The Perennial Question

The official Hands for Growing summer program is complete for the year, today is the first day of school - and the garden is looking better than ever! 

This is the perennial question - what do we do with the fact that the garden continues to grow and produce after the program is done?

Participants and families are invited to continue going out to the garden to care for it, and to pick anything and everything that's ready. But, when school starts, life changes. There is a new focus and it takes a lot of energy and time.

Relationships, too, change and grow. Sometimes life causes peoples' focus and energy to change, and the question becomes, what happens to the relationship? Of course, there is no one right answer, and often, no easy answer.

In the meantime, here are pictures from the garden this morning. Enjoy!

Potato plants are bloomin

The corn is soooo close to being ready!

Do you see the pumpkin nestled in there?

Beans going up the pole

You have to see the sunflowers in person to
 appreciatate how tall they are!

Lots of tomatoes coming on

Bee balm and Zebra grass

Our funny spiderwort that is blooming
at an unusual time.

Celebrate!
Aug. 8

Explaining the lasagna garden

After painting in the morning and watching the rain pour down in the afternoon, we met at 6 in the evening for an ice cream social with families.

It was windy at first, and the sky looked ominous for a bit, but the weather calmed down and it was a beautiful evening.








It's fun to show off the garden to family members.

We had family members from Texas!

Looking at the plants with animal names

The Lamb's Ear is so soft!

 

And then....there was ice cream!

Papa knows how to have ice cream and all the fixin's

This "special" combines the best of the
bowl and the cone.

We have one more Wednesday morning to meet before school starts. It's been a great summer of fun and learning. And even though we will be done with our Wednesday mornings, the garden will continue to produce so families are encouraged to come out and reap the benefits!

Choices

Aug. 7

Today we played in the paint! We painted the box for the lasagna garden, and the choice for color was....a mix!                                                       The preferred choice for painting...spray paint.                                                                                                                                                                                            We were a small crew, but the painting got done quickly...and with no paint on each other!

                                                                                                       The hardest part was working in the sunflowers to get the north side of the box painted.                                                                                                                                                                                                 When it was done, it was fun to see how much it brightened up that part of the garden

Since the box got done so quickly we had a chance to finally paint some tire planters that didn't get done last year.

In the afternoon we had some hard rain, but it didn't affect the paint, so we were ready to go for the ice cream social in the evening.

After the painting we played a game called "Would You Rather". The game consists of statements in which each person has a choice to make. Some are easy, some difficult, some serious and some funny. A couple of examples are:

"Would you rather be invisible or be able to fly?"

"Would you rather dress like your parents or act like your parents?"

Most of the statements lead to explanations, discussion and many times, laughter.

After "Would You Rather" we talked about choices we make in relationships. We talked about the value of making some basic choices, or setting your boundaries, before a situation comes up in a relationship. It's easier to make some of those choices when you have time to think it through, and maybe talk about it with someone else. Then, in the pressure of the moment you don't have to be struggling to weigh pros and cons. 

We talked about anger and the fact that it is an emotion that is part of being human. Every one gets angry sometimes, what makes a difference is the choice you make in how you act as a result. It's been said that anger is an emotion, violence is a choice. If someone makes the choice to be violent it is their responsibility, not the responsibility of the person they act violently toward. 

When a person you are in a relationship becomes violent, you have choices to make, too, to keep yourself safe. 

Here's a great, easy to read list of choices a person can make about how to handle anger:

 http://www.phoenix-society.org/downloads/resources/uses_for_anger_20130520_125233_22.pdf

Progress and plastic cup pyramids

In spite of marauding rabbits and getting a late start, we're seeing the garden mature - there are tiny,                            green pumpkins,  green tomatoes, ears of corn setting on, and we're cutting spinach! The oregano and basil that struggled in our experimental gunny sacks are looking good, also!      

Last week we talked about painting the box for the lasagna garden.  Our plan was
 to prime it this week, and paint next. When we got to the garden this morning, it was chilly and damp. We debated a bit, but decided to go ahead. That turned out to be a good decision as it warmed up and skies cleared after about the first hour.

 Our discussion on relationships started with a game - each of us held a piece of  yarn that was tied to a rubber band. Our group task was to grab a plastic cup with the rubber band and move it, until we had 10 cups built into a pyramid.  Sound easy?

It was...at first. Then, the wind blew the tower over, then we knocked it over. To our surprise (and dismay!) one cup fell right inside the other. THAT one took some time and patience!

At one point, one member of our group simply grabbed the cups and put them where they needed to be. DONE! 

