Firecracker Lettuce

Firecracker Lettuce is a loose leaf, red lettuce available in late winter-spring. Firecracker Lettuce is a winter crop that withers in extreme heat, so it does best in cool weather. This lettuce is thin, glossy, and wavy. It compliments these flavors: bold, cool, sweet, and nutty. It has bitter, sharp, and bright taste. Some of its best flavors are in salads and rich pasta dishes. You can grow some of this yummy treat.

Toscano Kale

Tuscano kale is also known as Tuscan kale, Lacinato kale, Dinosaur kale and Palm Tree kale. It is grown around the fall and sometimes winter. This vary healthy type of kale helps your body by giving it more than 100% of your daily value because of the two vitamins: A and K. It's not only very healthy but very yummy, too. If Tuscan kale is in the right condition, it can grow two or three feet tall, maybe even more! It's good to start early like in the fall or winter. Don't worry if it frosts over. This plant likes it with a little bit of frost. If it's too cold, cover it with a frost cloth. This kale loves rich soil and lots of sunlight! It can also be grown in the desert because of its bright sunlight. As for pest, you need to spray it, not with chemicals, but with a powerful jet force of water! If you tend to see damaged leaves, cut them off so the damage will not spread. Lacewing bogs lay their eggs on this plant which is great. Lacewing bugs are predators that do not eat the plant that it's on but eats the bugs and/or the pest's eggs. They can be very very good for the Tuscan kale. At harvest time, you can make many good recipes with Tuscan kale like, Tuscan Kale Salad, Potatoes with kale, Hot and Sour greens, and many many more!

Vates Kale

The Vates Kale is usually used in side dishes and stir-fry dishes. Vates Kale season as they call it never ends. This amazing kale can suffer in freezing temperature and extremely hot temperatures. The freezing weather will sharpen its flavor. If you steam the kale and serve it, the flavor will end up delicious! The Vates Kale needs at least 6 hours of sunlight daily. The time it takes to reach adulthood is around 53 days. The color varies from blue to green. Vates  Kale is also called the Blue Curled Kale.

Redbor Kale

The Redbor Kale loves to be in the sun but likes the cold weather. It's growing temperatures is -7°C / 19°F to 27°C / 81°F. The Redbor is beautiful in all ways, they have reddish purple, frilly leaves and can grow up to 45 cm. The Redbor is considered a hybrid cultivar and grows well in the spring and fall. Redbor Kale needs full sun and medium amount of water.

Red Russian Kale

Just planted Ragged Jack Kale

Red Russian kale is also called Ragged Jack Kale. The red Russian kale is an annual vegetable that grows in cooler weather. It can be used in cooking to make kale chips, and you can boil them lightly. The frost from cold weather improves the taste of the red Russian kale. You look for firm leaves and pass on the placid or yellow ones. The Red Russian Kale is grey green in color and the stems are purple. It is larger than most other kales and stands two to three feet tall. It is a mature plant in sixty days. It's leaves are shaped like oak leaves.

Seeding

Before

We planted 4 different types of seeds: carrots, radishes, beets and turnips. We had 2 available rows to seed. The carrots got their own row while the radishes and turnips shared a row. We saw the radishes and turnips after 5 days, but the carrots took about twice as long to make an appearance. Because we ran out of space, we placed the beet seeds in between the lettuce, kale and spinach. The beet started showing about the same time as the carrots.

After

Planting Round Two

Because of the extra row and space added to the garden, our first planting was not enough. We got to plant 4 more kale, lettuce and spinach each. They were planted a week later, but you could tell which ones were in the ground longer. All we have to do know is make sure they stay watered and keep pulling the nut grass.

Rotation 2

Students from the second rotation planted 4 variety of lettuce and mulched some pathways just like the first rotation. They also moved rocks around to help again erosion and weeds.

Rotation 1

Students from the rotation one class mulched some of the pathways and planted 4 variety of kale. They learned that mulching helps with water conservation, erosion and weed control.

Kale, Lettuce and Spinach

Welcome, Rows

Thank you to Laura, Polly, and Sally for all of their help for getting the rows in place so the fifth grades can begin their planting. They were able to make a sixth row which means more veggies!! We want to give a super big thank you to Charlotte for organizing everything and getting the task completed quickly. The fifth graders are very appreciative. All of you guys rock!!

