So Much Growing Going On

So many changes have been taking place.  Some big and some so small that if you aren't looking you might miss them (like I did!)

look at the garden grow!!!

At first glance the shear size of the garden is evident.  A total of 9 zucchini were harvested this week!

Can you count the number of zucchini on just this one plant?

And from the looks of things there will be many more to harvest in the weeks to come.
Everything is growing very well and the rain we received the last 3 mornings should help keep it up.  The gardeners this week have started to notice a few differences in the two sides.  One is the number of flowers and fruit growing on the zucchini plants seem to be greater on the rain barrel side.  Not by much - but there is a difference.  Also they noticed that the bean plants seemed to be fuller on the rain barrel side as well.  We will have to keep and eye out to see if those differences become even bigger.

flower on left and bean on right?  you decide!

Speaking of beans - we found what we think to be a bean starting to grow.  What do you think?

The corn wins in my book for the biggest and the smallest change (that I missed on first inspection)

Not only is it outgrowing some of our current and future students...

...we have tassels to report on the corn growing on both sides.
And now for the change that I read about in the data collection book and had to go back to get a picture of...drum-roll please!

Tiny little ears of corn have started to grow!  One thing to note about this is that while they are growing on the two remaining plants on the rain barrel side - I could not see any on the rain only side...yet.  We will have to keep our eyes peeled!

One last thing I would like to mention is the weeds - oh do we have weeds.  If you look at the first picture you can see them in the background.  To combat these unwanted plants we have decided to do a large scale weeding tomorrow (Monday) at noon.  So if you are free and would like to get a closer look at whats growing and help pull a few weeds - stop on down to New Century School.  I will bring drinks and a few snacks - but you may want to bring some glove to wear and any tools you may think will help.  Hope to see you there!!

Flowers Appear in the Garden!

Wow!  The garden sure is getting big.  The plants have been loving all this wonderful hot summer weather.  Even only one day of rain has not hindered the rain only side.  Everything is growing well on both sides.

Flowers are blooming on both the zucchini and bean plants.  Do you know what comes next?  Well, here is a preview of things to come when I took a glimpse of the garden today...

Yep, that is the first zucchini harvest!!

And there are many, many more beginning their transformation into yummy zucchini for us to eat.
Do any of you have favorite things you like to eat with zucchini as an ingredient?  I have a feeling the gardeners in the upcoming weeks are going to need lots of ideas to put all of the zucchini harvested to use.

Flower Buds Appear! (and some other guests)

The plants are beginning to flower...almost!!!

can you spot the beginnings of a zucchini flower?

what about a tiny little bean bud?

And let's not forget about the corn.  Ever hear the saying "knee high by the fourth of July"?  Well it looks like our corn is right on track.

 One thing that surprised me about the garden was the lack of a difference between the two side.  I couldn't believe there appeared to be no difference considering we went almost 2 weeks without rain.

Rain only

with watering from the rain barrels

The weeds also seem to be doing well in this hot weather and once again  the weeks gardeners will have their work cut out for them.  Lots of crabgrass and lambs quarters are all around the garden.  I think we may be putting down some mulch to help with the weed control.

This past weeks gardeners also saw some bunny evidence left behind.  Can anyone guess what that could be?  Lets hope they were just peeking in and don't have any plans to taste our beautiful garden.

One last thing to report is the presence of another unwanted guest.  Japanese Beetles.

munching on the corn leaves

hanging out on the zucchini plants

Stay tuned!!  Things are really starting to kick into gear at the New Century Garden!!

What a difference a week makes.

I could hardly believe my eyes when I stopped by for a quick watering of the garden today.  This hot weather seems to be just what the plants needed to get a great start.  I almost believe I could watch them get bigger if I just stood there long enough.

There are a couple things to note this week. 
One is the lack of difference between the natural rainfall side and the side that gets extra help from the rain barrels  Aside from the lesser of number of plants that originally came up on the natural rainfall side,  all the plants seem to be growing at the same rate.

Another thing, was the lesson learned about the nature of corn.  While you can definitely tell it is corn now, because it is in the grass family, it looked a lot like the unwanted grass that was coming up in the garden, and some of the corn seedlings disappeared during the weeding. Some of the plants that got weeded were the plants that were flagged for data collection on the rain barrel side.  Luckily, there were two corn plants left, and they were newly flagged to become our data collection plants for the rest of the summer.
Speaking of weeds, they are doing great in this weather as well.  Looks like next weeks gardners will have some work cut out for them.

Lets not forget the beans and zucchini.  They both are doing great.  It looks like we may have some flowers on the plants to report in the near future and in no time at all we will be collecting our first harvest!! 
Exciting things happening in the New Century Garden. 
Fell free to stop by for yourself and see how the seeds the students planted are growing, growing, growing.