Amazing Grace

After blogging about the heat earlier this week, Wednesday turned cloudy and much cooler. This morning (Thursday) I stepped outside before sunrise, and I actually felt cool and much revived. I could breath the cool drier air without wanting to rush back in to the A/C. Could we please have an early long fall season?

This last week we started by discussing the needs of living organisms. Air, water, food, and shelter were discussed. I then brought out seedlings of cabbage and broccoli that had been started earlier in small cells of plastic flats. Some cells had one seedling, others had three, four and more. We discussed whether these plants could stay in these small areas and continue to live and thrive. This lead to a discussion of space. How much space do different organisms need? We talked about different plants and animals. Trees need more room than small flowering plants such as cosmos. Bears need more room to hunt that smaller animals such as rats. We talked about humans and how much space we need. Homes, schools, churches, offices, shopping centers, factories, recreation centers, parks, and all the roads, rail lines and airspace that link them. But the most space needed by humans was to grow the food we eat. We concluded that humans needed a lot more space than most animals.

Back to our seedlings. We decided they needed more room to grow. The weather is not quite right to put them in the ground, so we decided to transplant them into larger cells, or pots until we could put them in the garden beds. This would also allow us more time to harvest peas, okra, and peppers.

While collecting our weather data we made observations of life on the vegetables and wildflowers. There were some okra plants covered with aphids and predators eating them. Predators such as ladybeetles and their larva, mealybug destroyer larva, and green lacewing larva were trying their best to eat them all. Of course, we know they can't. Some need to be left for future generations. Leaf-footed bugs were all over the peas and a plant called lizardtailed gaura. They do harm the peas but seem only to hide in the gaura. They and their cousins, the stink bugs are some of the worst pests in the garden. They dine on okra, peas, peppers, tomatoes, and almost any fruit.

While watching wasps hovering around the chard, we found what they were looking for -small, yet unidentified caterpillars. They weren't finding enough of them, because the chard was riddled with holes. We started cutting back the chard, hoping for some new growth. We'll keep a better eye out for the caterpillars on them and on our new cabbage and broccoli. We lost a couple of wasps nests because they were found too close to places where students walk. They were sprayed with a soap and orange oil spray. We will now have to take on more of their role as caterpillar destroyers.

There are plenty of butterflies in the garden - larva and adults of pipevine swallowtails, along with tigerswallowtails, queens, and Gulf fritillaries. At least one Monarch has been observed.

Hummingbirds are fighting for control of the Turk's cap, honeysuckle, and flame acantha.

As the year progresses, we will observe changes that occur to our vegetables and wildflowers as the seasons and weather change. What new life will we find interacting with these plants?
(photo: Barbara Uskovich)

Return

We're back at school and everyone seems happy to be back. We are inside for the most part the next couple of weeks discussing what a scientist is and what scientists study in gardens. It's a good thing, because it is hotter this August than any I can remember. Only one day so far has been under 100 degrees. Life goes on outside even though we who are spoiled by a/c can't imagine living constantly in the heat. We are adapting to the heat technologically, not biologically. Unfortunately we may be making the outside even hotter with our technology.

With the addition of a little water over the summer we have kept wildflowers and vegetables alive and growing. We did have some rain in July which was unusual,then came August with its triple digits. The blackeyed peas and purple hull peas aren't producing too well in this heat, but the okra is thriving. Peppers and tomatoes are hanging on waiting for cooler weather to start setting more fruit.

We have started cabbage, broccoli, and pok choy from seed under shade cloth and now we can get the students out to look after them. They will stay in pots until late September, early October when the weather cools, and the fall rains come.Then we can take out the peas and put the cabbage and broccoli in the ground. Spinach, beets, carrots, and lettuce can all go in also. We will brainstorm with the kids to decide what variables to test in the growing of the fall crops.

I plan to emphasize the concept of home or "ecos" this year. Students should leave Stonewall well aware that there are many other living creatures in the world that need a home. How we humans satisfy our needs affects many others. I have read that extinction of species is proceeding faster now that ever before. Will this dimenish our quality of life? Do we need these lost species for our own survival?

No, we can't answer these questions, but our students can become more sensitive to other life on this planet. Maybe learning empathy toward other organisms will also help us get along with each other. If this is all our students learn, they will be far ahead of the rest.



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