Goodbye, Nut Grass!!

After

Before

We are pleased to announce that the nut grass has been removed. Over the weekend, many volunteers pitched in and helped remove all of the weeds and nut grass. This was a huge task. We want to thank everyone who took time last weekend to help make this difficult job a success. Some of the volunteers came both days this weekend!! We can't thank you enough: Polly, Isabell, Cristina, Sally, Jeff, Ray and Matt. Some students even come to help as well. Patricio, Max and Ollie were rock stars. We want to give a big special thanks to Charlotte for organizing the effort and truly making this event happen and successful. Thank you to everyone!! We can't wait to make things grow.

Fall Garden Prepping

It's time to begin thinking about our fall garden. We have two major issues: drainage and nut grass. A wonderful gentleman named John Barr donated his time and effort to help us with the drainage problem. He was able to use some existing and new rocks along with a large pvc pipe to correct the situation. We are awaiting anxiously for a downpour and crossing our fingers to validate his incredibly hard work. Besides fixing the drainage issue, his work added previously unusable space so that our garden will be bigger and better than in the past. Thank you, John Barr!! We truly appreciate your kindness, expertise and effort for our garden!!

Erosion

We recently had a rain storm that had a great deal of flooding. "After we saw a video of the very hard rain close to the garden, we needed to put these rocks there to keep the soil from eroding. It worked!!", stated Cole. The fifth graders went to work to stop the erosion that was occurring in the garden. We placed pine needles around the garden and along the rows to help keep the topsoil in place. We also added rocks on the side of the garden to guide the water away from the row that we being eroded. Elise explained, "I thought that this was really neat and a good thing to do for the garden."  

Herbs, Tomatoes, Peppers & Potatoes

We finally planted the rest of our Spring garden: herbs (dill, cilantro and thyme) tomatoes (many varieties including cherry and regular), peppers (jalapeno) and potatoes (golden). The students did a great job of prepping the area and planting because ALL the plants survived. He had to water them daily because it was so sunny and many of the young plants didn't like the sun at first. Austin explained, "I thought planting the tomatoes and potatoes were really fun too because now we have a full garden." "Potato, tomato these potatoes and tomatoes are growing great!!" Lexi called out. Cole exclaimed, "These plants have grown well."

Onions

We started ur Spring garden by planting the onions. Each student was able to plant one onion which meant we planted over 100 onions or 4 bunches. Most of the onions were planted well and caught on quickly. It has been dry so we watered them everyday for about 2 weeks. Surya said, "The onions in the garden are sprouting faster than I expected." Nate thought, "The onions are growing fast. I hope they're done growing soon." We used two variety of onions, white and yellow. The yellow onions seem to be doing better than the white ones. We can't wait to taste the difference.

Lettuce and Spinach Harvest

We harvested some lettuce and spinach. It tasted wonderful. There was some ranch for dipping but most students didn't want it. Nick stated, "I think that the lettuce and the spinach were very good, and they were fresh and moistened perfectly. I never thought that I would enjoy that piece of lettuce that much!" Gabe was asked if he liked lettuce and spinach, and he responded, "I liked the lettuce a lot but not the spinach, you know." Overall, everyone enjoyed the harvest and wanted more.

Growing!!

The garden looks great. We have been watering also everyday. The plants are liking the cool mornings but not the sunny afternoons. The kale especially is wilting in the full sun after school. Hopefully the cool weather this weekend will make the plants more happy. We have noticed the leaves in ALL of our plants having many little holes. Mrs. Reichele did some research and found our problem. We have flea beetles!! She bought some spray that is safe, and it is doing the trick.

Planting Complete!!

 Our plants are in!! The hard work is completed, and now we only need to watch the garden grow. Actually, we will need to keep watering. We planted Kale (Dinasour and Red Russian), Chinese cabbage, Spinach, Arougula and Salad Bowl Lettuce (Regular and Red). From seed, we planted Purple Top White Globe Turnips, Cherrybelle Radishes and Crimson Giant Radishes. The fifth graders are so excited and have worked very hard. They can't wait to eat the fruits of their labor.