The first monarch butterflies have arrived in the garden and they are really enjoying the swamp milkweed! Hopefully, some butterflies will lay their eggs on the plants! We also have been having an infestation of Oleander Aphids on the milkweed, which is not great! If you have aphids on your milkweed the best way of removing the aphids is by hand washing them off with a mild dish detergent. They will not kill the plant but will make it less desirable for the monarchs to lay their eggs on the plants. It could also lead to decreased germination rates of the seeds that come from those plants. Our student helpers have been taking wonderful care of the garden and also enjoying the harvest!
Kaegebein's participation in the Grand Island Garden Walk was a huge success! We had 83 community members visit and explore our gardens. People loved to use the iPads to explore the gardens, and we had many positive comments about our creation of a hands-on learning environment. We had several students helping out and they did a great job! Their dedication to their school and community is admirable and they are becoming experts on different aspects of the garden! Our superintendent, Dr. Graham was our first visitor and was impressed with the garden and our students! He sampled some of our produce! We are very appreciative of everyone who has helped to make our gardens a big success!
We are all ready for the Grand Island Garden Walk on Sunday! The gardens look wonderful and many perennials are blooming! We hope many people will come and explore our gardens! Many thanks go out to Mrs. Dolan and Mr. Ahne for weeding and mulching our raised beds! They look great! We have several student volunteers helping out this summer, and we are so happy they can come and water, weed and harvest. They have been picking strawberries, lettuce, spinach and soon the beets will be ready to eat!
Several of the native plants in the pollinator garden were donated by Mr. and Mrs. Koppmann, who have also given us great advice on what to plant in the garden. It truly is a community garden as well as a school garden! A final thank you goes out to our custodial staff who routinely take care of getting rid of our garbage, help us carry plants and lend us tools! |
Kaegebein Courtyard BlogThroughout the summer, Mrs. Gorfien will be sharing photos and updates for the Kaegebein Courtyard Project. Archives
November 2017
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