July 22

The Pumpkin Plants Are Flowering

Here’s a quick update on the pumpkin patch at our school.  I checked the plants out yesterday and noticed a few things.  First, The plants have all grown.  Also, they seem to be more green.  Some of the leaves in the past weeks have been yellow.  I think they might have been watered too much.  I altered this a bit for both gardens.  Hopefully, that helped.  I still see some yellow discoloration in the leaf of some of the plants, but not much.  I have not seen as many leaves being eaten.  I put some slug bait down last week and that seemed to keep the slimy guys off for now.  Here’s a photo of one such creature I caught in our garden.

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This is a banana slug. It’s a native species for our state.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A new pest arrived this week and has been munching little holes in the leaves of the plants. Here’s a photo of a beetle I found on one of the leaves.  I’m not sure if it’s the culprit. Again, I’ll keep an eye on it.

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I found that the growth is still better in Garden 1 compared to Garden 2.  If you look carefully in the Garden 1 photo you can see some yellow coloring.  Those are the flowers that are starting to bloom.  Remember that the pumpkin fruit start as a flower.  Once it gets pollinated it will start to make the pumpkin fruit.  Do you recall how they get pollinated?  See the photos below.

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Garden 1

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Garden 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lastly, I observes some interesting color on the leaves of one of the pumpkins in the 5 gallon buckets.  I’m not sure what it is exactly.  It might be nothing, or it could be the start of some sort of disease.  I’ll check back on it next week.

The courtyard to the school is generally closed during the month of July, but it might start opening up in August.  Stop by and check if you have time to see how the plants are progressing in person.

Category: Environments, Garden | LEAVE A COMMENT
July 22

What are you doing this summer?

What have you been up to?  Have you had a chance to hang out with friends?  Maybe you’ve gone to a Summer Camp and made new friends.  Do you play a sport?  Perhaps you’ve stayed home and hung around the house with family.  Did you go camping?  My kids are currently hanging out with their grandparents in Portland.  I think they’re getting spoiled.

Playing Cards and Eating Ice Cream

My son and daughter playing cards and eating ice cream with their grandfather.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Usually summer is a time to take a trip somewhere new.  It can be to meet up with family, or see a new place.  You start to explore new boundaries.  Recently, I was looking at taking a trip to one of our Nation’s great National Parks and came across this website.  Jonathan Irish is a National Geographic photographer that wanted to see all of the parks in one year.  In fact, he is trying to see them all in 52 weeks, or a year.  He’s taking this trip with his wife, Stefanie.  She’s in the exploration business too.  She works for Nasa.

Wait a minute.  I’ll bet you have some questions.

If you haven’t been, you might be thinking, “What’s a National Park? How does a place in the US become a National Park? How many National Parks are there?”

The video series “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea” created by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan can answer all of these questions and more.  Check out the PBS site for more information and catch a glimpse of history.

Now that you’ve started to create an idea of what a National Park is, which would you visit?  It’s definitely something to think about.  There are several great choices.  I can remember the first time I went to Yellowstone National Park with my kids.  They had their heads down and they were playing on some electronic devices they had.  Once we got closer to the park I said, “Put your gizmos away and pay attention to what’s happening around you outside.”  They were perplexed and didn’t really get it.  However, once they looked outside, their thoughts of video games and fail videos vanished.  There, in front of them, was a landscape they had never seen before.  It was huge and majestic.  As we drove further into the park,  we came across a 2000 plus pound Bison just walking in the road.  The kids couldn’t believe it.  That was the start of a great adventure for my family.

Ella and Riley look for wolves in Yellowstone.

Ella and Riley look for wolves in Yellowstone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe you can’t make it to a park this summer.  If you could, which would you visit?  How long would you stay?  What attractions would you be sure not to miss?

I’m going to Glacier National Park this summer.  I’m not sure what we’ll do or see.  We leave in 3 weeks.  I need to start answering the questions above.  Hopefully, I can do a follow-up post and let you know how our trip goes.  Stay tuned.

 

Category: Social Studies | LEAVE A COMMENT