Garden From Hell or Hell of a Garden Year 2

[oliver2-44 10,216]

So my wife has a part time job as Nurse Manager for a High End Summer Camp that is located next to my neighborhood, on Lake LBJ. During the school year they have an Outdoor School for School Groups, Girl Scouts, etc.  As one of the spring activities each group of the kids plant as a small section of a garden. But they are only there 1-3 days so they never see it grow. The garden is located on the main road into camp at an old log cabin homestead

. By the time the summer camp starts the garden is a mixture of abandoned dead plants and weeds. This bothered my wife her 1st year, so last year she volunteered US to maintain the garden.  

So last year over the Winter we pulled out old plants, chopped weed, spaded up hard soil etc. Then in late March the counselor and kids started planting. With then planting as kids were there a lot of things got planter late for our season. After about a month we decided a lot of the things the kids planted were not even sprouting. So we began replanting about a week after they planted anything.  
By mid May we had a decent looking late garden growing.  The squash bugs, corn worms etc attacked.  The counselors tell a green story of using no chemicals, but I sprayed and dusted when they weren’t around.  The garden is fenced with 6 ft high wire which kept the deer out, but not the wild rabbits. 
So hell of a job #2 was to clear fence brush, dig a trench around the premier and install chicken wire. Early June we had a nice crop of Water Melons and Cantalooe growing. So the field mice began eating them by tunneling through ALL of them.  With most of the crops planted late, we were watering like hell. So I put in 3”0 ft of drip irrigation hose (another thing to trip over)  But we did get some of each vegetable before they burned up in the late June Texas heat. Peas and oaks grow well in the summer heat, so we actually did get a fair amount of them.  I also planted a 2nd crop of field corn in early June and it did fair. 
My wife was happy the corn, okra and peas looked good all summer as the campers parents drove the camp entry road. 
One of many awkward things for me is the aisles between the 6” raised beds are narrower than my size 12 shoe 👞  

 

It hard to turn sideways and bend over to pick crops. I’m going to break a foot or leg  one of these days. 
YEAR 2

In the fall we cleared all the old vegetation. When the fall leave fell , I got the leaves from my and several neighbors houses, spread them on my driveway and ground them up with multiple lawn mower passes. The heavily mulched the beds with leaves to keep the winter grass out.  I did plant a bed of onions mid-January and they are now really taking off for a mid-harvest. 

In late February I began hand spading these under.  The raised bed design makes my tiller impossible to use.   I also did major chains saw trimming of the 4 large trash trees growing- shading parts of the garden. I hauled 2, 16 ft trailer loads of limbs to the camp burn hole. 
Last years Asparagus roots also started send out shoots and we had our 1st meal of them today 

 

 Last week the Camp Manager told my wife “the garden looked last year”!so good, why don’t yall just plant it and they will keep a “demonstration bed” for the kids to plant and then show them our various plants. 
“Sort of a Hurray”

Unfortunately a lot of the raised bed 2x6 frames are falling apart.  I tried to “not notice this”.  Monday my wife went over and planted 6 tomato and 6 green pepper plant. She came back and said the falling apart boards were really dangerous (ie Nurse Manager talking) for the kids and could I patch them up. In our area of Texas a lot of garden crops should be planted mid March to produce before the summer heat. (Tomatoes stop blooming/setting fruit when the temps reach the mid 90’s). So today I gathered scrap western cedar and other used wood from a camp maintenance shed and began digging around the old frames to reposition the boards and scab them back together. This is another “ hell of a job”.  My goal is for my grandkids to plant the 1st beds of corn, green beans, squash and cucumbers this weekend. Followed by another bed of each in about 10 days. 

I’ll do a better job of picture as this Spring progresses and the next “Hell of a Task” arises. 

PS. I’ve had a “small “ garden on the side of our house for years. So, the above may not sound like it, but I actually enjoy a small garden “that I’m in control of”. Yes I think it a good thing for the kids to be introduced to gardening. But they are getting such a “text book, green” introduction from the camp “Outdoor School” that it’s sad. 

