New England Gardener

There’s a new addition to the Just Add Water garden. “Swendall” the scarecrow is now standing guard, doing his best to intimidate the slugs and cucumber beetles. The kids stuffed Swendall and a number of other child size scarecrows during our Start of Summer Celebration in the Children’s Garden last weekend. In past years, the celebration served as an opportunity to put many hands to work planting before the start of summer programming. But the heavy rains swamped most of the garden right before our event.

Rather than risk losing a toddler in one of the mud puddles, we opted for activities that didn’t require digging in the dirt. Two fiddlers led a parade around the garden while kids kept time on percussion instruments. Sign painting, scarecrow building and stories rounded out the morning.

Scarecrows are an ideal project for young kids and so simple to make. We used two sticks arranged in a “T” shape and tethered them with a piece of twine. Outfit with old clothes. Stuff with few handfuls of hay and, voila! Swendall lives.

The Just Add Water garden continues to produce, but very slowly. Radishes and spinach headline our dinner salads and no one’s complained.. yet. I noticed today that the first pea pods are forming. We’ll definitely have early peas by July 4th. Once the soil dries out, I’ll plant succession crops of lettuce and radish and start tying up the tomatoes.