Jones Elementary Garden Update: Bumper Spring Crops!

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to let you know what has been happening in the garden this spring and what our summer plans are. Do you remember last August when we came back to this?

 We have turned it around to a workable, productive school garden!

We have had a very bountiful spring in the garden. We have had a lot of produce go home to Jones families, bags and bags of lettuce, spinach, cabbage, swiss chard and broccoli. Teachers have also been the grateful recipients of spinach, peas, swiss chard and cabbage. Three classes have come out to sample snow peas and sugar snap peas they picked from the vine. At least two classes have snacked on what they raided from the strawberry patch.

There are lots of red potatoes curing in my crawl space right now that Sra. Soto's class grew. Sra. Ospina's class will harvest more red potatoes this week. We still have carrots in the ground, trying to give them every opportunity to grow, but they will be pulled before the end of the school year. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the 30 heads of garlic that just finished curing in Marcia Jones' game room. Wow! Thank you all so much for all your help to make this a great year in the garden. We had eleven classes come out and get their hands good and dirty in the garden this spring. All the kids LOVE being in the garden and it is so awesome that we facilitate that. 

As the produce has been harvested, I have been turning the beds over to summer vegetables. So far, volunteers and I have planted cantaloupe, melon, red, yellow and green peppers, sunflowers, corn, red tomatoes, summer squash, butternut squash, grape tomatoes, yellow pear tomatoes and cucumbers. We have just two beds left to plant and our garden will be ready for the summer!

I have put together a summer gardening schedule that is almost full, but there is room if you want to help us out this summer. Basically, you would be responsible for weeding, watering and harvesting the produce from all the beds for one week. I think it would take someone maybe 3 or 4 hours that week. I would be available by phone and e-mail for questions, and if I am in town (which I mostly am) I can meet you in the garden if you need another pair of eyes and hands. The garden really does require care over the summer. Otherwise it is a disaster to return to in the fall. Please help us out if you can. 

I am excited that Melissa Tarleton will be co-chairing this team next year. Melissa has a lot of gardening experience and is a great asset to us. 

Please talk up the garden to all your Jones friends. We have a great team, but we can always use more help. Several of you know from personal experience that you really don't have to have any gardening experience to be successful in the garden. There are lots of folks who can help every step of the way and lots of people are checking in on the plants to make sure they are all being tended to. Please help spread the word that our garden is a real gem in the Jones community. Let's keep this great thing going!

Last but not least, a request for help. I could use some help with weeding this week. If you can stop by, the strawberry patch needs to be weeded, as does the cucumber rows in bed 10. You do not have to weed the potatoes in bed 10 as they are coming out this week. I have a great weeding tool in the bin. It is from Ace Hardware and looks like a metal forked tongue. Jane Forbes Fields turned me on to it and it is a great tool. Just dig it under the weeds and they come up roots and all very easily. 

Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks again for all your help!

Jennifer Jacobs, Jones School Garden Coordintaor