Parent-Child Outreach Garden is Growing!

The "Growing A Future" garden at the Partnership office is growing!
 Children and their parents have enjoyed picking lettuce, basil and oregano for salads. Stevia, orange mint, sweet mint and spearmint leaves are used to flavor water bottles.
As with any garden, some of the plants are growing well and some, not so well. Some plants need to be moved  and some just need some extra TLC.
Posted below are some changes that have been made to the garden.

Our potatoes are growing ! It is now time to add more straw and soil.
We began the potato "nest" by lining the inside of the laundry basket with straw and added about 12 inches of soil. Potato eyes were placed around the inside of the basket and covered with soil for the first layer. Additional eyes were placed in the center of the basket and covered with soil for the second layer.

We lined the laundry basket with straw in a "nesting" form, leaving room in the center for soil.The plant looks a bit droopy because it needs more water. Now that the potato nest is complete , daily watering is required.

A strawberry plant and a bean plant have been added to the swimming pool garden. The strawberry plant and bean plant have been moved from the straw bales to see if they will grow better.Other plants included are basil, lettuce and oregano. Straw is added to help retain moisture.

The orange  mint planted in the straw bales has begun to grow runners . Mint does not require a lot of water and enjoys the warm sun shine.

A hanging liter bottle planter holds some of our mint. The other plants are growing so well , we thought we should try other ways to grow the plants. It looks pretty cool hanging from the bamboo tee pee .The plant hangs low enough for the children to water the plant and harvest the leaves.

If you look closely you will see beans on the bean plant. Fertilizer and more water will aide in their continued growth.