Little Diggers – May

Saturday was Little Diggers again! The morning began with clouds and a cool breeze, but by the time we got done, the sun was coming out.

The first thing the kids did was wander through the garden, checking out what they planted in April. There were mulched paths to walk on so they didn’t compact the soil where the plants were, nor did they step on any plants.

The markers reminded them of what they planted last time.

 

The bowling ball lady bugs keep watch over things when the kids are gone.

Wyatt posed with the orange bowling ball caterpillar. All of the bowling ball creatures have been named, but I only remember that one is “Brunswick”.

Time to get down to business. The kids were divided and one group planted head lettuces, the other group did kohlrabi. Here’s Garett putting his kohlrabi in the ground.

I’ve never eaten kohlrabi, but was told it tastes like turnips. We like turnips, so I may try some in my own garden this year.

While Garett did that, Grace and Wyatt were in a third group and helped with the big tomato plant. We all learned about taking the bottom leaves off the tomato plant and making the hole nice and deep. This encourages lots of root growth along the stem, making it strong and able to withstand the seemingly constant prairie winds.

Garett puts a bell pepper in the ground.

While they were at that end of the garden, they planted a little bed of zinnias.

Then they went to the far end of the garden and put in some giant pumpkin plants. These pumpkins should end up as big as some of the smaller kids who were there!

Now that the planting was finished it was time to pull radishes!

Wyatt tentatively tried a bite and said he liked it…

Grace ate a whole one with no hesitation…

Garett didn’t even want to pull them because he said he didn’t like them. When he was reassured that he didn’t have to eat them if he didn’t want to, he was fine. He did eventually decide to take a tiny bite. He said he liked it, but I’m not convinced that either of the boys really did.

Before we left, the kids checked out the goldfish in the pond that is in front of the store. They wanted to just stay there while I went to the greenhouse to look at plants.

Of course that wasn’t happening, so they came with me. They asked if they could have a packet of seeds to plant at home.

Garett chose morning glories, and the other two took sunflowers. I explained to them how the sunflowers would be eaten by the birds when they got big. The kids just seem to be fascinated by seeds and plants and the garden.

We look forward to next month when they’ll still be planting! Sweet corn and watermelon will go in the ground in June.  They’ll harvest more radishes and who knows what else will be ready? I did hear someone saying they would learn about pulling weeds…