Opening Grandma's Garden

There was lots to see in Grandma's Garden, now that the heat wave has passed and we can FINALLY  be open for business.  The wheelbarrow was the same, but the plastic trowels are new.

We collected the rocks Mrs. Ellis's classes made for us last year and placed them on the side of the raised bed .One enterprising scholar found a painted rock in the warbler house! 

With the floral pruner and careful supervision until he felt comfortable,  this scholar trimmed the invasive weeds covering the entry way.  It's nice to have competent help.

The next crew removed the hanging baskets from the fence and emptied the soil into the raised beds while their colleagues broke up the clumps and combined them with the existing planting medium.  Yes, the clumps were hard.  Yes, there was a lot of detritus atop them.  Yes, it all went into the beds.

While others were chatting, some of the girls were excavating The Hole in the Corner.  

 I'm not certain that the impossibly green bug was found in its depths, but we had a great time admiring its beauty anyway.  (Yes, there's a filter on the photo, but it was the only way to truly capture the color). 

The Mandarin Orange tree (not a lime, nor a lemon) has 19 fruits hanging from her branches.  It was very hard not to touch them.  The irrigation around our citrus tree attracted a lot of hangers on this summer.  I set the big kids to removing them. 

Apparently, some lessons were learned last year.  Nothing was left behind to sprout again.  Everyone was very proud of their roots.

A teacher shared the 5th grade's tiny garden project, and we muddled our way through it.

Were the cups supposed to go inside the wooden box?  Some did.  Some didn't.  

It's a randomized trial.

Did I over-water this?  Oh, YES!

 Since there was no way to truly save it, we decided that it, too, was an experiment.

And where did the water come from, you ask?  The plan was to place the boxes under the holes in the irrigation tubing and let the water drip in slowly.,  But two of the tubes were disconnected from the main line, sending arcs of cool water and loud laughter into the air.

It was much more fun to capture water this way than via the water fountain.

And we're all about the fun in Grandma's Garden.

It's so mice to be back!