Hi everyone. The garden is thriving. I picked beans, tomatoes, rosemary, thyme, basil, and a huge cucumber today. Plus, I gave my weed-whacking garden helpers a strawberry, each, when they finished work.

I will send out a blast soon rounding up volunteers to weed, stake, and harvest this fall. Even though no one formally signed up this week to keep the garden in shape, a few people headed over anyway, rolled up their sleeves, and dug in. Thanks. I encourage everyone else to do the same if you feel like it and have the time - after school, on weekends. And please take some vegetables home with you when you come.

In the latest on the compost front, our very classy-looking build-it-yourself new compost holder is now brimming with weeds to get it going making compost. The working corner of the garden looks quite elegant, as you can see:

Operation Dirt Pile: in other words, the relocation of the dusty mound attractively edged in white plastic outside the fence by the garden shed and blocking traffic to the kindergarten sandbox. 

Last Friday evening, some volunteers led the charge in starting to shovel the dirt, move it inside the garden, and dump it in the fallow garden bed by the compost bin:

Thought: Between now and the school picnic, if everyone moves just one wheelbarrow-full of dirt, I feel confident that dirt pile will go away. It took me 20 minutes to trundle 3 wheelbarrows of dirt today. If anybody happens to be driving by the garden over the next two weeks, consider taking this 7-minute detour:

* Turn down the blacktop path to the garden.

* Park.

* Switch on the radio and hand the kids goldfish crackers. 

* Hop out of the car.

* Shovel, cart, and dump a wheelbarrow of dirt.

* Hop back in the car, and go on your merry way.

You’ll find shovels and work gloves in the shed. The wheelbarrow lives in the garden. 

Pumpkins. They are getting orange. I have counted at least 6 pumpkins growing. That makes 1 pumpkin per grade. At some point when they’re ready to harvest, does each grade want to come out to the garden and pick one to display in the lunch room or carve into a jack o'lantern, or whatever?

Thanks, everyone. The garden looks great. Enjoy the flowers, below, and the rest of your weekend.

- Holly