We had our second work day I think in April and we planted the seedlings I was able to grow from seeds Jen provided….squash and cucumber plants. The tomato plants were yet too small to transplant. I didn’t have a lot but it was a start.
Then I held a planting activity with the Headstart kids. We planted flower and lettuce seeds in little pots. Our ultimate plan was to transplant these in the community garden but alas due to bad communications we were not able to carry out the second part. I felt that was my first novice mistake. I did not know another Headstart teacher would be leading the kids on our second activity so I didn’t go over the time, place, and what to bring with the second teacher. Lesson learned? Repeat and and confirm instructions before activity date.
The Century Academy kids had better luck in our garden. The squash seedlings they planted were half way mature. By the time the academy kids planted I had the issue of water somewhat solved thanks to Mrs. Debbie and Mrs. Paula. In the beginning I was hauling buckets of water from home and then getting water from the main building which was still a considerable distance from our garden. Then the ladies gave me 4 – 100 ft water hoses and including the one old one I got from my house I had 500 feet, long enough to go across the drive to the main building. It was still tiresome to roll out and roll up all the water hoses but it was better than buckets, especially during the summer drought we were going through.
Then something I wasn’t aware of woke me up. See, I was out in the garden watering just about every other day and I was watering all the veggies including the Academy kids’ beds. I never saw the Academy kids because I was out there early between 6am and 7am. Then one day I was late. I remember, it was a Wednesday and after opening up my shop at 9am I went to the garden because I missed a couple of days and it was an especially hot and dry week. I wasn’t planning to stay long because my shop was open and I needed to get back. I was there long enough to give the plants a drink and was rolling up the hoses when the kids came struggling with buckets of water. It never occurred to me……I never realized they were doing this. I felt terrible!!! This was novice mistake #2. These activities should never be this hard or the kids will lose interest. Still I was proud of those kids. That was the first and last time I saw them because the Academy closed because of the lack of funding. They never took any of the harvest and there were plenty of yellow squash and zucchini.
Leave a Reply