We laughed and then talked about how important it was to be able to communicate clearly with each other so that we were able to work together successfully in order to build the pyramid. Just so, it's important to communicate clearly in relationships to avoid misunderstandings.

We also talked about how many times something unexpected knocked down our "garden pyramid". It was easy to make analogies between our gardening experiences and the rather fragile pyramid.

In this short video you'll laugh at how many communication mistakes are made. See how many you can count!                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1RY_72O_LQ

Bugs, Weeds, Rabbits and Colors

 

RAIN! WE GOT RAIN LAST NIGHT!

Today we woke up to cloudy skies and MORE RAIN!
We weren't sure if we'd be able to get into the garden or not, but after the last couple of summers we won't complain about rain!

 As it turned out, we did get into the garden. We're getting to the time of year when we're doing basic maintenance care - pulling weeds (nobody's favorite job), continuing to lay newspaper and mulch, and finishing signs in our animal plant space.



We talked about pests in the garden - bugs, weeds, and this year our biggest pest...rabbits.

Next year we'll make little fences around everything to discourage the rabbits who have happily feasted on many tender little plants this year.

As for insects, we talked about beneficial insects and looked at pictures. We recognized some of them, and were surprised that some are insects that we would have thought were harmful to our plants. One of the

favorites, because of the name, is the   Assassin Bug.

Using insecticides will control problem insects, but kills indiscriminately and will also kill beneficial insects. We talked about home-made remedies, knocking the munchers off the plants and the help of insects who prey on the insects who eat the garden.

We also talked about the benefits of bio-diversity in the garden to invite in the helpful insects, and planting to take advantage of plants that help discourage harmful insects.

As for weeds, again we could use a chemical, but are using less lethal methods. We pick weeds, put down newspaper and mulch, and use raised beds.              

Making signs for the catmint and tickseed coreopsis

In our relationship discussion we filled out a personality assessment that     describes personalities by color. It was fun to discover the differences in our personalities, and to guess who in our families fit which color.                                 

Those different traits can "bug" us,  we can be think the other person is a "pest", but understanding the different personality styles can be helpful in building healthy relationships. Instead of reacting in anger we can learn to appreciate the strengths of another.

We're thankful for the rain, and for the varied colors of our personalities that make life full and fun!

Here's a link to a fun website with tons of info on beneficial insects - happy bugging!
http://www.kathimitchell.com/insects.html

Here's some info on personality traits,how your personality can grow/change and how your personality can affect others:

http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-personality-traits.html 

Boundaries

July 7, 2013


Our focus for today was "boundaries." We have some boundaries in the garden...the large planters and rocks that define part of the garden space, the edging in parts of the garden, the pathway, and the raised beds. But boy, do we need more of them in the garden! It's hard to see in this picture, but there is a little stick - it's what's left of a cucumber plant in the top of one of the bags. A few days ago there were 6 or 7 cucumber plants around the top. Now, there's one little stick.


Rabbits have nibbled on the corn and there are a few tender, young corn stalks completely gone.


What we've learned is that next year we  need more boundaries - a short fence around 

the corn, and chicken wire over every tender, little sprout!



For the time being, we have happy rabbits, and a challenge to get creative to fill in the blank spaces.

Stephanie found a great project for flowers that critters won't be able to eat. They're made out of soda cans. They shine in the sunlight and move with the breeze. 

 It was fun and fairly easy. We have some creative double blooms,
fancy petal shapes and centers made from glass or wooden beads, or a circle cut out of the aluminum can. Attaching the flowers to the dowel stems was a little challenging, but with a little experimenting we got it done!

       

Even our youngest visitors got it done with a little help from grandpa and grandma.

                                                   

TA DA!

                

Lisa, from DOVES led a discussion about the importance of boundaries in our relationships. She told us that each person has a right to determine their own boundaries and that they need to communicate those to others. 

She led us through an exercise to demonstrate that each person has different boundaries - and that's ok!

So, week 5 of Hands for Growing, 2013. Early rain that kept us out of the garden and hungry rabbits have slowed us down a bit, but with good humor, work, play and creativity we see the growth of our garden and our friendships.

  

For more on boundaries in relationships go to:   http://www.pamf.org/teen/abc/buildingblocks/boundaries.html

 

 

Want to see a BUNCH of creative garden boundary ideas?

https://www.google.com/search?q=creative+garden+edging+ideas&rlz=1C1RNNN_enUS366US545&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=wtTnUdCNM-zUyQG3-IHYCA&ved=0CC8QsAQ&biw=1366&bih=617