[ebinmaine 70,250]

Very impressive Jim. 

 

Neat history too! 

[oliver2-44 10,216]

I might explain my wife is the Nurse Manage for just the Summer Season. They have five 2 week sessions from May-Memorial Day weekend to mid-August.  As I mentioned this is a high end camp i.e.  Michael Dell's kids, and George Bush's kids went there when he was Texas Governor. (each had private security guards dressed as counselors)  Some wealthy parents put their kids in several 2 week sessions while they go travel internationally for the summer. (must be nice)

 Their are 6-7 Nurses each session. Most of them are School Nurses who are off for the summer and barter to work in exchange for their kids to go to camp.  Most of the Nurses are are only there for 2-4  weeks.  So, my wife's role is to hold a 10-12 hour training session every 2 weeks on the Saturday before each new session starts.  (This is right down her alley as she was a College Professor teaching Nurse Practioners for Texas Tech in a remote/online program) Then on Sunday when new campers arrive she helps the "New Nurses" log all the kids medicines into a "Camp" computer program. This is a big task as their are 400-500 campers that bring 1500-2000 prescription medicines with them to camp.  It unbelievable that todays youth (age 7-18) are on this many meds. Then, over the weeks she over see's things a few hours each day.   Seven Nurses may see like a lot or a cushy job, but some of these Nurses are in for a shock.  They are very busy.  Besides the routine splinters, scrapes, sprains, home sickness, etc. the nurses have to dispense those meds 3 times a day and log them into the computer each time. They sleep in a small dorm next to the Nurses Station, work 2-5 hour shifts a day, and one is scheduled for middle of the night shift.  A Dr. comes to camp for a few hours 2 evenings a week for kids that need new prescriptions for what ever ails them.  My wife is also a Nurse Practioner, so she also see's kids that have a more urgent ailment that needs a prescription. Like the Nurses, part of my wife's salary is bartered for our grandkids to attend camp.  Two of them will go their this summer.

 

The camp is located in the rural area next to my subdivision, 7 miles from town.  When my 3 sons were high school and college age they worked there on the lawn/maintenance crew each summer.  At age 14 camp was close enough for them to ride a bike there and start earning money to buy their first car. Yea, I was a sort of a hard dad when it came to teaching them to work for a living!   So, I'm the only one that hasn't been on the camp payroll.

 

[Pullstart 64,256]

Sad, what today’s youth have for a fix to their problems.  Maybe if they were only to reap what they sow in that garden, they could cut down on some meds…  

 

But leaving kids at camp while we travel?  That sounds like a much cheaper option!  

[953 nut 57,390]

1 hour ago, oliver2-44 said:

Some wealthy parents put their kids in several 2 week sessions while they go travel internationally for the summer.

My brother and I attended 4H camp for two weeks each summer while our parents went on vacation. It was good for them and we loved going to camp.  

The gardening saga reminded me of the vegetable garden planted at the White House. The Food Network had a special featuring fresh vegies "from the garden" but it came out later on that everything was purchased from outside vendors. The garden there must be one of the most expensive sources of vegies on the face of the earth. According to Wikipedia this is what it cost to grow a garden;    The current garden is funded by a $2.5-million donation provided in 2016 by Burpee Seeds and The Burpee Foundation.

[Beap52 1,110]

11 hours ago, Pullstart said:

Sad, what today’s youth have for a fix to their problems.  Maybe if they were only to reap what they sow in that garden, they could cut down on some meds…  

 

But leaving kids at camp while we travel?  That sounds like a much cheaper option!  

 

Sending the yeah-hoos to the "high end camp" probably cost more than I spend on my vacation!

 

Our society is already trained our children that medication will solve problems.  Teachers have to deal with situations that baffle me.  The discipline I received at school was nothing like what I got when dad got home from work. My high school class decided to have a skip day--sounded fun.  Nope.  Cleaned fence rows all day long. 

 

Good for you all investing in the next generation,