MV Children's Garden news from Lee Budish the week of October 22, 2007.

I have been waiting all summer to write: It's time to pick the pumpkins and gourds!

Please try to have a child pick one each; we want them to experience the "thrill." PLEASE LEAVE THE KG BEDS ALONE;  The KG classes will pick their own, but everything else is up for grabs. After you harvest, please bring the bounty to the multipurpose room. You can leave everything in the wheelbarrows. Unfortunately, historically, Halloween time is when vandals like to come into the garden and bash pumpkins and cause destruction, so it would be great if you could bring everything to the MPR for storage until our Harvest Festival on Sunday. We are also picking and drying the ornamental corn to sell -- you can do that, too, and bring to the MPR. It will be too tempting for the vandals if we pile a bounty and leave it in the garden. Also, please make sure those incredible SCARECROWS are in the MPR at the end of the day Friday. They look terrific -- what imagination! Thank you all who worked on them; I know it wasn't easy. But so many kids came up to me to tell me about their scarecrow; they are so proud!

I picked about 100 tomatoes on Friday, and walked around the school with them. Little hands grabbed them up for a 2:00 snack, and they were gone in 8 minutes! Yes, your child snacked on tomatoes...so keep picking the tomatoes; there are still tons!  
 
Fall Garden Tour and Harvest Festival on Sunday, October 28 from 1-4pm. Please, volunteers are still needed.   WE NEED TO BORROW 2 HOT PLATES OR 2 HUGE COFFEE URNS TO HEAT THE SPICED APPLE CIDER.   We need you to bring in grocery bags, paper or plastic; please bring to office. It will be greatly appreciated.   WANTED: FACE PAINTERS AND SOMEONE TO SET UP SOUND SYSTEM. Also, let's help keep the garden tidy for our big community day Sunday and spread the invite to your neighbors and friends. They can all witness first hand  the  "karma" of the garden.  

Adam Sanchez's second grade class will perform a little garden play at the harvest festival. If you know nothing about gardening and pollination, don't miss this incredible  performance. Thank you, Adam and your class, for being such troopers!

Important News: The Garden Advisory Board. Our architectural plans have been ready. We will meet with the school district representative  hopefully by the end of this month. And, we hope, more than anything, that we will have smooth sailing from here on in. After the petition was presented by the Edna community, we hope, really hope that the district and school board understands that the garden is "a way of life" around here and lets us proceed as we have been doing since 1990. If you have any construction experience or contacts we need you NOW as a consultant or to bring in consultants; please contact me for details. If you see the plans, it is really a very simple project. The plans are in Lisa Zimmer's office if you wish to see.   

LOCK PROBLEM:  SOMEONE CHANGED THE COMBINATION TO THE GARDEN, PLEASE BE CAREFUL WHEN YOU LOCK AND UNLOCK GARDEN. BEST THING TO DO IS, LOCK THE LOCK TO THE GATE WHEN YOU OPEN INSTEAD OF LEAVING HANGING. IF ANYONE CAN THINK OF A BETTER SYSTEM, PLEASE LET ME KNOW.  KEYS DIDN'T WORK, HIDDEN KEY DIDN'T WORK...AND THE LAST CLASS AT THE END OF THE DAY, 2:00 ON NEEDS TO LOCK UP. THANKS!

TO DO LIST for the WEEK: THE MAIN RULE IS YOU CAN PICK IT AS LONG AS YOU EAT IT.   

1. Pick the green tomatoes and bring home or to classroom and leave in open area or hang in a dry area.

2. Start clearing the half circles in front of and behind beds. There is lavender in there SO DO NOT REMOVE THAT. THAT STAYS. IF IN DOUBT, LEAVE IT PLEASE.

3. We need to move the wood chips away from the apple and pear trees. Okay to move chips to the pathways in between. Use small rakes and supervise the children so they do not hit the bark of the tree with the rake as they move  wood chips away. We need to keep the area surrounding the trees sanitary to keep the cuddle moth larvae from hatching.

4. Behind the garden gate on the back side are wood chips. Kids can move wood chips to cover the pathway behind the  garden beds and  between the citrus trees to keep those weeds in check. Needs lots of chips.

5. Let's cut off sunflower heads and dry in sun, and harvest seeds. Harvest nasturtium seeds in pumpkin patch (they look like little pebbles).  Store dried in a paper bag and return to me for next year.  

Thank you all so very much!  Please feel free to call me at home  388-5703 or cell 342-1870. MOST IMPORTANT THING IS TO HAVE FUN!!

-Lee

Posted by Mari Allen on October 24