Summer is here with a vengence

Well Summer seems to finally be here after a spring that brought mild temperatures and a lot of rain. Of course not being from California, I'm not used to the triple-digit days that we've started to get. It also seems like some of the plants were caught a little bit off-guard as well. We've had to adjust the time for our drip irrigation to give the plants a little bit more water in the mornings. One of the plants that seems to be thriving though is our sunflowers. The plants are already taller than I am (At just over 6 feet that is saying something) and they seem to have no complaints about the warm weather we're having. Our tomato plants are all looking to be in really good shape as well

All of the kids have gone home for the summer, but before they left they had one last art project. The kids collected some flat rocks in the river, which they then painted, and those rocks are now being used to decorate the garden. One of the kids decorated a rock to act as a natural pesticide (see picture to the right.) It seems to be working well enough, although I don't think it's killing the insects as much as just causing all of the ants to move inside the building (probably because it's a whole lot cooler in here.) More updates to come, but I'd also like to take this time to briefly thank our Garden Coordinator Mary Essenbock who has shepherded our garden through some of the initial growing pains.

Happy Gardening Everybody!
Campbell Grant
Americorps Volunteer