The students in my garden class have been working so hard the past two weeks. Now that the weather is nice, we spend the majority of our afternoons outside in the garden. The students have helped in many ways: weed, cultivate, fertilize and transplant. Two students have even given up some of their free time after school to drop off 2 loads of soil to enable us to add more rows. The dedication and hard work I have witnessed is uplifting; I am very proud of these students and try to thank them as much as I can.
We currently have over 20 different varieties of vegetables growing, as well as 2 patches of strawberries. Some vegetables are “experiment” based, as part of our commitment (because we are a school) to use our garden as an additional teaching space. Other vegetables are part of the “production” side of our garden, and are intended for our kitchen, the farmer’s market or our hot sauces. One of the best parts about gardening with our students is when they become curious about a particular plant or process and ask questions in hopes of understanding. As a teacher it excites me to see them think outside the box and act on their curiosity.
I hope the warm weather persists and the rain falls in regular moderate amounts…don’t we all? I hope the bugs stay away and our crops flourish! Summer is just around the corner- I can’t wait to start harvesting our early crops!

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