H, but siblings are allowed to have a show day with their brother or sisters pig. She's very excited about this, and this year she even has her own pig to practice on for the family freezer.
While she was showing her mom the bean row, her mom asked what kind of beans they planted.
"Red Swine" she said proudly. :p
 
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Carol Dee

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Ooo @thistlebloom I love hearing about the kids! I sure wish there had been someone like you around my neighborhood when I was that age. Seems everyone is having a blast AND learning. Happy to hear the lady bugs stayed :)
 

journey11

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Great pics! You have a big group this year.

They may not remember now (popsicle may be the only word presently on their mind :D), but it sure will come back them when it comes up in science class and they remember their hands on experience with those concepts.
 

baymule

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You are a fun Grandma! You might not have biological grandkids, but you are the neighborhood Grandma! This is good practice for when your boys finally get busy and get some grand kids on the way. :p
 

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