Work has been going well, and it seems that I'm finally staying fairly consistently busy. Part of that is because I have networked and/or invented enough work to keep myself busy. I have the regular calls and walk-ins to work with, depending on if the Master Gardeners need the support or if it is during a time when the Master Gardeners are in the office or not. I am also teaching a gardening class at one of the local day camps every week.
The hot topics right now are brown patch on fescue lawns, why are my cucumbers/squash/tomatoes flowering but not setting fruit?, black rot on grapes, and leaf diseases on tomatoes. Pretty straight-forward for the most part. Occasionally we get some different things, but those seem to be the most prevalent. The soil tests have been slowing down quite a bit, since most people have their lawns or gardens planted for the spring.
The main thing that's keeping me busy is preparing for the day camps. I could probably do the preparation in less time, but I'm a perfectionist. The first week of day camp, I only had about 25-30 kids. Last week (week 4), I had about 45 kids. I'm tentatively planning for about 50 this next week. The first week of camp, we planted tomatoes and peppers in containers. We made observations about the plants, and made a few hypotheses. (And discussed what a hypothesis was.) Since then, we have been measuring the plants every week and counting the number of flower buds/flower/fruit that are developing on the plants. Last week we fertilized and watered. (It's been so rainy that we haven't needed to water much.) We've also dissected flowers and plants, done skits about pollination, tasted different herbs, and drawn landscapes that we would like to have in our yards. Tomorrow one of the Master Gardeners is bringing her worm composting bin for the kids to learn about. Then I think we are going to learn about selecting fruits and vegetables in the grocery store by having a Beauty Contest. In the remaining 3 weeks, we are going to cover trees, insects, and what a farmer does/where our food comes from.
After that is over, I'm going to be heading to Washington State for two weeks for a Spanish Immersion Camp. Next week is the County Fair. August is the month for Master Gardener applications and interviews. September is the State Fair. All in all, I'm going to be pretty busy for the rest of the year.
All-consuming interests
10 hours ago
3 comments:
My tomato plant seems to have a disease, but it's kept on growing and it is just now flowering a little, so I'm hoping they'll turn into fruit. :-)
You aren't going to be near Seattle, are you? If so, maybe we can have a mini Anders reunion!
No, I have no plans to be in the Seattle area...at least not that I know of. The Spanish camp I'm going to is in Longview, WA. We are actually flying into Portland because it is closer. I don't know what we'll be doing on the weekends.
Does your tomato plant have yellowing and brown spots or are the leaves just curling?
It's pretty much just curling. (I didn't notice there's a way to get e-mails about followups now! I'll do that now. About time, Blogger!)
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