Santiago Orphanage Garden

SantiagueroRD

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Apr 20, 2011
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Got the following for commencing the "competitive" (girls vs boys) vegetable garden at the orpanage. The kids have worked very hard on laying out and preparing the plots. Sugar Baby watermelon, Caribbean Queen cantalope, Red Core carrot, French Breakfast radish, Butterhead lettuce, and Red Creole onion. I just hope that I can get some results so they learn that prepration and effort gets results. Any advice glady accepted.
 

Hillbilly

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Jan 1, 2002
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Do cabbage, not head lettuce. Leaf lettuce. Get sprayer. Bugs love their veggies. Teach proper handling of toxic substances.
Cantalope might need bees for pollination (sp?). If you make raised beds your carrots, radishes and onions will flourish.

How about taking a look tomorrow? After I recover?

HB
 

SantiagueroRD

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Apr 20, 2011
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As always Professor your adult supervision is much appreciated. The best time for the kids is after about 4 when they finish chapel. Isn't it hard to herd the bees?
 

Hillbilly

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Jan 1, 2002
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Can't do it then. Classes at 5...okay let's do Saturday...

Bees can be "borrowed" ....for this kind of work...and a hive or two might teach them something really important! Don't mess with things that are smaller but can bite!! Whether it is people or bees!!
 

juanita

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Apr 22, 2004
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Tomatoes grow very fast and are loads of fun for the kids. Try the cherry type, I did this with the kids at the shelter and they were picking up 5 to 10 mini tomatoes per day, eating them off the plant! I bought the seeds in Supermercado Nacional, Ferreteria Cuesta also had them. Green peppers are also quick! Results guaranteed with any of these two! Good work SantiagueroRD!
 

SantiagueroRD

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Apr 20, 2011
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JUANITA Tomatoes grow very fast and are loads of fun for the kids. Try the cherry type, I did this with the kids at the shelter and they were picking up 5 to 10 mini tomatoes per day, eating them off the plant! I bought the seeds in Supermercado Nacional, Ferreteria Cuesta also had them. Green peppers are also quick! Results guaranteed with any of these two! Good work SantiagueroRD! Good evening and thank you Ms. Juanita for your advice. I missed getting the cherry tomatoes as I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer. We tilled and watered the plots and set up what I hope to be a compost pile and not a toxic dump! The UTESA volunteer brought two pairs of like new shoes for Jose the six year old. Along with a brand new official domino table I weaseled out of a buddy and about five pounds of chocolate powder the kids like for breakfast. We played "hogsrcabble" afterwards. Thank you for your encouragement.
 

SantiagueroRD

Bronze
Apr 20, 2011
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Good Morning & Thank you Chip for your advice and help. As far as the trees that is a long range project that is a good idea but do you start with seeds or a seedling? I will notify the Board about the volunteer options that you presented. FYI we got corn and aji seeds so we are ready to go.
 

Chip

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Jul 25, 2007
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Santiago
I've heard seedlings are the way to go. Generally from what I've seen they are collected from around an existing tree and then replanted.
 

SantiagueroRD

Bronze
Apr 20, 2011
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TA DA!!!! Planting has started corn and aji. More today. The compost pile looks and smells correct. Hogscabble has turned out to be very popular along with the counting of jump rope turns in English. All of the kids or at least most of them worked hard for 1 1/2 hours then games. I try to integrate small lessons in planning and effort resulting in gain whilst keeping a close eye on some surreptitious bullying that goes on. A buddy who lives in Santo Domingo went to some kind of book fair there and scored crayons, coloring books, recreational reading books and some other stuff. We will share them next weekend during a double birthday party.
 

juanita

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Apr 22, 2004
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I'll send you some seeds with the puzzles. Could not get them to AZB this week but hopefully next week I can get them to you.
 

SantiagueroRD

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Apr 20, 2011
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Does anyone know if it is ok to plant seeds today considering it is supposed to rain? I don't know if that is a good or a bad thing?
 

Hillbilly

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Jan 1, 2002
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It is not a bad thing. Stop by here and we can go find some lemon and grapefruit and orange seedlings out at ISA...be an interesting ride.

HB
 

SantiagueroRD

Bronze
Apr 20, 2011
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This is going to be an interesting afternoon = The Three Stooges meets Gardening!!! HB & Chip who actually know what they are doing are going with me who is a city boy to plant seeds at the orphanage. I would imagine that they will also make fun of my rather bizzare attempts to lay out the garden, I am however good at carrying stuff. Stay tuned
 

SantiagueroRD

Bronze
Apr 20, 2011
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I'll send you some seeds with the puzzles. Could not get them to AZB this week but hopefully next week I can get them to you.

Good Afternoon Juanita, Thank you for your kind offer but I think that we are OK on seeds. But I will let you know if it turns out that I bought the wrong ones. The puzzles would be great.
 

SantiagueroRD

Bronze
Apr 20, 2011
766
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Good Morning, HB, Chip and I thanks to HB go a total of 5 trees from ISSA and a nursery 2 cherry, 1 orange, 1 lime, 1 can't remember and planted then the sky fell in with rain. Took about 3 big salamis and some donated tshirts.
 

SantiagueroRD

Bronze
Apr 20, 2011
766
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I cannot believe it but the corn planted last Friday is sprouting already maybe about 4-5 inches high! I also wanted to share a moment that occured today. I had to do another emergency plastic sandal buy for one of the boys as his were a wreck. He was really happy and I started turning the compost pile. Maybe 20 minutes later I was looking to round up the boys for basketball and I found the boy that got the sandals sitting far from everybody in the front. He had tears running down his face and when I tried to talk to him he could not or would not explain why. I had no idea what to do. We eventually played dominoes. The manager explained to me later that he has had a very rough life with a lot of abuse. I wish I could do more.