Gardening Dilemmas

We’ve had record rain and record heat—and it’s only July 1.  As with everything in life—it’s always something!  Last week we discussed fertilizer.  To demonstrate how plants take up fertilizer and nutrients, the children made dots with markers on paper towels, and then they placed the end in a small bowl of water to watch the colors rise.  It was an extremely simple way to demonstrate this principle.

This week we harvested some of our radishes and more lettuce.  The children were not fond of the radishes on their own, so they are trying a recipe of radishes and French onion dip blended on crackers.  It’s hard to find kid friendly recipes for radishes.

One thing we learned about raised bed gardening this week—they are prone to animals snacking on the food as much as a garden in the ground.  Some of our radishes were gnawed on by voles.  These beds are on concrete, and about 4-6 inches tall.  In direct sun.  In the middle of a playground!  Pretty gutsy animals!