It's the end of May!

We are quickly approaching the end of the school year, but we will continue to work throughout the summer on the greenhouse and garden projects.  Following are some pictures from work completed so far. 


We're not just growing veggies -- check out the aloe and the house plants. 



Early growth in a raised bed.



Lillies!





Young plants that were repotted.





Mr. Foskett is the garden planner!





Growth in action isn't just limited to the plants.  We're learning about ourselves and helping each other grow, too.

(Today's pictures courtesy of Ms. Capozza)

Purple Basil

• also called dark opal basil
• also known as sweet basil
• developed at the University of Connecticut in the 1950s
• grown for both appeal and culinary value
• 1962 winner of All-American Selection Award

(source of information is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_opal_basil on Monday May 23,2011)

written by jjk

Visitor

Today our Post-D residents gave a tour of the garden area to a supervisor from Region Ten.  After three days of hard rain, it's clear that things are gowing.


 

Pondering the plants. 





Corn!



Can you solve this problem?

It takes some math skills to work in our greenhouse and garden.  When we built our raised beds, we had to decide what size they would be.  Our boards (from Lowe's) were 10 feet long.  We designed the beds to be 10 feet by 5 feet.  So, we had to measure each board to be sure we cut it in half for the crossways pieces.  The depth of the beds is three feet.  Using that information, what is the volume of one raised bed?  We will post the answer on Monday!



Mr. Foskett, clinical social worker/garden enthusiast, spreads mulch in the future Zen garden.



An Asiatic Iris

A raised bed

Raised bed with an arbor in the background

Our backyard

These tomoatoes and spices were delivered to The Discovery School in Dillwyn, VA. 

Up and Running

We began this school year with a goal:  to increase participation in the greenhouse program and to discover ways to give back to the community.  So far, so good!  Within the past week, we have donated plants to the Virginia Institute for Autism, The Haven, and the urban garden at Buford.  Donations included:  a variety of tomatoes, lettuce, basil, chives, onions, and cilantro.  Most of these were started from seeds and we transferred them to small pots. 

Currently, our raised beds have corn, watermelon, herbs, and flowers.  That's right -- we built six raised beds this spring.  We also added arbors.  Check back from time to time to see what attaches to them!