Our featured Grower - Solomon Amuzu from Accra, Ghana. He grew all the seeds we are giving out at the free Ghana Seed Event March 25th at Sienna Hills Elementary School. He will also be sending seeds to our sister school in northern Ghana - Kpaachi Yili. Better seeds means better harvests - more and better quality food!

Putting in a garden? Look here to learn about companion plants. https://www.almanac.com/companion-planting-guide-vegetables?trk_msg=S964UP20DBQKNEMHOEJKJ0SKKS&trk_contact=RGIKRVNGPCSAL2593NFKFFV5M0&trk_sid=5IATSS8QVEVTLPK86C7AVTA74O&trk_link=VQFTTSABDB4KL3C5J012L23RLO&utm_source=Listrak&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=Companion+Planting+Guide+for+Vegetables+(read+more)&utm_campaign=Companion+Daily

Article on the Best Milkweed Varieties for Monarch Butterflies

Our November Free Plant Event was a success. We gave away 2 carloads of plants, including Thai Bird Peppers, Lantana, Sweet Peppers, Swiss Chard, Spinach, Cauliflower, Coreopsis, Pumpkin, Lemongrass.

For caring more information on most of these plants, visit: https://growinginthegarden.com/arizona-garden-in-december/

Thai Bird Peppers: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/pepper/how-to-grow-a-thai-peppers.htm

Lemongrass: https://phoenixtropicals.com/lemon_grass.html

Please save your fruit and vegetable containers! I can use these to put in mint and other plants from my garden for the free plant events. You can drop them off at the Odyssey High School office or at the Free Plant Events coming again in November.

It's butterfly time. This is what's happening in my backyard! The butterflies picked my milkweed to lay their eggs. The caterpillars are eating milkweed and plumping up, then they have been picking all different spots to make their crystalys (so far I have spotted 3, but they are very camouflaged.) These are called Queen butterflies. Information on the Queen https://www.butterflyidentification.com/queen.htm.

Here are videos of the Queen's cousin the Monarch turning from caterpillars to butterflies https://www.monarchbutterflies.info/p/monarch-chrysalis-stage.html

Plant and they will come! I planted milkweed for the butterflies and they have come and have laid eggs! Now we have at least 10 caterpillars! So excited to be part of this process! We will have seeds for everyone at our free plant events, which will start up again at our first POWWOW in November.

ChangeX has a new challenge- Plastic Free July. Click here for more information: https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/take-the-challenge/

We made planters and filled them with pollinator-friendly plants. Students learned about which plants we could use and they designed the arrangements in the planters. The students also did the watering and monitoring of the plants.

We gave away plants, ladybugs, and praying mantids to the scholars and staff of our school. Anyone who wanted a plant, ladybug, or mantid could have one- until the supply ran out. Mammoth sunflowers and praying mantids were the most popular (black-eyed peas were the least). Lots of people showed me pictures of how well their plants were growing. Some scholars even began small gardens based on the success they were having with their free plants. Scholars even began bringing me plants as well. One scholar brought in a sweet potato that was sprouting, and we were able to give away the slips to others.

We began having monthly Free Plant Events. We gave away plants (some from my backyard and some germinated from seeds) to the community. At the last Free Plant Event before the summer break, I also gave away seeds (cilantro, tecoma stans, canna lily, and vitex) I had harvested. I provided information on how to grow and care for these plants on the ChangeX website. The website was used to provide information on how to be more pollinator-friendly at home and alternatives to pesticides and chemical fertilizers.

We invited pollinators to our campus with our plants and hummingbird feeders- and they came!

One mammoth sunflower success story! How are your sunflowers doing? (The birds are starting to eat mine!)

Some of the praying mantises from our give away have made an appearance as larger mantids! Exciting news! Thanks for sharing your pictures!

Butterfly Gardening Information
https://www.almanac.com/butterfly-gardening?trk_msg=I7CM8H8M5U7KP9FQJI84545UC0&trk_contact=RGIKRVNGPCSAL2593NFKFFV5M0&trk_sid=7PIII5MVQ9DMTMAMBT1U1JLEL8&utm_source=Listrak&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=Butterfly+Gardening+(read+more)&utm_campaign=Companion+Daily