It’s been a very productive week here at Growing Food and Sustainability. We finally finished our fence. That means no more rabbits nibbling our plants!

The proud construction team with the completed fence!

This week our camp theme was water. This included not only the water cycle, but also how plants are affected by rain and drought. The older campers created their own rain sticks and learned about the chemistry of water molecules. They also learned how to plant melons. Meanwhile, on Friday, our younger campers had the chance to diagram the water cycle and learn how weather and outside factors impact plants. They also planted summer squash.

Showing off the rain sticks

Planting melons!

Planting melons!

Campers working in the garden

Creating rain sticks for water week

This week we plan to repair our rain barrels and get started on some new improvement projects, including a big Growing Food and Sustainability sign for our recently completed fence.

The Youth Farm is looking fantastic. We have got our peas and tomatoes trellised and our potatoes hilled. This week we added summer squash, cucumber and melons to the garden. The Outdoor Classroom, over at Middleton High School, is filled with beautiful basil plants, some of which were used to make pesto with the younger campers this week.

It has been pretty hot out the past few days, giving us the chance to see our recently implemented drip irrigation system in action. The plants love it. Here’s hoping for another great week at GFS!

Author: Ilana Haimes studied engineering at UW-Madison and joined the Growing Food and Sustainability as a summer intern this year. She is also a woodworker extraordinaire!