The Garden of Weeding

I need to catch up on the last couple of week of the boys gardening class at Harlinsdale Farm.  There is no class this week because of the Fourth of July (Harlinsdale is the location of the Franklin fireworks display).

Two weeks ago, the class was called "The Garden of Weeding".  Before the kids got to work cleaning up the garden, Ms. Lisa released 500 ladybugs into the garden.  The kids loved finding ladybugs on them for the rest of class!  The ladybugs help to keep the aphids in check and also help pollinate as they do it.

Then it was time to weed the raised beds by hand.  With all the rain the previous week, it was easy to find lots of large weeds to pull!

The kids also got to spray a natural weed killer made from apple cider vinegar and dish soap on the weeds along the outside of the beds.  I'm curious how effective it really is.  We keep the garden organic.

 At the end of class, the kids got to collect dried up poppy flowers for the seeds (to take home and plant for next year).