Kids Garden Class 2016

[thistlebloom]

Yesterday was the first day of the 2016 neighborhood Kids Garden Class.

As you can see we are experimenting with the straw bale garden concept this year.
I actually have 10 kids enrolled this year, but 4 couldn't make the first class. Yes, there are 7 kids pictured, but one was a loaner from a sleepover.

I told the kids that this year we were conducting a garden experiment, and asked if anyone had done experiments before. One little girl (on loan) said she had. She tried to blow her brother up because he was bugging her...I moved the conversation along to gardening.

We conducted the lecture and writing at a table DH set up in the garage because of threatened rain. Our Big Fat Word of the Day was DECOMPOSE and we had some fun defining it, then moved out to the garden.
The kids got to pick the two bales that are going to belong to them and we flagged them with their names. After I spread the fertilizer the kids watered it in. The water part is always the most popular garden work, even on a chilly day like yesterday. I told them they could water their bales as much as they wanted and one boy said he wanted to do it all day. Haha.
We filled tubs for future watering, since you're supposed to use warm water and ours is about 50 degrees out of the tap. They also had a great time catching baby grasshoppers which are sizing up to be a plague this year. And they looked through a garden lab book for projects. Thank you @Carol Dee for sending it last year for them.



I'm growing in my own straw bales this summer, hopefully I can get a crop of potatoes, since my soil has scab and I won't be growing them in the ground again for awhile. I have to say, this straw bale idea is not inexpensive. I could buy a lot of produce for what I spent just on the straw. But it's an education right?
Here's my husband moving my bales when class was officially over. I was nice and let him drive Janie.


The kids clamored for a ride so of course he gave them one.


Garden Class and good friends. Does life get any better?

 

[Nyboy]

Nice tractor

 

[ninnymary]

Love those pictures. It looks like it's going to be a fun class. Lucky kids.

Mary

 

[seedcorn]

Looks like fun. Glad you are doing this.

Have to ask, how much is straw in your area?

 

[Carol Dee]

YEAH @thistlebloom I am thrilled you like the book well enough to incorporate it into your Oh So FUN garden club/class. Now I wonder where my copy is? Time for Grandsons to browse and choose, too. Happy Gardening. Maybe the tag along had so much fun you will have 11 this summer.

 

[thistlebloom]

Looks like fun. Glad you are doing this.

Have to ask, how much is straw in your area?

It's outrageous. The same stuff you can get in the fall for $3.50 a bale was $6.95 this spring. I made the parents responsible for providing their kids straw (hey! maybe I'm getting smart!) and one dad said he got charged $9/bale! That's at a feed store I had checked at earlier the same day to see what they charged and if they had plenty for me to send people there. They were $6.95 then, the same as all the other feed stores I checked at.

I'm going to say this really quietly...I don't think this SBG is cost effective or time efficient either, no matter how it gets sold in the book. Maybe if I lived in an apartment and wanted to play with a few plants, but not for folks with real garden space. Oh well, it's only money. I'll just go pick a little more off that tree.

 

[digitS']

Do I understand correctly, the bales were laid out in a nice pattern, watered, then loaded up and moved?

Where did they go?

I'm glad you are back to this, Thistle'! It sure beats trying to blow up your brother ...

! Steve

 

[seedcorn]

That is expensive. For the family that had to pay $9, I'd speak to the owner. They should give a rebate or at the very least a credit.

JMO, most fad things are just that a fad or for a very specific purpose.

 

[thistlebloom]

Do I understand correctly, the bales were laid out in a nice pattern, watered, then loaded up and moved?

Where did they go?

I'm glad you are back to this, Thistle'! It sure beats trying to blow up your brother ...

! Steve

Haha! No!
Didn't you read the part where I said I might be getting smart?

No, what happened was DH laid out the kids bales early in the morning, I taught the class and the kids started the conditioning process on their bales, THEN dh moved my bales over so we could get them set up and started. My setup isn't in any of the pictures. We also finished the garden fencing and gates after the class.

 

[ninnymary]

I don't know anything about bale gardening but I tend to agree with you Thistle. It seems to be that you can get a lot more richer soil if you planted in a raised bed or the ground. Even in my tiny yard I wouldn't use bales. I would certainly not use one in an apartment complex. There I would probably go with just 1 wine barrel or 2 big pots on a balcony.

Mary