Been Too Long....

 In November of 2022, I had the students shrink the fenced area that once held the goats and pigs. As of this writing, we no longer have goats and pigs on the farm. 

In the month of August in So Cal, we had a heat wave with temperatures over 95 degrees for two weeks in a row. During that, I had made a trip to Wyoming and the automatic watering system was not keeping up with the heat. We basically lost anything that was growing during that time. We did have a good crop of Zucchini, grapes, peppers, strawberries, and Kohlrabi (the Kohlrabi came from the LA County Fair Farm. 

In November this year, we added 5' high metal stakes and a four-by-eight-foot wire into the center of the raised garden boxes. These were installed to allow placing bird netting around vegetable plants to stop chickens from pulling the young plants out of the ground.

We finished a remodel on the Garden

 

Big Pumpkin Website

 Big Pumpkin Website 

Aug Chicks Getting Big

We still have 11 of the 11 chicks in the Coop.  They are getting larger!

 

Pumpkins Picked

 Today students picked the pumpkins on the HHS garden.  Here is a photo of one of the pumpkins and possibly the largest.

Work begins on Garden Area

 My students in Per 1 & 8 have begun work on the HHS Garden. The students are demo'ing some existing raised planters that will be reused in the new garden layout. The project will include removing existing raised planters and soil, then the students will be installing underground irrigation to the new raised planters. Also, the work will include install eight 10' high 1 1/2 inch metal poles, then attaching fabric across to control the amount of sun hitting the garden.

Summer comes to an End

 School begins this Monday, August 23. This past summer the garden produced blackberries, zucchini, grapes, cucumbers, corn, and pumpkins. The blackberries were harvested in June. The zucchini and cucumbers have been harvested in August.  The grapes are not looking great, earlier there were hundreds of bunches of grapes. Something has been eating them. The corn is about ready for harvest. 

When I left on vacation on August 12 there were no pumpkins, upon return on Aug 22, there are four pumpkins on the vines. One of the pumpkins looks to weigh about 20 pounds.

This summer I also began the installation of the sunscreen tarps. Two tarps were installed. The tarps are 12' wide x 20' long.  The tarps cut the sun's direct heat keeping the garden cooler and help keep moisture in the ground.  I hope to install at least 3 more.