Rain, rain - thank you!!

This has been the rainiest April/May I can remember. Slowly but surely the beds are taking shape in the garden. The first grade grew a plethora and multitude (!) of flowers from seed - from red carnations, gomphrena and red marigolds (really) through green zinnia to teeny tiny violets. They have the color wheel garden - which is now a rainbow garden - kind of (more later on this). The rain has relieved me from having to go up every day to water, for which I am thankful. Plus, everything looks healthy!!

Although the children have wonderful green thumbs, starting from seed was not perhaps the best way to go since the seedlings are so tiny and fragile and need lots of TLC. Planting out with the first grade was a trip - since a whole class came out at once and I wasn't quite ready. Then we found out we had used the wrong soil and were planting in very thin solid clay, not top soil. On top of that eighteen kids working at once and me not being quite together made for a frantic (but enjoyable) half hour! I think some of the seedlings may have been mixed up so our plan of red, orange, yellow, red, green, blue, indigo and violet may not be intact. Added to this the fact I had a very hard time deciding on blue, indigo and violet. All in all gardener's serendipity will reign and it will be beautiful.

It was wonderful to go out to plant with the first grade and then again with the fourth grade and each time be mobbed by children from other grades. "What are you doing?" "Can we help?" "Can I do that? " From planting seedlings to ferrying soil to top up a bed, I have had numerous willing accomplices. I was extremely impressed when the wheelbarrow broke and some second and third graders (I think) calmly up-ended it and tried to fix it, then when that didn't work they clubbed together to carry it full of soil to our destination!

Two fourth grade classes have begun work on the Columbian Exchange beds. Being a historian by training this garden is close to my heart. Ms. Few's class planted peppers and tomatoes, plants from the New World that revolutionized the cuisine of the Old. Can you imagine life without pizza or spaghetti? Neither was possible without the spread of new world plants to the old world. I would like to start potatoes with them too - before European explorers came to the America's Irish people had never seen a potato! The potatoes in my garden are up so I may have missed the boat on that one!

The second bed in this group is the Native American garden. Since this area in upstate South Carolina was home to the Cherokee they have become the focus of this bed. Karen Hall, a lecturer at Clemson University who specializes in plants and Cherokee culture, has been advising and supporting us. Thank you Karen!! She introduced us to ramps and gave us some flint corn from the Cherokee to plant. We planted corn in hills in the four cardinal directions (NSEW) and less than a week later the corn is up!! Next we'll get beans and pumpkins into the mounds. The third bed will have okra, sesame and indigo - plants that were/are important to African-Americans in South Carolina.

What else to tell you. Since it is spring everything is coming to life. The kindergarten bed has beautiful purple alliums in flower and a purple flowering sage. This week Ms. Wicker's class planted purple allysum and snapdragons in one of the beds. The beans Ms. Wicker's class planted for a science experiment are now flowering!! The 4K strawberries are getting a blush on them - I went by their classroom to tell them and they were very excited!