Garden Progress - Beginning of June

So many updates!  It has been a busy couple weeks for the BODY Garden!

At the end of May we had 6 classes of 4th graders from PS89 come help us plant all of our vegetable seedlings!  We had so much fun with the students and they were truly a joy to spend time with.  And even though it rained every day the field trips occurred, we somehow had no rain from 9am-1pm everyday while the students were there!

Thank you so much to all of the volunteers who helped make the field trips possible!  We could not have done any of it without you.  You were all absolutely amazing.  And thank you for eating PB&J and carrots for lunch without any complaints :)

The kids went through 5 stations during their field trip (each about 20 minutes):

1. Planting station - The students got a tour of our vegetable garden and discussed what a plant needs to grow.  They then each planted their own seedling and marked it with a popsicle stick so they can come back during the summer and see the progress of their plant.
2. Nutrition - Students learned about how to read nutrition labels (serving sizes, calories, etc) and discussed the makeup of a healthy meal.
3. Make your own planter - As the name implies, students got to make their own planter out of a water bottle they had saved and brought to the garden, and planted a seedling in it to take home.  They also learned about other ways to recycle/repurpose common household items and use them for gardening.
4. Tae Bo - The kids went through a 20 minute routine of Tae Bo with our volunteers, and learned about warming up and stretching.  
5. Pollinators - The students got to learn about how bees communicate where flowers are to other bees through the Waggle Dance, and go to put it into practice themselves helping their classmates find flowers hidden in the garden.

Check in later for pictures of the field trips!

All of the volunteers were so impressed with how smart and engaged the students were, and we hope they had as much fun with us as we did teaching them!

We hope the students come back throughout the season during our open hours to come check on their plants, help in the garden, and take home vegetables!!

Speaking of vegetables, here are some pictures of some of the stuff we have planted.

Our rose bushes are going crazy and have so many blooms!

There are still a ton of buds and more blooms to come

Zucchini plants starting to get big

Our pea plants had their first flowers this week and are all now grabbing on to the trellis

Beans are all reaching the trellis now too

You can see the beans (closer) and the peas (farther) all grabbing the trellis

Some of our bell pepper plants have gotten their first flowers - The plant Aliyah planted has a great bud!  

All the tomato plants went in the ground on Memorial Day - and because Rainbow is Julie's favorite color, it's no mistake they're all staked with different color stakes to help them grow.  (Beans near and cucumbers far against the trellis)

Another view of the tomatoes (with cucumbers and beans against the trellis)

Our grape vine has grown so big and is already grabbing it's stake too

We just planted all of the flowers yesterday (on what was probably the hottest day of the year so far...), but now everything is in the ground!  Thank you to Julie's Uncle Lou for donating cuttings of his perennial plants, and to our friends Jordan and Amanda for helping us plant in the hot sun!

More pictures coming soon of the "completed" garden (with everything planted!) and updates on how the plants are growing!

Please don't forget to stop by during our open hours to help out and pick up some stuff to take home!
Open hours are:

June 18^th, 19^th, 20^th and July 16^th, 17^th, 18^th from 5pm-7pm

June 23^rd and July 21^st from 3pm-6pm 

**Cancelled if raining**

Hope everyone is having a great weekend and enjoying this beautiful weather!  We know the plants are :)

-Julie