Plants a plenty at Crane House.

From 10-2. See everyone`s progress and take some home.

Plant Swap Saturday May 17th 10-2

Team Hesitant Gardener: A 5-Photo Diary

WTF are you feeding your seedlings?  Yes.

Oh, we like our WTF Wine Bottle Water Shaker...

... and our Warm Grow Light!

Some of us will move to new homes.

Some of us will stay here! 
Team Hesitant Gardener is trying lettuce, spinach, kohl rabi,
brussels sprouts, broccoli raab, winter squash and tomatoes.

Cheers to an Edible Montclair!  See you at the swap on Saturday! 

LT

MHS frosh and little Eckerts plant!

Hello readers of the mighty Montclair Guerrilla Gardening page! This is a combined post, documenting the planting efforts of MHS freshman and little Eckert kids. I am a science teacher and my biology class planted a couple of weeks ago; I am not exaggerating much when I say my students did so with glee and vigor. I know that planting seeds is often seen as more of an elementary school activity but I have yet to meet a teenager that thinks she is too cool to plant a seed and tend to her plant as it glows a beautiful green on a sunny windowsill. It's often a nice respite from the power points and worksheets. (And that's probably an understatement.) We actually covered quite a few standards with the simple activity, e.g., standards covering photosynthesis, cellular respiration, transfer of energy, science as a process--we set up a controlled experiment with one tray covered with a dome, another dome-free. A seed is not so simple and asking a straightforward question such as where does a seed get its energy from as it germinates since it's not photosynthesizing often gives a HS student pause. But, it wasn't all academics. There were lively questions about favorite vegetables and even friendly arguments about whether broccoli raab is delicious or disgusting. And interestingly there were looks of surprise (and maybe a little disgust) when I pulled out some arugula seedlings from the dirt and ate them. I will post a picture that displays the fruit of our labor this week but the picture below is after the first day we planted.

And here are my own children, David and Julianne, planting with joy and love. Deer and groundhogs eat almost all of our veggies every year but we always plant nonetheless.

We, as students/teacher and mom/children, are happy to participate in this effort. And we're grateful to Melina for making it possible. Looking forward to the community swap!

Failure and Success

Without a doubt, every growing season, I learn something new.  I learn when something fails.  I learn when something succeeds.  The seed starting for Guerrilla Gardening Montclair is no different.

For some reason this tray of butternut squash seedings started dropping like flies this week.  But the other tray that was planted at the same time, with the same seeds, the same seed starting mix, getting the same amount of water and light-

is the perfect specimen of seedings ready for a new home.  Repotting the success stories today!