Garden Harvest Party Planned

While students were away for summer vacation, amazing things were happening in the vegetable gardens. Tomato plants that were just a few inches tall when planted, are now over 4 feet tall.  Lots of tomatoes are turning from green to red.  Over the summer, we harvested all of the radishes, green onions, and lettuce.  Recently we picked some peas, beans, tomatoes and cabbages.  Our gardens are still growing tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers, and popcorn.

If you were in the Garden Club last year, club members will begin meeting again during the week of September 26, during lunch recess.  Students are invited to a Harvest Party on September 28 or 29, depending on the grade level. We will end the garden project by cleaning up the gardens for the winter, during the following week.

Often, this time of the year, people have extra produce from their own gardens.  If you would like to donate extra vegetables to Community Sharing at Apollo Center,  you can drop them off in the school office anytime between September 26 and October 4.  I will transport all donations to Apollo Center where they will be greatly appreciated.

It has been such a pleasure to cultivate gardening interest and to teach our young Bobcat gardeners more about how to grow vegetables.  Many of them have shared with me their enthusiasm for gardening at home as well. Please visit us at brooksgardenjournal.blogspot.com for news on our culminating activities.

Can You Guess Which Garden Is Yours?



 Garden A




 Garden B




 Garden C



 Garden D



 Garden E



 Garden F



 Garden G




 Answers:

 Garden A:  #2
 Garden B:  #1
 Garden C:  #7
 Garden D:  #5
 Garden E:  #4
 Garden F:  #6 
 Garden G:  #3 



The Tomato Hornworm

 Bare branches on the tomato plant
 Suddenly caught my eye.
 Fear strikes me as I slowly
 Step in closer to inspect the leafless branch,
 Knowing I must find the destructive vandal.

 Searching, searching, searching...
 Same green as the leaves.
 Fatter and longer than my thumb.
 Disgustingly plump for a worm.
 Slow but a ravenous eater.

 Looking up from below.
 Looking down from above.
 Not touching the plant in case
 My fingers should feel the
 Soft, squishy skin...
 Or the horn protruding from the head,
 Or is that the tail?

 Surely I should be able to see the black and white

spots and stripes,
 Lining the body in a perfect pattern.
 Looking along the bare stems,
 Looking under the curled leaves.

 Ahhhhhhh!
 Even fatter than I remember.
 Now what?  I ask myself.
 Save the plant, I hear a voice pleading in my head.
 Courage, where's my courage?

  I slowly move in to rescue the plant.
 Snip went the scissors across the stem.
 Plop, the tomato hornworm fell to the ground
 Still munching and clinging to it's branch.

 Can't leave it here!
 Then where?
 I  slide on my garden gloves.
 And pinch the stem as I slowly raise it up
 To meet my wondering eyes.

 I can't harm Mother Nature's hornworm!
 But it can't harm our tomato plants either.
 It's garden waste, I tell myself.
 There will be lots for it to eat in the compost bin.
 It may even burrow into the rich compost,
 And pupate into a cocoon.

 So carefully I walk my prisoner to the compost bin,
 Open the lid and drop it in.
 Someday a lucky gardener may lift the lid
 And watch a beautiful hornworm moth emerge.

 The moth may mate with another hornworm moth,
 Then fly to another tomato plant
 To lay its eggs on the leaves.

 The eggs will hatch
 And there will be
 Many more tomato hornworms
 To surprise and fascinate

 Even more gardeners.