Hanna and Mike's Blog

Our plants are doing very well and growing rapidly! This week we planted some basil in the empty patches and had our first harvest of mint and chard!                     

         Over the past couple weeks we've been watering the plants in our little garden every morning and sometimes in the afternoon if they wanted more. For watering them during the weekend and on school breaks the grounds keepers have agreed to water them for us. About five days ago our beans sprouted as you can see in the image. In addition to watering the plants every day we also check them to see how they're doing; if they have any dead leaves that need to be removed or are wilting.

This weekend, we bought and planted the plants in the planter box! Mike and I met up at Home Depot on Saturday morning to buy the plants. First we got two bags of potting soil to fill the planter box with and one bag of fertilizer. Then we selected the plants; we got three six-packs of different kinds of flowers, mint, rosemary, and a four-pack of swiss chard. It was raining on Saturday so we decided to plant the plants the next day. On Sunday we went to the high school to fill the planter box. First we poured the dirt in, and then we transferred the plants we bought the day before into the planter box. We also planted green bean seeds I had already bought a few weeks ago, and left some room for the cilantro that we plan on planting on Wednesday.

This week, we finished digging up the dirt from the planter box area. Since we don't have as much time as we thought to grow plants, we decided to focus more on planting flowers instead of vegetables because we won't have enough time to grow them to the point when they are producing food. We hope to start buying and planting the flowers soon! My lilikoi and papaya seeds that I planted a while ago have sprouted and are growing well!

         This week we began the long and tedious task of digging the actual bed of our garden. We used hoes and a pickaxe to remove the grass and some of the roots. We then soaked the ground in our desired area with water to soften the compacted dirt and make it easier to loosen before we plant our plants. On Wednesday, during project based learning we continued digging up the roots of all the grass and other roots that were in there. After loosening some more of the dirt we got a wheelbarrow and put some of the root invested dirt in it, it was much easier to get the roots out after that. We got the wheelbarrow about half way full before we had to stop and clean up and put the tools away, time is the enemy, as usual.We plan to continue digging and finish soon so we can get our plants in the ground.

On Thursday, mike and I met up at the high school to work on our planter box. We built the frame of the box, and removed grass from the area the planter box is going to be put. We left the area to soak in water using a sprinkler device, so the soil would loosen up and be easier to dig when we come back to work on it. Next weekend we plan on digging up and softening the soil in the area, and also adding more soil to fill up the planter box, so it will be ready to receive the plants. 

           This is the location for our garden and we plan to have finished all of the tasks involved in creating our planter box by the end of fall break! This week we gathered the materials for the box its self and continued to keep up with the plants we are already growing. This coming week I plan to have finished constructing the box and to have at least cleared the grass in the target area.

     Above left:       Three week old cilantro sprouts. In a few weeks I'm hoping to move them into the  newly built box at the high school, assuming we get approved. I water them in the morning and evening everyday and just check them. Above right:      Adolescent mint plants. When the planter box it finished I'm planning on transferring them immediately so they have a little more room to grow.

This week I planted the papaya (non-GMO from Molokai) and lilikoi (passion fruit) seeds! I bought a papaya and a lilikoi from the store, and took the seeds out of them. Then I planted them in pots and made labels for them. I plan to keep them at home until they grow big enough to plant in the EC yard. Next week mike and I are planning on building the planter box, if we get our proposal approved!

       This week we reviewed our plans and made modifications to our original idea. After walking around the campus, we decided that we would build our planter by the banana trees behind Mr. James' art room. Hanna and I sat down and discussed what plants we would grow in our garden, here's a list of what we are planning to grow: green beans, cherry tomatoes, cilantro, mint,  basil, kale, lettuce, rosemary and marigolds. We are also planning to plant papaya and lilikoi at the lower school in the Early Childhood. We found materials for our planter, left over plastic composite from the old planter boxes. We wrote our proposal and are planning to ask Mr. Dwyer if would like to be our mentor. All construction as well as planting will begin if and when we get approval to implement our idea.        Next week we hope to have gotten approval for our idea and will be able to begin building our planter box. We also hope to buy the plants we don't have...

Here is a sketch of what we hope the planter will look like by the end of the project! Here is a list of things we intend to plant: cherry tomatoes  green beans cilantro mint kale lettuce basil marigolds  rosemary  papaya (to plant in EC)  lilikoi (to plant in EC)

Tuesday afternoon.

Hello everyone! This is the blog for Mike and Hanna's project based learning class. Our project idea is to incorporate a little garden into the high school to encourage people in our community to grow their own fresh vegetables and fruits! We plan on making a planter in the grassy area behind the cottage and grow some edible plants there. I'm also interested in growing some fruit tree seedlings such as papaya and lilikoi from seeds, to plant in the kindergarten yard at the end of the four months.