Going Bananas and New Growth!

Please see the updated slideshow for pictures of our garden's growth taken this morning by Sophia Elliott, a 4th grader at SPE.

The garden beds now boast 5" tall tomato plants, bursting mesclun, tall beans, climbing cucumbers and squat squash leaves. Herbs are slowly sprouting: the basil plants are the first to show their small green heads.

The voracious pumpkin plant was moved to an area by the school fence where it will have plenty of room to climb and conquer.

The Banana Grove, one part of the smoothie garden, has been planted on the East side of the school. The transplanting went smoothly with only a few trees going into temporary shock. Now even the starkest banana trees have new growth! In addition to the banana trees, two baby papayas trees were also planted.

Garden signs are being created – as we speak - by the afterschool Art enrichment classes. Our garden logo and art guru, Liz Atlan, painted a beautiful prototype for the children to use as a guide.

There is much to look forward to in the coming months. If you haven’t seen what we’ve been up to, stop by the garden, add a bit of water, pull up a weed and give our plants love.

Stay tuned for compost and rain barrels...

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden's Edible Garden Festival

Fun for the whole family!

The Edible Garden Festival
Featuring the Scarecrow Contest

Saturday and Sunday, October 24-25
9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Fairchild's Edible Garden Festival will show you how to create a fruit and vegetable garden in your backyard or as a container garden for you porch. Informative lectures, cooking demonstrations, delicious foods, plant vendors and demonstrations will also be available. Come and sample local products, learn from renowned chefs, enjoy kid's activities and cast your vote in the first South Florida scarecrow contest.

In the News...

Our garden is in the Neighbors section of The Miami Herald today: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/communities/story/1222366.html !!!!

Seeding the Garden

We're working in the garden this Thursday from about 7:30 am till noon. What's to be done: building a composter, watering coconut palms and banana trees, preparing seedling pots (gifts for SPE students), measuring the garden beds into square feet and - finally - seeding the garden! Students and their teachers will join on a volunteer basis from 9:00 on, and we'll need extra hands in the soil. Hope to see you there!

On Growing Tropical Plants

Found a great link to tropical plant growing, which includes very detailed instructions for for growing pineapples from storebought fruit: http://www.tropicalpermaculture.com

Scenes from Installation Day

For more pictures, click on the slideshow in the sidebar.

On Garden Installation Day...

Our Hero, Dennis Finneran from Miami Victory Gardens, arrived at school at the somewhat ungodly hour of 7:30 a.m. yesterday. He pulled up in his white (and orange) stallion, a fully loaded U-Haul weighted down with gorgeous cedar planks and bags of black gold, stunning organic soil in a gazillion twisty-tied bags.

Unfortunately, despite her calm and charming attempts, Catherine, could not persuade our otherwise fabulous school maintenance man, Jorge to open the gates so the truck could pull up to our site.

So, instead, the guys—with almost no perceptible mumbling--pitched in to lug the 100 or so bags by hand from the loading dock, down the hall, down the stairs and into the beds.

That is, once those suckers got bolted together. Note for next time: bring extra drills, bits, and a power cord!! Okay, so, some of our holes were not exactly lined up. But, thanks to Ms. Fishman’s and Terry’s keen eyes and persistence, our beds were.

The Neighbors reporter and photographer, Paradis and Daniel were so very wonderful to have with us. Thanks, guys!

We had a real buzz going. And, yes, Catherine and I freaked out a bit. But with the help of a truly staunch crew of parent volunteers we recovered. Please take a bow: Terry, Neal, Teresa, Clara, Liz, Okan, Tiffany, Geane, Chino, Helen, Leslie, Kristin, Giancarlo, Steve, Helen, Adam, Andy, Leslie, Jaleh, Eric and Carmen!!

We managed to get the beds in just around 9:30 –only about half an hour past our deadline, which is actually very early if using a Miami watch.

The best part was that from the minute we got there, yesterday and today, kids swarmed like buzzing bees. "Can I help?", "I want to plant", "How can I join?"

And help they did. Each of the 508 South Pointe students shoveled dirt into the beds and few fifth graders planted our marigolds to help discourage bugs. They held their new and quite gorgeous royal blue SPE flags with new real pride.

Others settled in at the picnic tables to come up with their personal garden wish list. Daniella said “I want berries, just berries.”

Berries may take a while, but at least now we do have beds.

And I am sure, we will all sleep well tonight knowing what hard work we did to get our garden growing.

Next up: worms, seeds and bananas.