Catching up

Summer is a busy time for gardeners, even though it has rained so much this July that we hardly needed to water anything aside from the pots, and our plants are thriving almost on their own.

Our garden looks great

Still, this channel has been quiet for a while. A lot has happened and was not recorded. We have a bit of catching up to do.

Already in May, a group of students along with their teacher and student teacher from the CUNY Language Immersion Program visited the garden. These students came from nine different countries (Guinea, Dominican Republic, Panama, Honduras, Bangladesh, Yemen, China and Haiti), and English is their second language. During their classes, the students perfect their English and learn interesting things about the world around them at the same time. A field trip to our garden gave them the opportunity to see what we are up to and to talk with us about it. As a foreigner myself, I know how difficult and a little terrifying this can be.

The students learn what is crawling in our compost bin.

Here is what they saw: red wigglers, earth worms that turn kitchen scraps into organic fertilizer.

Later, one student wrote a small paragraph about his impression of the visit:

Garden of Roses

It was a beautiful sunny day. It was also the last day as a group, so we decided to go to Washington Square Park then to Laguardia Corner Garden to see the garden and Roses. Once we got there we saw a beautiful scenery of flowers. The gardeners were very kind and helpful. They welcomed and showed us around the garden. One gardener demonstrated to us how they feed bees, and they explained why bees are important. Another gardener showed us the bacterium [actually worms] that live inside the compost. After that they inspected many different species of roses that they have. My overall experience of the garden was pleasant. I have learned many useful information about garden and flowers. I highly recommend this place for friends. (Fahim)

These students are going to college this September. We wish them best of luck and great success!

Students from the CUNY Language Immersion Program pose under the rose arbor.