Better Late Than Never

This is the first of our late summer harvest, planted about a month ago. Radishes were ready first and are fun for the kids to pull out of the ground. The red is such a surprise to them as the root emerges from the dirt and so is the spicy taste. No thank you they say. The tomatoes are Sun Gold. Not alot this year as our two week vacation in July left them wanting more water. But I am the only tomato eater in the house so a small crop is ok. I don't have to share.

Here's the rest of the crop. I can now see the advantage of not broadcasting seeds in an area and sticking to rows - I have had to thin alot of plants out and I am not sure I have done a good job of it. The broccoli, swiss chard, beets and lettuce may suffer from being too close to each other. We'll see. It's an experiment right?

In future years I'd like to involve the kids more with some garden journals. Inside would be lots of observational information: sketches, planting dates, weather records, plant heights, germination and harvest notes, whatever they think should be added. This might be too much to expect of my own kids but I have seen it done in classrooms. However, when the time comes I'd like it to be more kid directed than mom directed. Educational research suggests that child directed learning is the better way for a child to learn (I realize this is a generalized statement but maybe I'll expound on this another time.) In an ideal world, as they work with us in the garden they may suggest a journal of sorts then we could take off from there. We'll see - again, an experiment.

In another month much of our harvest should be ready to eat.