Kids Garden Contest, Summer Wrap-up

Dave here:  as a follow up to the Kids Garden Contest, Transition Town Jericho Team visited some of the winner's gardens in August and September to see how they did during this growing season.  The kids were very excited to show off their gardens and tell the TTJ team about their experiences.  Below are some pictures of the kids with their gardens and a few words about what they learned.

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Aiden and Charlotte were very excited to show off their garden.  Charlotte and Aiden had a healthy garden filled with Snap Peas, Cucumbers, Beans with some Marigolds and Cosmos flowers.
The Snap Peas, and Beans were producing, and the first good sized cucumbers were harvested while we were visiting.  Also was able to snack on pea pods and beans during the visit.
They said they liked growing a garden and would do it again next year and  would not do anything different next year, but maybe less flowers.

Juniper grew Cherry and Large tomatoes, cucumbers and flowers.  Oliver (not pictured) grew Hen and Chicks.
They sold some of the vegetables at their farm stand along side the road.  The proceeds go to the Smiley school.
Juniper would tell others her age that gardening was pretty easy, and that they should do it too.
Next year Juniper wants to do all flowers in her garden!

Vera loved having a garden.  She has her eye on a much larger piece of property, currently an overgrown field, that she wants to turn into flowers and start a business selling them.  She definitely wants to garden next year, and she would definitely encourage her friends to give it a try.

Kids garden visit with Ronin, Bodie, and Jackson (back to front),
We were greeted by Viking helmeted very excited kids to show us their garden.
They grew Dino Kale, red Russian Kale, Carrots, cucumbers, peas that were climbing up some string. 
They tried the square foot garden technique which was good early in the garden, but got too much growing in the space
They liked growing the garden, especially the snap peas.  Liked watching the cucumbers grow.  Peppers in the middle of the garden were not growing well, maybe too crowded?
Would like to plant a garden next year, would like to grow watermelon, pumpkin, carrots.

  Maddie referred to her garden as a jungle.  The garden was well covered with dwarf sunflowers, much taller than she!  She was also surprised that the garden got so crowded with all her plants.
She had a lot of fun with the garden and will do it again next year.
She would not allow the plants to spread and not plant as many wildflowers. 
Next year she will plant flowers to attract butterflies.

Cally grew Arugula, Kale,  lettuce, cherry tomatoes and lemon cucumber, as well as greens and Thai basil.  she also grew Zinnia as well.
She found that using newspaper under the soil did a great job keeping the weeds down.
Next year to grow more herbs in the garden as it is close to the kitchen and quickly accessible.  Add lettuce and beets and little pumpkins.