September in the JYC Garden

Some of the seeds that were planted in the summer have sprouted and are growing beautifully. Congratulations and thank you to those students who are helping water and maintain our garden!

Radishes are ready to eat. Who is ready to try one?

Several varieties of lettuce are growing beautifully in our garden. Some are ready to eat, some are still growing, others are just starting to sprout.

We have many green tomatoes. It's hard to believe they were just seeds not that long ago!

Spinach didn't really take for some reason, but one plant is growing.

Carrots were planted later and are just starting to sprout.

In addition to vegetables, we are growing some herbs, such as parsley and mint.

Our strawberry plants are still producing some fruit as well. This is the only edible plant in the garden which was not grown from seed.

Lest you think that we have magically morphed into master gardeners in our first year, we will also share some of the challenges we have faced. It's an important lesson for the students as well, to observe that sometimes things don't work out the way you expect and to see that we learn from our mistakes.

The milkweed was planted in the spring, but was overwhelmed by the poppies and did not grow. Once the poppies were removed, the milkweed sprouted and is growing nicely.

The chard grew wonderfully in the spring, but it has not thrived in the fall. They have received some TLC since this photo was taken, and we hope that they will soon thrive. If not, then we'll pull them out and plant something else.

Caterpillars have eaten through the broccoli this fall, just like they did in the spring. We're keeping a closer eye on the plants now, and removing caterpillars regularly.