The first spring/summer in our school garden had some successes and some challenges.
At the end of April students in the After-school Program planted vegetable seeds in the newly installed raised beds.
The potatoes, planted by Mrs. Bragan’s students, were the first vegetables to be harvested. Mrs. Bragan’s class participated in BC Agriculture in the Classroom’s “Spuds in Tubs” program.
At the end of June the Sugar Snap peas were ready to eat. Sugar Snap peas are a cross between snow peas and garden peas. The whole pod is eaten and has a crunchy texture and very sweet flavor. These plants continued to produce peas for most of July.
Our squash plants produced two acorn squash, a pumpkin and a zucchini.
We grew beets and radishes.
Our biggest challenge this summer was our soil. We half-filled our garden boxes with Cormorant Island top soil and added some composted manure as a soil conditioner and fertilizer. However, this combination left the soil’s pH too high. Some of our seedlings had their roots “burned” which left them unable to absorb water and nutrients. The plants that were affected grew very slowly, as shown in this picture of our stunted celery:
Cabbage aphids and cabbage moth caterpillars decimated our kale. They were so infested we pulled them and threw them in the garbage to prevent the bugs from spreading.
After a slow start our sunflowers are finally blooming.