Radishes and Stuff

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Just recently in the FTE garden, we harvested radishes and were able to take them home! One gardener said, "We pulled them out because they were growing really well." So, as you can see, the garden has shaken off the effects of the drought and is back on track for the winter. The radishes were doing the best of any vegetable in the garden, a nice ripe maroon/red color. Another gardener said that he pulled out the weeds so that the radishes could grow and that's how the vegetables turned out so great.

Cold vs Plants

This is the 15 inch high plant

This is the 9 inch high plant

It was lucky for the plants that we blanketed them with mulch. They would have frozen by now if the roots weren't covered with mulch. We also put a white blanket over the plants. The garden keepers water the plants everyday. The biggest plant is 15 inches high, and the smallest is 9 inches high. It will grow bigger  if we keep taking care of the plants.

Garden Marquee

Under Construction

Danny cutting wood for the marquee.

 First of all, a marquee is a sign that people write on or post information. The FTE marquee took about three or four days to complete. The person who is working on the garden's marquee name is Danny. He is the only worker working on the marquee and is very creative. He said, "Marquees are pretty easy to make, if you have the right tools". Danny has the right tools and many of them. He is a very hard, loyal worker. On December 9th, the marquee is finally complete! Danny has impressed us with the finished marquee. Thank you, Danny!

The compressor ready to work for Danny and his nail gun.

Planting Spinach

Have you ever grown spinach at school? Well, we have and will tell you how. First, you get some spinach seeds, second you plant them in small plastic container and next you water them every day. When they are ready to eat, you cut the leaves off and eat the spinach. The leaves grow back and you can harvest it many times. We are on the watering stage. Everyone  is excited to take the spinach home.

Winter's finally here

 Do you know what these plants are? Do you know that some plants die when it gets cold? Our new plants would say, "We hope it doesn't get too cold, we don't want them to freeze. Do you have a jacket that will keep us warm?". FTE kids will take care of you. We will water and feed you so you can grow strong and healthy. In fact the radishes just got pulled up, they were supposed to be big and big they were.

Breaking News!!!!



Here is this season's planting map!



 Everything looks good so far this season. The different classes have planted, and only a few plants have died. The biggest problems are watering AND pesky mice, birds, and squirrels. We have done our best to keep them out, but they are still coming in! You would think that the deer would be a problem, but we asked our parent who is in charge of the garden, Mrs.Paull. She said, "The deer don't bother the plants as they are mostly behind fences or deer netting. Still, we have one bed that the deer could get to, but it’s planted it with garlic, onions and such. They shouldn't want to eat that." We have plants that are watered and growing while there is nothing for them to eat right now in the forest, but still, onions are pretty gross! We fertilize with compost every week, we water once a week, and the next two weeks in the garden we will be weeding, thinning and hopefully mulching. We have put most of this up on our garden button on the FTE website at http://goo.gl/Yro8e . The garden calendar, the class schedules and the weekly newsletter are located there.

We have many volunteers that work the garden each week, so there are a lot of people making it work!!!

That's all for today. See you next time!

Battle in the Backyard



The Epicness



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Hello and welcome to THE BACKYARD BASH! In this corner we have the red, the spotted, the LADYBUG! And the challenger the pesky, the puny, APHIDS! First some background on our fighters. The Ladybugs were poor liittle orpans that were found in the forest and grew up down the fighting path. The Aphids on the other hand were arrested 2 times for illegal crop eating and took up fighting for fun. Now that we are ready...

Let's get ready rumbllllllllle!
Out numbered 14 to 2 the Ladybugs decided to make the first move. Ladybug 2 quickly eats Aphids 5,8, and 9! Ohh! Ladybug 1 just ate every Aphid except for Aphid 14, how ironic! That's the last of them! Ladybug 2 just ate Aphid 14. This has been the Backyard Bash at the FTE Garden, see you next time!

A Good Start!

Ever since the school has re-planted the winter crops, the plants have gotten a good start. The school has been using water bottles with holes at the top, giving the baby plants water. We have been doing that for a while, and as a reward, we found a sweet potato ready for harvest! That should give us extra food for a Thanksgiving Feast!

Watering "Cans"?

Recently the kindergarteners & 1st graders have been using
a new technique to water the plants. They have been using
plastic water bottles with little holes poked on the top, so they
won't kill the plants by over watering and smash the smaller plants. The mice and drought have done enough damage we don't need anymore plants dying!

FTE Garden!

Would you like to find out about the latest FTE garden information? Well now you can!

Today (September 26th) we got rid of all those weeds out there. It took a lot of hand work (most of the gloves were pretty small). We had to kneel down to shovel up all the dirt. We took all the weeds, we pulled to a giant pile next to the compos bin. After we got rid of the weeds, we switched with group that had been inspecting interesting things anyone that were found while getting rid of the weeds. Using magnifying glasses, we inspected roots and even some slugs that we found. There was even a piece of old corn that was bitten out of by a bug. We also got to draw what we inspected on mini chalkboards. It was so much fun, and I think we all learned something!

The Principal and the Peas

The Vanished Artichokes

The Interview

You might think that the principal of FTE is always busy with paperwork and economy can't work in the garden, but he still does it. When we interviewed him, Mr. McCasland told us, "As far as I'm concerned, the black eyed peas and the cow peas did very well, but the best growing plant had to be the okra because it produced the most and it's used to the summer heat. You could find okra in the tropics."  Sadly, the artichokes did not do very well, they died :( . More coming up on the garden soon!!!!!

Weeds and magnifying glasses

               

Over the summer the garden had a bunch of unwelcome weeds come in and take all of the nutrients and water, like the weeds they are. So the fifth graders decided to take matters into their own hands and pulled all the weeds.

Also, as you can see above, the fifth graders were looking at plants using magnifying glasses. One of them found a little grubby insect, and we saw it move. There were alot of interesting things.

Garden prepares do start another cycle

Despite the drought this summer and the extreme heat, the garden was extremely fruitful. There was a large harvest and a family of mice were sighted. But not all the garden plants were successful, though some are suspected to have been bothered by the mice. Most of the plants were dried out and have not had any water. We suppose the plants will grow to be healthy, and the tomatoes will get ripe.

 

 

Ghoulish Garden

The FTE garden once beautiful has now taken a turn for the worst. The garden had been holding out over the summer, but thanks to the drought and dryness here in Austin, the plants are starting to die and some are way over grown. But I guess that's what to expect at the end of the growing season. There are new plans for the garden though. Our wonderful booster club is funding FTE so that students can plant new and different plants. Also, if FTE can get a grant of money, we can increase the garden size.