Garden May 2012
I thought it would be interesting to look at how different a garden can be from year to year. This is where we are at today. The Spring has been wet and soggy, and things have gotten planted much later than last year. This bed used to be filled to the brim with kale and greens. Now we've got some broccoli, and...I'm not really sure. This was planted by the 3rd-and 4th-graders. I'll have to ask them next time I see them. Behind this bed is the 2nd graders peas which are really happy and starting to climb.

Garden May 2011
This is the garden one year ago, May 2011, our first season. If you recall, we built the raised beds in March and had dry enough weather that we could plant some cool weather crops like lettuce and peas. All these starts came from Minto Island Growers and they were fantastic! I ate that lettuce all the way into July, when summer really starts in Oregon.
Hogsfuel
Do you notice the nice mulching in between the beds? We call that hogsfuel if you were wondering and I don't think it has anything to do with pigs, but I might be wrong. We had a huge pile delivered to freshen up the paths and keep things a little less muddy. But it's been so rainy we haven't been able to spread it. So do you know what happens when you have a really big pile of dirt unattended at an elementary school?
See below:

Some adventurous, imaginative children created a...what? Castle? Fort? Ladders to the top of the mountain? Whatever you call it, I bet it was a lot of fun to play on! Needless to say, we cleaned it up before McKinley students saw it because there would be no way to keep them off of this dirt pile with so much fun to be had. Isn't it great to see kids looking around at a bunch of wood, wire fencing and shredded bark, and creating something entertaining and cool with what's on hand, outside. No electronics or plastic toys needed. Now that is creative thinking and problem solving in action!