A Little Help to get things Growing - A Houston Garden Update

 Thanks to a generous grant for our garden from the Meadow Lakes Bloomers Garden Club,  this year was a ton of fun and learning at Houston in the garden! We used part of our funds to order seeds and to purchase plants for the garden and so the kids could “grow one – take one” and have gardens at home.

Above:  Corn, Alyssum, and Marigolds.  Students grew the corn and the alyssum and Marigolds came from a local greenhouse.

We worked with Mr Brandt’s classroom which is a Special Education Life Skills class.  There are three adults and 6 kids in the class and then we had some other students who came from the Culinary arts classes to help planting seeds as well.  Our Youth360 group that has summer program also helped to plant and keep the garden hydrated in the heat!  We (they) did a ton of watering and they did a great job with the planting too!

This is a group of our Youth360 students and leaders helping to plant.

Snowpocalypse hit in January and we got a few weeks off of school so we were not able to make seed choices until February and order them.  We let the kids pore over some of the garden seed catalogs and make choices of things they thought they might like to grow.  They used a color coded system to mark the seeds, and each student had a different color sticky arrows.  I then made a list of the choices and ordered as many as I could get or substituted for ones that would not grow here/take too long.

Here you can see one of the flower pages that the kids chose Calendula from.  We did get Calendula seeds and we have a few that will go in the garden.

Here are some of the Veg choices and the color coded sticky notes show up well on this picture!

I did have to make some adjustments for things that the kids were convinced would grow here but were way too long season items to produce here.  It was still good to have them dream big about what they could grow.  Okra and Eggplant were two that we chose not to order this year as we do not have greenhouse room to start those.  We did order the asparagus however, and now we are making an asparagus raised bed in the garden for a permanent area for them.  We do have at least 6 plants up and I hope to have a picture of the asparagus bed in our Fall Followup!

We do not have room enough to start everything here at the school right now so we did have some of our tomatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli started for us by Snowfire Gardens and the Carneys.  Their greenhouse system allows them to start very early in the season.  We have those plants back now, ready to be planted in the raised beds.

Our students started a big mix of veg and flower seeds.  We also took a trip to Jacobsens Greenhouse and to the Fred Meyer Garden Center and the purchased some flowers and herbs.

Our herbs and pollinator pots to go out into the apple orchard to help draw in the bees and pollinators for the apple trees and berries.

They made hanging baskets with part of the flowers to take home for Mother’s Day, and they also made three large flower and herb pots to leave here at the school as pollinator attractor’s for the orchard and when fall comes they will bring them back into the classroom so they can use the flowers and herbs in their cooking classes.

Top left Jon and Alex plant seeds.                          Top Right Jon and Camille plant seeds.

Our seeds came from all over the place this year!  There were some shipping issues, and companies that shipped to Alaska last year would not this year.   Seed sources include:  Foundroot – A Sitka based company of Alaska Growers and included our “Silvery Fir and Honey Drop” tomatoes (watch for those in the end of season "tomato roundup"), “Dark Star” Zuchinni, and cabbage.  Totally Tomatoes which included our “Big Boy” Tomatoes (Germination was poor for this variety for some reason this year).  Strictly Medicinal Seeds which included our Nasturtium, Calendula, and Cosmos seeds among others, Territorial Seeds which included our Green and Burgundy Beans, some peppers, cabbage, and we had a donation from a school staff member of Pepper and tomato seeds because his “eyes were bigger than his garden”! 

We got a grant from DNR “Tree Grant” for $400.00 last year as well that paid for the Apple Trees and part of the wire surrounds for them.  With a portion of our remaining funds from the Bloomers Grant for this year we will be adding some donated Cherry trees (probably Crimson Passion, Bali/Evans and Carmine Jewel), including purchasing some soil amendments for the trees and our raised beds, and will be purchasing the fencing materials to make the protective rounds around them like we did for the Apple trees last year.  We did lose at least one top portion of an Apple surround that blew away in the big January storm and we have not been able to find it, so we will be replacing that as well.

The weather has been so hot that we have not been able to plant anything out in the garden without worrying about it being shocked, we have had to keep things in the shade.  When the classrooms closed for the summer we had to move some of our products out to the garden as we might not be able to access them due to the building cleaning schedules and of course, it froze that first night (28 degrees) that we put plants out!  Even though we had hardened things, we still lost a few items to that freeze but nothing that isn’t easily replaced.  The corn and asparagus survived, as did the herbs and a few of the zuchinni.  The tomatoes look a little rough but might make it. 

