Watch our garden grow!

 Our garden is really taking off and we love to water all the plants and track the progress.

 It will not be long before we start to see some veggies!!!!

This project has been so much fun.  I hope we can do this all year long!

Spring time in our Gardens!

Grace – My original green beans did not make it into the “Global Buckets” so I had to start over from seed.  In just a short time they have really taken off.   They seem to be growing an inch a day with more and more leaves being added. It will not be long before we see them flower.

Ryan – My jalapeno peppers are getting bigger & bigger and now tiny buds are forming just waiting to burst open with flowers.  Unlike the watermelons & green beans that are growing over the bucket, my plants are shooting straight up like a rocket.

Gabrielle – My cherry tomatoes have taken over the garden.  I have faithfully watered them everyday and we have watched then reach up towards the sky and now they are spilling over the sides.  Beautiful yellow flowers are sprinkled among the dark green leaves. It is getting harder to measure my plant since it is winding around my bucket.  We will be adding the trellis in the next day. 

Aaliyah – We showed grades 1 and 2 our plants. We told them whose they were and what kind had been planted. We water and measure our magnificent plants! My friend Micah’s over 40 inches long! And Gabrielle’s plants are 25 inches tall! My plants have now reached the measurement of 17 inches tall. We are so excited that we will soon be eating fresh Vegetables.  I can’t wait to see my colorful peppers appear. We water them daily and they are filled with blossoms. I hope that they will stay healthy and strong.

Micah -  My sugar baby watermelons have gotten so big. Currently they are 48 inches tall and it is getting hard to get a real good measurement since they are now climbing up the ropes of the trellis. They have lots of flowers and it looks like little baby melons are beginning to form. We care for them everyday and all the other children are excited to watch them grow.

Just add water....

Our gardening team was invited to two local homes to explore their very successful gardens and learn all about what grows best on our little island. We experienced that in addition to the bounty of vegetables they also grew beautiful flowers to encourage both bees & butterflies. It was very inspiring and our heartfelt thanks to these gardeners for this special tour.

Grace – Last week we drilled holes in our buckets and added our pvc pipe and cup. My plants now have green leaves and one is a foot tall  BUT SOME HAVE BROKEN  because people have touched them. The one that is a foot tall will be planted in my bucket. Mr. Tim has put soil in our buckets! We are almost ready to put our plants in! 

Ryan – My jalapeno pepper plants seemed sluggish with only a ½ centimeters tall the first week, but now they seem to be picking up speed and have several leaves. We have our growing buckets all ready for our plants.

Aaliyah~ On Tuesday, February 14, 2012 I went to look at all of our plants, but when I looked at mine I saw that it had sprouted. I was filled with joy! My plant is only sprouting, but I still love it. I thank Mrs. Gina for all she has helped us with it. Thanks Mrs. Gina!!!! This week it was big enough to transfer into a larger container so the roots could spread out and continue to grow taller.

Micah ~ Last week we drilled holes in our buckets and continued to watch our plants grow taller. I will be on vacation next week. Thankfully the team will look after my baby watermelons.

Gabrielle~ We moved our baby seeds into larger containers and also filled our garden buckets with soil. My plants are now 5 inches and growing. We hope to move our plants into the growing buckets next week!

Meet our MOW gardening team....

Hi my name is Gabrielle and I am growing cherry tomatoes. I started my seeds last week on Tuesday, February 7th and they are just starting to spout.  I hope they grow fast.

Hi my name is Micah I planted watermelon seeds.  Last week one sprouted and today on Monday February 13th all 6 pods are all growing well, in fact they are getting too big for the container.  We have taken the cover off and bought them into the light.   

Hi my name is Grace I am growing green beans.  We planted our seeds on Monday, February 6^th and just after a few days they had already sprouted. Now only a week later they are too big to be in their home so we had to take them out. They just have to get some green leaves and then they will be ready.

Hi! I’m Aaliyah. I live in the Bahamas and my class and I are making a global bucket garden. I planted colorful peppers on Monday, February 6^th, 2012 and a week later our plants have sprouted.

My name is Ryan and I’m growing jalapeno peppers.  We started our seeds last week and I’m just starting to see them push through the soil.  I am excited to watch them grow.

How it all began......

After sailing to Man-O-War Cay and volunteering with the students at the local primary school, I was overwhelmed with the passion that these children had for learning and their wonderful teachers.  Even after sailing back to the States my heart remained with them. I e-mailed their principal asking if I could work with the students on a hydroponic garden once we returned to the Bahamas.  I was excited when I got her approval and quickly started gathering the resources necessary to put all the pieces in place. 

After much research we decided to go with the global buckets method to create our garden.  One of the factors was the small amount of water needed to grow the vegetables and it was also exciting to follow in the footsteps of other children that were looking for ways to feed the world. All their hard work has inspired others to do the same.  http://www.globalbuckets.org/

The 3rd grade class was filled with joy over the news that they had been selected to complete this project.  I will introduce them to you in our next post.  You will be hearing a lot from them as they track their progress in all stages of growing and eventually with all the meals that they create using their home grown ingredients!  

On a final note, I would like to thank the many people that have already donated the items that we needed to get us started! Your contribution not only aids in our garden, but may help change a life with new interest, skills and a passion to EAT more veggies!