Ants in My Plants

Well, I officially have my first garden pests . . . ants in my cucumbers and caterpillars in my tomatoes. I'm lucky to have made it through my spring garden bug-free, so now I have to figure out how to take back my garden.

In the meantime, we're continuing to enjoy the fruits of our labor. We harvested our first kale and lettuce before leaving for our trip, and the eggplant continues to flourish. Last week, we enjoyed our first squash and cucumber as well. My first bell pepper is turning red, and we saw the first tiny bud on our broccoli today. Plus . . . I'm still hopeful that I can salvage the tomatoes.

What's Growing in Our Garden

Here's an update on our fall garden since I planted our first seedlings a few weeks ago . . . The three new Earth Boxes I planted are flourishing; the picture at left shows a few leftover cucumber I haven't found a spot for yet (still in the seedling tray) compared to the cucumber behind in it that's been in the Earth Box for about a month. The difference is unbelievable! Not to sound like an Earth Box commercial, but these things are amazing!

The three new boxes are planted as follows: one with tomatoes, one with cucumber and one with lettuce, kale & broccoli. Since I didn't have a box for the squash, I planted it in a wooden planter box Jim made in the spring for the corn. It's thriving as well, and I'm now wishing that I'd planted my cucumber the same way to free up a box for the more finicky plants.

Since I ended up with way more seedlings than spots, I passed some along to a friend - but still had some left. I couldn't just leave them there to shrivel up, so I bought one new box for more lettuce, kale & broccoli and transplanted my herbs from an Earth Box to individual plants. I wasn't sure they'd make it, but they seem to be doing great so far.

The eggplant that I planted in April is still growing strong - currently flowering and producing the 6th or 7th round of fruit (I've lost count). Tonight I'm making a roasted vegetable antipasto salad with eggplant from the last round. The pepper plants for our gardening co-op all have tiny little peppers on them, and the lettuce and kale looks like it will be ready for the first cutting in a few weeks.

After having disastrous gardening results in the past, I'm thrilled to be on season two of growing things we can actually eat.

Photo & Video of Our Plant Science Experiments

We wrapped up our plants / gardening unit study with SLC on Monday and will be continuing lots of learning on this theme throughout the fall. Noah visited the garden shop with me over the weekend, and we transplanted some of our new seedlings. Today we'll be harvesting eggplant, trimming the herbs and checking on all our new additions.

Monday's class focused on osmosis and how plants use water. It was full of great experiments including the one pictured above that is a great way for the kids to see how plants transport water using their stems. Each child received a white flower in a cup of colored water. As the water is drawn up through the stem, the petals will turn the color of the water. Ava's flower is already starting to turn blue, but we're still waiting on Noah's to turn red. We did this experiment at home a year or so ago, and it took longer for the lighter colors to become visible.

Another experiment that the kids (and adults) all loved was the one in the video below. After explaining how a flower's petals close up when it doesn't have water and re-open when it receives water, the kids all colored their own paper flower, placed it in a shallow dish of water and . . . well, you'll see. It was pretty amazing!

My little botanists have loved learning more about plants, and we may follow up our studies with a field trip to EPCOT to see the hydroponic gardens sometime soon.