February 18, 2011

Here are just a few pics from last week.  Below is our other scarecrow friend made by third grade.

I was able to finish weeding and side dressing the raspberries...

... and clean out another quarter of the shed last Friday.  Consider this the "after" picture and just imagine junk everywhere for the before picture.

Coming soon will be pics of 5th grade's grand mushroom planting adventure.  Stay posted!!

This week all of the students are on break so it is a quiet week.  We'll be back to work on Monday.

Snakes and Scarecrows

Third grade planted parsley, mustard, kale and cilantro today in addition to the usual tasks of composting, cleaning up the site for our beehives in spring, and digging the fence line trench.  They also finished the scarecrows and stood them up.

This fellow has a mustache and beard, but the mustache ended up higher than expected so it looks a bit like an eyebrow.

The demolition crew in the beehive area also found a beautiful little garden snake that everyone got to admire and touch before its finder took it away to a nice quiet spot and set it free.

We noticed that it worked very hard to pull its head back and flatten its body so that its markings stood out as clearly as possible when it was afraid - making it look more like a poisonous snake might look.  When we observed it quietly and calmly it went back to looking like a regular striped garden snake.

Work days this week

I plan to be working in the garden from 1 to 3 on Thursday 2/17 and 1:30 to 3:00 on Friday 2/18.  The weather promises to be good.  I hope to plant more peas and work on prepping another bed.  If you plan to come, be sure to check for the blog for updates the morning of just in case I have to change plans.  Hope to see you there.

Snurgelly hoses

Therisa and I planted turnips, carrots and scallions on Friday and then spent the rest of our time cleaning up the huge pile of snurgelly hoses that had taken over most of the floor space in the shed.  I am happy to report that the useless ones have been disposed of and the good ones are now coiled neatly and have found a new home - not underfoot.

Oh - If you aren't sure what a snurgelly hose is, read The Lorax by Dr. Suess.  It is a most excellent read!

Digging Trenches

Last Wednesday (2/9) the third graders got busy and worked on digging the trench around the fence line that Bradley has been working on all winter.

The end is in sight.  The post you can see next to Ms. Ritz is our final destination.

Tomorrow we hope to put up our scarecrows!

Thursday Feb. 10 work day

I plan to be out at the farm today from 1 to 3 weeding and side dressing the raspberries.  If the ground is still frozen, I'll be cleaning the shed which has become almost frightening in its capacity for messiness.  Come join me if you can!

Update on the mystery flower

Last week I posted this photo of a flower that I did not know the name of:

Vivian Parks emailed me with the name of the flower and a little more information as well.  Thank you Vivian!


re. the lovely photo of the plant you couldn't identify, I thought you might like to know that it's a Chimonanthus praecox - common name, Winter Sweet....and the only reason I know that is because it's one of my favorite flowers!  If you want to propagate it, spring layering works better than summer cuttings, although it can take many months for roots to form.  Also, a neat trick is to grow Clematis up them so that they have flowers later in the season.