The onion blossom opened up to a beautiful white bloom! It almost always has one bee on it, and it smells like an onion cooking...mmmmmm!







We also have a tiny baby tomato!

Here Piggy Piggy

We found another way to recycle our old newspapers....



Piggy Banks!

Each kid got a balloon, and dipped the newspaper in a flour and water paste. They put the slimy paper on the balloon and added pieces of toilet paper rolls for the feet and snouts. When it was dry they painted it the color of their choice!! Now they have a place to keep all their money!!

Our tomatoes are starting to get big, and should be bearing fruit soon! There are 3 plants currently growing along the trellis.



Our green onions, which we planted from our leftovers last Chinese New Year, have gotten a blossom on top! Look for more pictures once this blossom opens.

Winter Freeze

The greenbeans are still trying to come back from the damage they suffered during the two chilly days we had last month. We had one more great harvest right before the freeze.....

But then the cold weather really stunted the plants....


Our harvest has been really small ever since, but the plants seem to be generating lots of new healthy green leaves, and the greenbeans should be back soon.

Wes with our most recent greenbean harvest

The eggplants, beets, and turnips really seemed to like the cold weather and have been growing really well.


Eggplants

Turnips and Beets

One of our eggplants even has a couple of blossoms on it!!

Fertilizing

Justin and Will helped fertilize the garden today with some fresh worm castings. Why worm castings?

According to http://www.thetastefulgarden.com/...
1. The humus in the worm castings extracts toxins and harmful fungi and bacteria from the soil. Worm Castings therefore have the ability to fight off plant diseases.

2. The worm castings have the ability to fix heavy metals in organic waste. This prevents plants from absorbing more of these chemical compounds than they need. These compounds can then be released later when the plants need them.

3. Worm Castings act as a barrier to help plants grow in soil where the pH levels are too high or too low. They prevent extreme pH levels from making it impossible for plants to absorb nutrients from the soil.

4. The humic acid in Worm Castings stimulate plant growth, even in very low concentrations. The humic acid is in an ionically distributed state in which it can easily be absorbed by the plant, over and above any normal mineral nutrients. Humic acid also stimulates the development of micro flora populations in the soil.

5. Worm Castings increase the ability of soil to retain water. The worm castings form aggregates, which are mineral clusters that combine in such a way that they can withstand water erosion and compaction, and also increase water retention.

6. Worm Castings reduce the acid-forming carbon in the soil, and increase the nitrogen levels in a state that the plant can easily use. Organic plant wastes usually have a carbon-nitrogen ratio of more than 20 to 1. Because of this ratio, the nitrogen is unavailable to plants, and the soil around the organic waste becomes acidic.

Justin

Justin

Will Feeding The Plants



Will also picked some greenbeans off the trellis. We have been getting enough for a side dish about every 3 days. Our crop slowed down for about a week because of the freeze, but it seems to be picking back up again. A bunch of the leaves got burned by the freeze, but the plants are still alive with the exception of the cucumbers which are rotting now.

Will

Brrrrr!

We had our first real cold snap last night and the temperature got down to 35, and lower with the wind chill. Unfortunately we did not have the garden protected, and we may have gotten some frost bite. Tonight is supposed to be even colder.
In order to protect the plants we borrowed some "cold cover" from Mike Cartrett (http://www.palmbeachbonsai.com/).
Wesley, Shoma, Haley, and Alan helped me (Bekah) cover all of the plants and anchor it down.




Now our garden should be safe from the freeze tonight.


Thanks everyone for your help!!

Bean Pole

The green bean plants are tall enough now for the kids to reach from their equipment or while standing! This is Ari helping to harvest the beans today.

We got a great harvest today with some really tasty green beans!

These bottles have beet plants and turnip plants. The red plants are beets and the green ones are turnips. We planted the root veggies in the clear bottles so we can see them growing underground when they get bigger.