Above you can see the flower pots in the orchard to help get the bees to our apple trees!  Above right you can see the pots and the flowers and herbs in them.  Flowers included our calendula, cosmos, nasturtiums, which our students grew.  We purchased some lobelia, Alyssum, Petunias and a few Pansy as well.  Not all are edible and we will be teaching those skills when the students return n the fall and we move the pots back inside.  Herbs in the pots included Sage, Thyme, Rosemary, and Pizza Oregano!

This is a better view of the blooming September Ruby Apple with the Red Pollinator Pot next to it (left) and of the Parkland in full bloom (right).

Above you can see the September Ruby apple tree with one of the Red Pollinator pots to the left of it!  Can't see any red can you?  The students planted all but the Petunias in this particular pot and it has thrived!  We so enjoy having the flowers in with the veg this year!

That’s the update for now and Ill post an update after the summer is done so you can see harvest and additions to the garden then!  Happy Summer  and Blessed Be!

Why is is so Friggin Hot Here?!

 It's been a few minutes since you have heard from me hasn't it?!  That's because it has been so hot here that having the computer on and close to me is just about intolerable due to the heat that it puts off and how hot it has been here.  I am currently sitting at the kitchen table, writing as the chickweed dries without a dehydrator needed!  (right photo below) I also have been too tired from trying to keep plants and people and pets alive in this heat!

We're just getting to the point that the house is as warm as the outdoors, then it goes the other way and we open the windows to lot the cooler air in! (left photo - actually only 9:59 pm - but still)

Usually in Alaska we are begging for spring to come and for it to warm up a bit and for the snow/rain/sleet to GO AWAY! We did beg this year for the winter to finally be gone - it was long and stormy and hard!  You can read about some of the winter here if you missed that post. Lately though, it has been once again a Tenth of a Degree from Hades here in the burg with temps reaching 92 degrees and no rain in sight - for at least 10 more days!  I thought 2019 was hot but it has nothing on this year!  I have the Swamp Cooler going full speed ahead and we are at least semi comfortable in the house.  Outside is miserable!  For me at least!

We have been watering and watering here and at the school and we are still not keeping up with the drying sun and wind - the breeze just evaporates everything we put down, whether we use a sprinkler or a bucket to water.  I lost a head of lettuce due to dry - even though the sprinkler had been on the bed about 20 hours before and soaked it through.

See that poor little guy in the middle left?  Darn it!  Of course there is a random tomato in there (lower right of the bed)!  Just cant let them go when they want to live!  Tomato Problem!

The greenhouse is doing well - it has eaves that help to keep it shaded during the hottest part of the days and with the windows open I can get a little cross breeze in there with a fan!  

Poor Reedo is having to work outside with safety gear in this heat and I am reminded often of when we travelled with the kids to Arizona to see Aunt Chelle in June one year for a hockey clinic for Rye.  Reed was just 4 years old and had never experienced any heat to speak of.  It was 116 degrees in the shade, and we couldnt let the boys go in the pool, or scooter on the sidewalk - it was so hot their shoes were melting and the wheels on the scooters were getting soft!

Reed always thought it was too hot for clothes there - including swim suit!  Or he may have outgrown his before we got there!?

At the time, Aunt Chelle's house was a no swearing house, and I of course, swear like dock worker on a bad day! Sometimes my kids do too!  Just sayin'!  So Reed is in his underwear and nothing else, Rye is at the cool and delightful rink, and we are in Aunt Chelles kitchen trying to stay cool and I was loading her dishwasher.  Just as she comes in the door from the garage with a bag of groceries, Reed yells "WHY is it so FRIGGIN' HOT HERE?!?!"

I swear Aunt Chelle nearly dropped the groceries!  She definitely dropped her jaw!

The next day, we didn't just drop Rye off for his clinic at the rink - Reed and I stayed in the cool arena area- me reading a book and Reedo being a Rink Rat running around enjoying the hockey.  One of the coaches came over and said "Mama - you don't have to stay - we will take good care of your boy!"  To which I replied - "Its an inferno out there and nice and cool in here!  We'll just hang out for a bit!"  He laughed and skated away......

They did make it to a baseball game - Dimondbacks are awesome Mom!!  It was a night game so a little cooler for everyone!

Im hoping it cools off soon because my bum is also stuck to this chair and I have had to put towels on my office chair in order to get any work done!  Otherwise I am feeling less than ladylike in the office and sometimes cant get out of the chair!  I know you girls can relate!

Here's to a nice summer without getting baked like a toasted cheese!  Blessed Be and drink your water!