(Except the chard and the kale--is there anything these vegetables can't do?!)
I expected this impact from putting a bunch of raised beds on top of asphalt. This will be a great problem for the kids to solve next school year. Several years ago I learned about urban gardening in Cleveland, using a foot or two of mulch piled atop pavement, with raised beds on top of that. Easy solution. But rather than decide that for the kids, why not let them see for themselves that the plants struggle in extreme heat? It's a perfect project-based learning opportunity! As it stands now, I am just very thankful to all the volunteers who are helping keep things alive in this tough part of the summer. People have been showing up nearly every day to give the thirsty plants a drink. Now if I could just get to work on the thank you's....
Next to our heat island garden, we have the keyhole bed.
This is my favorite bed in the garden so far. It was built and filled by the Tillman kids--in the rain at Healthy Kids Night--with materials donated by Tillman families. That in itself was magical. But the other cool things are this bed's water holding capability and the compost collector in the center of the bed. The stories we had heard seem to be true: keyhole gardens rock! The flowers are so pretty, but I really want to see food growing in here next. Check out more about keyhole gardens here, they have a neat history!
