The students of McCall have been hard at work the past few weeks planting cool weather vegetables and flowers in our beautiful garden with the help of volunteers from the McCall PTA! We are already seeing seedlings for many of the plants. A few things you will spot in our garden: radishes (Watermelon, Daikon & French Breakfast), cauliflower (White Hybrid and Green Goddess), broccoli (Lieutenant), peas (Sugar Snap and Dwarf Grey Sugar), carrots (Cosmic Purple and Scarlet Nantes) and many more! So far, grades K-4th have been out to plant and every student in these grades had an opportunity to sow a seed in our garden. In the the weeks ahead they will help to water and care for their growing plants!
We have been contending with some unwanted garden visitors...the Cabbage Worm! These creatures are especially fond of the leaves of plants in the Brassica family which include cabbage, kale, broccoli and cauliflower. The images below show a few of the actual worms student Emily Garvin removed from our plants and the damage the worms caused to the leaves of our Green Goddess cauliflower plants in the 3rd grade bed. As you can see, these pesky insects are small, but they can cause major damage quickly! We are applying a homemade, non-toxic citrus solution to make the leaves bitter so the worms look for lunch elsewhere! We have also covered all cauliflower and broccoli plants with a thin insect netting to keep the Cabbage Butterflies from laying eggs on the plants.
We hope you enjoyed our first garden blog! If you would like to be a part of our amazing garden, please complete the very brief sign up form here to provide your contact info and also let us know how you would like to help. We have many ways you can get involved from one-time planting day helper to decision making committee member. All are welcome regardless of garden experience. Questions? Comments? Email our Environmental Chair at firstname.lastname@example.org.