Another glorious day in the garden

Waiting to be planted

Phil and Deirdre Armstrong from Harvest Thyme Herbs came back to join us in working on our flower bed today.   They brought some absolutely lovely stuff to plant - irises, a peony, ornamental oregano (it's edible, just doesn't taste like much and has nice flowers) and cone flower.  We've only got about half of the bed prepped, but that half is looking great right now.

We'll be heading over to Phil and Deirdre's farm for garden club on May 24th.  I've sent information and a permission slip last week, so if you haven't gotten one home yet, let me know and I can send another.

In the vegetable be, everything looks fantastic.  Next week we'll have a few more things to stick in, but it's almost done for now.

Aoife and Emma hanging out.

If you're at school, it's well worth the walk the building to check it all out.  Or. . .  come on out on Saturday, May 28th from 1:00 pm until 4:00 pm for our Spring Garden Party.  More details will be coming shortly.

The weather today was great.  The clouds kept things from getting too hot and the rain will be welcome when it comes.  Days like today don't get much better.  We planted.  We laughed.  We ran around.  We got a bit wet (that hose seems to have a mind of its own).  Thanks, everyone!

Leah

Nice lilies!

Shane

Kayla was actually very sensible with the hose.
I was impressed with her restraint.

For some reason, this picture of Darius reminds of that old
superhero show, "The Mantis."  Not sure why. . .

Apparently, watering is so fun, once you get the hose,
you don't want to share.   Hmmmmmm

This is how people get soaked.

Michael starting another hole.

Stay away with that hose!

I wonder what's for snack?

Cale School Garden News

A few items of interest:

1)  We’re going to have our Spring Garden Party on May 28^th.  We’ll get going around 1:00 and end around 4:00.  Bring a dish to share and see what we’ve been up to in the garden.  More information will be forthcoming.

2)  Phil and Deirdre Armstrong from Harvest Thyme Herbs in Staunton will be joining us again on April 26^th for Garden Club.

3)  Speaking of Deirdre and Phil, they’ve invited the Garden Club to come over to their farm to check out what they do.  We’ll leave right after school on Tuesday, May 24^th and be back at school around 5:30.  We’ll be traveling by school bus.  Although I can certainly send the kids to After School, we will be back pretty close to when they close up shop for the afternoon.  I'm sending a permission slip home with the kids tomorrow.

Flower Bed

Sadly, no nifty pictures this week.  I'll try to get out and take some in the next couple of days.

Anyway, yesterday afternoon half the group had the opportunity to dig up some lamb's ear and cone flowers from Ms. Kozella's garden that were taking over her class bed.  We transplanted them to our new flower bed.  We'll be placing two or three of the stepping stones we made back in the fall at recess today.  The other half of the group spent some time watering the vegetable garden.  We noticed that the green leaf lettuce and the kale were not too happy about the hard frost we had Monday night.  They're okay, but I'm going to try to get them covered today so they don't get hit again.  Thanks to Mr. V, Brian's dad and Emma's mom for coming out to help.  It was a great time.

For those keeping track of these things, the snacks were the richest, butteriest chocolate cookies I've ever had.  They were awesome.

Springtime!

I love spring.  It's the season I don't even have to think to come up with something for the club to do on a Tuesday afternoon.   There's just so much that needs to be done.  Today we finished planting the scallions, brought a bunch of compost out to the bin, did some weeding and finished turning our last bed.  In just a few weeks we'll be planting pumpkins there.

Alex, Isador, Jason and Mr. V finish planting the scallions.

Inside we've got cucumbers, jalapenos, sweet peppers and three varieties of tomatoes started.  They've all sprouted and are under the grow light for now.  We'll put them out in the cold frame to toughen up in a few weeks and put them in the ground around the first of May.

Speaking of May. . . I'd like to do a spring garden party.  Which is a better Saturday for folks?  May 7th or May 14th?

Thanks to Angelo and the kids for another great Tuesday!  And thanks to Beamer for being photographer for the day.

Michael's serious look.

Meanwhile, in the other bed. . .

Just a few more to go.

Some sort of pupa we found in our pumpkin bed.

Brian's serious face.

Alex's "satisfied with myself" face.  Either that,
or he got a whiff of a compost bucket.

Beamer's dad's "Give me the camera, I'll show you how it's done." face.

Some of the guys.

We are THIS happy about snack!

Lunch Line

There will be a screening of this documentary on Friday, March 25th at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Performing Arts Center (at Charlottesville High School). Doors open at 6:30 pm and the screening starts at 7:00 pm. There will be a panel discussion following the film. Unfortunately, I'm going to miss this, but I encourage folks to go check it out. Here's the blurb:

"Lunch Line: a film by Uji Films

The documentary Lunch Line takes a new look at the school lunch program by exploring its past, its current challenges, and its opportunities for the future. The National School Lunch Program began in 1946, and now, more than 60 years later, the program feeds more than 31 million children every day. In the film, leaders from all sides of the school food debate, including government officials, school foodservice experts, activists, and students, weigh in on the program and discuss ways to continue nourishing America’s children for another 60 years."

The trailer can be seen here.

Thank you!

I'm sending out a big thank you to Phil and Deirdre Armstrong.  The kids loved having them join us last Friday afternoon.  We learned a lot.   I'm hoping to personally make it over to their farm soon, just to check it out and learn some more.  They wrote up a great story for their blog that actually made me blush.

Some Old School Garden Posters

A Few More Planting Day Pictures

Esteban planting som green leaf lettuce.

In garden club, we look mahhh-velous

Jason working the cultivating fork.

Planting Day - March 18, 2011 with Deirdre and Phil Armstrong from Harvest Thyme Herbs

Isidor sometimes wonders if he should take me seriously.

Esteban is ready.

Mr. V helps split garlic heads

Beamer working hard

Manel looking happy

The first rule of Garden Club is that you have to tell everyone about Garden Club.

A happy gardener

Shane and Lucas - two of my club clowns

Mr. V

Alex feeling peaceful.

Wondering what we're having for snack today.

Phil Armstrong of Harvest Thyme Herbs

Deirdre Armstrong of Harvest Thyme Herbs

Aoife and Leah

It's not Garden Club without Mr. V's snacks.  Brownies with honey ice cream.

It's getting to be that time. . .

This week we'll keep working on our new flower bed for garden club.  This weekend, though, I'd love to get out and till our vegetable beds.  I have my little tiller and can do it with that, but if anyone has a nice big Troybuilt or something, some free time this weekend and would like to get a little excercise, shoot me an email and we can knock it out quickly.  I can be available whenever (Saturday is better, but I can do Sunday, too).

Deirdre and Phil Armstrong

Next week, we're moving garden club from Tuesday to Friday so that  Deirdre and Phil Armstrong of Harvest Thyme Herbs, in Staunton can join us to talk about what they do and how they do it.  They're in Charlottesville on Fridays to make deliveries, so it seemed easy to move the day just this once.  They'll be with us for our normal time (right after school until 3:30ish) and we'll return to our normal Tuesday meeting day the following week.   Of course, parents are always welcome to come on in and join us.  You can check out the Armstrong's website here or their blog here.