Humboldt Garden School

03/04/2026

The Humboldt Garden School has now moved to The Growing Place on Industrial Drive in Humboldt Kansas. Kim Bartlett is the new Head Gardener. Once things get going, she will be updating this site. The kids will be able to visit it daily and be a big part of everything growing in the garden.

Not all school have walls!

08/27/2025

I have started getting the garden ready to move to its new place. We are not going to take the pond, so the plants are available.This Water Lily has flowered all year. It has grown and is attached in many places but i think it can be divided. There is another big Iris too.
Also there are 4 goldfish that are now in a big tub on my porch with the filter going!! Does anyone know of a goldfish pond that they could go to?

08/23/2025

I have been harvesting and cleaning up the raised beds for our move in the next two months. As you know the kids get to plant the garden in May. On digging up the Chard and Kale bed I came upon this!! Some kids have never planted a garden before and if not supervised, this might seem normal to them!!
Actually we did get some chard, but now I know why we did not get the usual big harvest!! Gave me a good laugh!

07/12/2025

The Grasshoppers are back 🙁. But so are the Swallowtail caterpillars which makes me happy and is the reason I grow Dill every year. There are lots of very long beans and very long squash in the garden right now, and the Zinnias are so beautiful. Stop by and check it all out. The gate is never locked!🌺

07/01/2025

07/01/2025

Its been quite a year in the garden with the rain and the heat! Everything got going fast including the Bermuda Grass! Its no fun in the garden if all you do every day is pull grass out of the beds!😡 I have mostly given up trying. We are harvesting, and the next up is the potatoes and garlic and whatever we think needs to leave. We planted Tromboncino squash this year which grows very fast and got ahead of the squasg bugs so we harvested a few of them - see photo. The bugs have been here for a week now and I have been removing them with duct tape. Every day its been about the same amount of eggs and in some case they have just hatched. So I would say Duct tape has saved the plant from at least a couple of hundred squash bugs already!

05/05/2025

Love hearing all the kids in the garden. Watering is the favorite part of the process!

05/05/2025

05/05/2025

It was a beautiful sunny warm day and the Humboldt 2nd graders along with teachers, and the garden’s great volunteers got it done! Once the Growing Place kids come and do their part, it will all be in. It has been wonderful having Krissy and Helen bring their 40 2nd graders to plant the garden every year. They will be missed🙁 This year some of the 2nd graders are kids who came to the garden as pre school kids at The Growing Place!

04/30/2025

The potatoes that were planted by the kids from The Growing Place, are doing great, they are loving the rain. Started hardening off the plants grown in the greenhouse - with the bad weather its been - get them out quickly for as long as possible and get them all back in before the wind and rain! All the raised beds and flower beds have been dug up and the Bermuda grass pulled out of them. Also a good time to find those Japanese Beetle grubs and remove them permanently! 😠
The Rhubarb leaves are being attacked by the sow bugs- they are everywhere in the garden - I use Dietomaceous Earth - but with the rain not sure its working right now. The Milkweed has appeared in the flower beds - no signs of Monarchs yet.
And the Fairies and gnomes are back!

03/29/2025

Signs of Spring! The pre-schoolers from The Growing Place were back in the garden planting potatoes and checking on the Gnomes progress in getting the fairy garden ready for the return of the Fairies!