Trellising our second planting cucumbers 

Summer has arrived!

The GROW garden is bursting! It looks overgrown, but Micaela and some visitors take a closer look.The crew is finally out of school and we have begun our summer hours. And after two dry weeks of 90+ degree heat we welcomed the rains that hit us this week. We have been busy getting the last of our tomatoes in, staking cucumbers, weeding the onions and watching the first of the broccoli become ready to harvest. Our sweet peas are just about done, but the large pods don't faze us, we're not picky, and in the words of Angel, "These peas are bangin!" Shannon

Theresa with youth form my sisters place

Hi my name is Theresa and this is my second year with Grow Hartford. I’m going to Quirk Middle when school starts in the fall. I just graduated from West Middle Elementary school. I’m thirteen years old. When I have free time I like to go outside and play double Dutch with my friends. Also I like to go to the park and sit with my friends and talk about the boyz in the park. I like Grow Hartford because it gives me something to do in the summer.

Jerica Here is a picture of me and my new friend David. He came to visit us today. Today we planted sun flowers in an area that we will plant other crops in to makae it beautiful. The gorup came and helped us alot. It was very fun but also alot of work. in the end we completed the task.

Jerica It was fun working with kids that we didn't know at first. It alway gives us a chance to tell someone about what we do at Grow Hartford. I enjoyed working with the kids from My Sisters Place. I've learned alot and I hope they did too.

Precious and Theresa give Jeff Schultz a tour of the garden. Jeff provides local honey for us to sell at the farmers market with hives all over at local farms around Hartford. Given to the speed that the GROW crew eats our 'sample' jar, it is really really delicious!

The Laurel Street Farmers Market

What can I say about farmers market? Farmers market is a great experince for us. Being a part of market, we get to interact with the community. By interacting with the community we talk and give information abiut the program. It is fun and interesting because there are always diffrent taskes that needs to be done. Some of those tasks are seting up, re-stocking the flowers or produce, harvsesting, writing receits and telling people about the program. farmers market Jerica Sandiford

Picking Daisies!

Today, we spent the first bit of our time at the garden learning about flowers and pollinators. After planting some flowers together, the students ran around picking wild daisies to take home when they left.

A lesson on Farmers Markets with Rob Miller!

Hi, my name is precious (aka naomi)and I'm in the eighth grade .That day with Rob Miller was not that fun, he was the type of person that you would call mean .He was like "pay attention"when he wasn't even talking. But overall it was boring , the lesson was on the flyers and things that should be on it. Then he told me and clifford to act like we were at the farmer market and asked us "which stands would you want to buy things from" and all of them had picked mine but then Rob Miller said" that you would pick clifford because the one that looks the best dont always be the best" .............by:precious a.k.a naomi One afternoon, we had the wonderful opportunity of meeting with Rob Miller. Rob is the Market Master of the West End Farmers Market. He came to talk with our GROW crew and gave us some helpful tips and advice on having a successful market. This is a picture of Precious and Clifford doing some hands on learning . Thanks Rob!http://http://www.hartfordadvocate.com/gbase/Dining/content.html?oid=oid:75899

Helping out at Holcomb Farm.

It was great to finally get a chance to go out to Holcomb Farms with the Grow Crew. After a fun bus ride that included beautiful singing from the girls on the crew, we spent a saturday at the farm. During the day we took a tour of the farm, had a lesson on sustainable agriculture, did a small work project, and finished off with a scavenger hunt that tested how much we learned. This picture shows the GROW crew hard at work with early tomatoes.

Our Wonderful New Sign!

I am Ya Queera better known as Ya-Ya! I have on a orange and white shirt, I am sitting on Theresa(red & white shirt) and Precious's(light blue and navy blue shirt) back. I will be a freshman at SMSA(Sport & Medical Sciences Academy) this fall. This is my favorite picture because this group (OPP: River Right Boat Builders) was kind of a problem, but we worked together to put up this sign and to get together to take this picture. In my free time I like to talk and also on Monday and Tuesdays I volunteer at Saint Francis Hospital in The Pediatrics Clinic & The Maternal Fetal Medicine Department. I really enjoy going to the Farmer's Market and meeting new people. When I get older I want to become a pediatrician. That has been my dream for as long as I can remember going to the doctors' office. I really enjoy gardening because my grandmother Deloris Suitt(Administrator of Nursing at The Woodview in Halifax,VA.) gardens in her spare time.She has a humongous yard. I really think of her as my role model. She is in the medical field and she gardens. That is all folks...3...2...1!!!! I love this picture! It has the great new sign, the River Wright youth that designed and built the sign, AND... the GROW crew. -micaela

Teamwork!

This photo shows our GROW crew working with the River Wright youth to get our new sign in the ground.

A Sign for the Grow Hartford Garden.

Over the winter, Shannon was in contact with people at the River Wright Boat Builders group. The River Wrights Boat Builders is a "youth boat building company where youth learn the exact art of building boats and other small crafts while gaining valuable work experience and life skills, including basic skills in math, decision-making, problem-solving, and team work. The wooden boats are sold or donated to not-for-profit camps." When they are not building boats, the youth also use their construction experience on different projects. Shannon hired them to build us a sign for the garden. This picture is of some of the youth in the River Wright group beginning to install the sign they made for us.

This picture is of the Grow crew and Farmer Sam. On this day Sam showed us a lesson on the famers market. I learned how to talk to the customers. Clivens. sam teaches a farmers market lesson

Burns kids do some planting!

After helping to prepare a plant bed by clearing away all the weeds, the Burns students were on their knees and in the dirt busy planting tomatillos.

Burns, Bugs and Weeds.

It was really fun to explore the garden and look for bugs...but then the kids were a great help with weeding the plant beds!

Lookin' for Bugs in all the right places!

After a short lesson on insects, the students spent part of the day looking for bugs in the garden. It was fun to see what was crawling, flying and buzzing around.