We continue to host Mondays in the garden from 9-11 am. Recently, Kelly met with our summer gardeners from the Kent Rec. Center and had this to report:

“Hello all!

Hope everybody’s enjoying summer break. I just wanted to fill you all in on what we did with the kids yesterday.

The kids observed that there’s now a trellis for the beans and that the bean runners are beginning to loop around the twine to climb. They thought the beans climb to help them grow, to keep them from breaking, and to make them easier to pick. We talked about allowing air to circulate through them, and giving the bees easy access to the blossoms.

They noticed that the tomatoes now have a few flowers and we talked about pollination and fruit growth. They saw that the radishes were huge. The basil plants needed to have their blossoms pinched off again. Everything is growing very bushy and looking good. The kale and broccoli leaves have many small holes in the leaves. Last week they saw a Japanese beetle, but we didn’t notice any yesterday. We did, however, notice several wasps and the kids were nervous around them, but they learned the word beneficial and we made the connection between the wasps and pests in the garden. So they now know to check plants before putting hands into them.

They also noticed that the soil was cracked and dry in the empty areas. They used rakes and trowels to loosen the soil, being careful around plant roots. Then watered at the bases of plants because it was so hot, we didn’t want to burn the leaves.

We planted a couple of small rows of turnip seed that Karl Liske donated, on the end by the door next to the lettuce. We didn’t have anything with us to make a marker. Hopefully some of them stayed in the soil after the kids watered.

Then the kids each harvested a radish and we washed them, sliced them and tasted them plain, with sea salt and with a little drop of ranch dressing. Out of all the kids only 2 said they didn’t like the taste. Most of them were thrilled with the experience and excited about what they get to taste next!”

Thank you, Kelly! We can’t wait to taste what is ready next!