News+From+the+Garden


 * News from the Garden 6/12/2011**

Poppies live fast and die young. This week I pulled out all of the poppies and planted fall flowers (zinnias and cosmos) where there hadn't been room to plant them before. Now we just hope for rain.
 * Goodbye to the Poppies**

The hot weather and lack of rain has made it difficult to maintain the garden. I am out almost every day watering one bed or another. Hopefully things will get better. we really need one good rain (1 inch) a week to keep the garden going without help.
 * Hoping for Rain**


 * News from the Garden 6/5/2011**

Saving the Raspberries
====The mowing of the raspberries gave the weeds an advantage. I spent most of my garden time this week weeding, watering and mulching them with straw. I think that they are back in the game. I'll be weeding and watering them once a week for the rest of the summer.====

Visiting the garden in summer
====We invite everyone in the Park Avenue community to visit the garden during the summer. Our first tomatoes (in the courtyard) will be ripe in a few weeks. In the side garden we have a great deal of chard ready for picking (cook it like spinach).====

The garden is for all of you. Carolyn and I are often out early in the morning and in the evening to avoid the heat. We would love to see you.

 * News from the Garden 5/29/2011 **


 * Gift Flowers **

Many thanks to Mrs. Goodman's sister who divided her perennials and gave us all of the extras. There were hundreds of irises which we are planting in the front bed around the school sign. We have been wanting to plant flowers there but never had a hose long enough to water it. Now we do. The irises will look gorgeous next April, and will grow vigorously and keep out the bermuda grass. We have also planted late summer annuals right under the sign which should be blooming in August.


 * Good News on the Hose **

We have found our front garden hose. It turns out it was borrowed not stolen. In the meantime we had bought a new one so that we now have a hose long enough to reach the school sign (see above).


 * Summer Plans - Summer Plants **

Carolyn, Leno, BethAnn and I will be continuing to work in the garden over the summer. Many good things to eat will be coming into season. i will be sending out News from the Garden every Sunday to keep you informed about what is ready to eat and what we are doing.

In the summer we usually work early in the morning and after dinner. We would love to have you join us.

I will also be working on our wiki, so visit me there.

http://parkavenueschoolgarden.wikispaces.com/

See you all in August

**News from the Garden 5/22/2011 ** **Flowers and Fruit in the Side Garden ** The garden beside the parking lot on 38th Avenue is the place to go this week. The tall, spiky hollyhocks are covered with large pink and red flowers and the poppies have started blooming. The summer flowers (zinnias, cosmos, and tithonia are growing nicely and should be in full bloom by August. There is also an herb garden with dill, cilantro, sage, garlic, and oregano. Three types of fruits are ready to eat: the white mulberry, the bush cherries and the juneberries. Come and get them before the mockingbirds do! **Planting ** Carolyn and I will be clearing and planting this week. Send me an email if you want to participate. **Bookmarks ** Any class which has not made their pressed flowers into bookmarks, should email me so that we **A Wiki of our own ** The Nashville School Garden Network has established an interactive website called a wiki. Its URL is  http://nashvilleschoolgardennetwork.wikispaces.com/home <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As part of this general website, I have started building a website for the school garden. Its URL is: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> http://parkavenueschoolgarden.wikispaces.com/ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I will post pictures and my weekly news from the garden. Anyone who joins the wiki will be able to post their own material.

**News from the Garden 5/15/2011**

Good news about Cherries and Mulberries. The cherries and mulberries are ready to eat. Go out and get them before the mockingbirds do! The white mulberry tree is in the side garden. The berries which are soft are sweet and ready to eat.

We have cherry bushes both in the side garden and it the back. look for the largest, reddest, softest berries. They are the best ones.

Bad news about the Raspberries. Two years ago Carolyn and I built a fence around the raspberries. Last winter someone destroyed it - pulled out the cement foundations and everything. We cleared up the mess but hadn't replaced the fence. We worked hard over the winter, pruning, weeding mulching and clearing the path in the middle so that we would have a good crop.

This last week, the mowers came in and mowed the bed down. This hasn't killed the bushes, but I'm not sure we're going to be able to salvage this year's crop. We're going to build a new fence and baby the plants along as best we can. Sometimes this is a discouraging job.

Planting Carolyn and I worked on Sunday getting the side garden ready to plant. We'll be continuing to work there and in the courtyard this week.



**News from the Garden 5/8/2011**

Bookmarks Let me know when it is convenient for me to come to make bookmarks. If you prefer, I can leave you some bookmark cards and packing tape and you can make them yourselves. Let me know.

Look out for baby birds We have a nest of robins on the porch of our house. I have attached pictures of Mom and the babies.

Photos are by my husband Frank Einstein, who has an exhibit of photos from World War I at Dose Coffee Shop. http://dosecoffeeandtea.com/

Preparing beds for planting. This next week I will be spending a good deal of time preparing beds for planting. Monday morning I will be in the side bed. If you want to bring your class out to tour the side garden or to help prepare beds, let me know. I will check my email in the morning and will have my cel phone on 484-3909. Students can sit on the edge of the bed and weed, so they won't get too dirty.

Cicadas are coming! I saw my first one yesterday. Because the school is only 11 years old and the soil was scraped off when it was built, there may not be too many on campus, but there will probably be a lot everywhere else. Although they can be alarming, they don't hurt people and don't even do much damage to plants. I will be working out an exercise using them. I'll let you know next week.

**News from the Garden 5/1/2011**

First Harvest The peas are ready to eat. Come to the courtyard and have a taste. If each student takes only one or two there will be enough for everyone. Thank the Kindergarten and PK students who planted them.

A great deal of "lambs quarters" also called "goose foot spinach" has sprouted in the courtyard. Lambs quarters is a delicious wild green which tastes like spinach and was very popular with Native Americans. I will try to label it. We are going to pull up most of it, but will leave a few plants so that you can get in touch with your hunter-gatherer ancestors.

Flowers The Poppies are in bloom in the courtyard. The sage is in bloom on the side garden.

The yellow wildflowers blooming in the grass are buttercups (Ranunculus acris) If your class didn't get to press violets, these are also good for pressing.

Seedlings The carrots which the 4th grade planted are sprouting beautifully. I have planted zinnia and cosmos seeds both of which are also sprouting.

Planting If it every stops raining, we will be planting tomatoes, peppers, sunflowers, and other summer crops.

I am available to give tours of the garden in spring. Let me know if you are interested

**News from the Garden 4/24/2011**

Planning Flowers If you want to have a flower garden in bloom all season, you need to think a season ahead. • We planted pansies for the winter in the fall • We planted poppies for the spring in the winter • Now we are planting summer annuals which will be in bloom when school resumes.

More Food for Catepillars We are trying to develop breeding colonies of butterflies at the school. To do this, we need to have butterflies lay their eggs in our garden. Most butterflies will drink nectar anywhere they find it, but they will lay eggs only on specific plants. • Our parsley bed will, I think be home to a lot of Black Swallowtails. • We have a nice stand of hollyhocks in the side bed which are one of several plants favored by painted lady catepillars • We allow plantains to grow in our flower garden although they are just weeds (and not very pretty ones at that) because they are food for Buckeye caterpillars. • I have just started some seedlings of passion vines, which we will plant in two of the big pots in the courtyard. These are food for the catepillars of the gulf fritillary. • We have not yet succeeded in getting milkweed to grow, but we'll try again next spring. Milkweed is the favored food of Monarch butterflies.

Available Activities - Contact me if you are interested • Carrot activity for 4th grade • Fossil activity for 2nd grade • Making bookmarks