Thursday, September 24, 2015

9/24/2015

This week we discussed the idea of extending the season and putting the garden to bed. We harvested, cleared some of the beds and prepped them to sow some hardy vegetables. We will be putting a rye cover crop over most of the garden to provide nourishment that was depleted over the growing season.
 

Thursday, September 17, 2015

9/15/2015

This week we talked about saving seeds. Saving seeds is a great way to preserve history and save certain types of plants, flowers, fruits and vegetables. It also saves money because you have to buy less next year. We split up into groups; team basil, melon, radish, tomato and bean, and learned how to save each.


At the end of the lesson, when students were looking for seeds in our garden, Lily found a monarch chrysalis on a tomato!



Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Here is the syllabus for our garden club school year
September- Seed Saving, clean up and extending the garden season
Tuesday 8th. What are seeds, which types are in our garden and how do we save them?
Tuesday 15th. Types of seeds and seed saving techniques and garden clean-up
Tuesday 22nd. Hardy vegetables and extending the season
Tuesday 29th- Hoophouses and ways to extend the season
October- Soil and Compost
Tuesday 6th-  What is soil and why is it important?
Tuesday 13th. Types of soil, worms and vermiculture
Tuesday 20th. Compost- what can and can’t be composted
Tuesday 27th-No garden club (conferences)
November-Art and science in the garden
Tuesday 3rd- No garden club
Tuesday 10h- - No garden club
Tuesday 17th. Garden crafts
Tuesday 24th. Measurements in the garden
December- Indoor gardens and plants
Tuesday 1st- Terrariums
Tuesday 8th. Upcycled crafts
Tuesday 15th- Containers and crafts
Tuesday 22nd- No garden club
Tuesday 29th- No garden club
January- Planning our garden
Tuesday- 5th- Seed catalogs
Tuesday- 12th- Garden planning
Tuesday 9th- Types of gardens
Tuesday 26th- Garden Crafts
February- Art, History and music in the garden
Tuesday 2nd- Different cultures in the garden and some seed starts
Tuesday 9th- No garden club (conferences)
Tuesday 16th- Literature and the garden
Tuesday 23rd- Music and the garden
 March- Prepping the garden
Tuesday 1st- Seed starts
Tuesday 8th- Soil testing, amending
Tuesday 15th- No garden club
Tuesday 22nd- seed starts and transplant explained
Tuesday 29th- Beneficial  and bad bugs
 April- Botany
Tuesday 5th- Plant parts
Tuesday 12th- Pollination
Tuesday 19th- Composting revisited and planting
Tuesday 26th- Planting and crafts
May- Planting
Tuesday 3rd- Making garden art
Tuesday 10th- Planting and garden art
Tuesday 17th- Stories in the garden
Tuesday 24th- Science and measurement
Tuesday 31st- Celebration- Last day of garden club
Garden meetings will continue over the summer while we water, weed and harvest. Also plan on attending farmers markets and workdays throughout the year, although they have not been included, but there will be a cold crop day in April and a warm crop day in May
If you have questions or concerns, email victoriafernandez6@gmail.com , or call
319-415-5478

Thursday, September 10, 2015

8/8/2015

Last week and the week before we had students tour the garden. Students who attended our very first garden club collected some of our tomatoes and made salsa. All of the ingredients came from our garden (except the onions.) We did have onions, but they were ready much sooner in the Summer.  Next time we will try and time it a little better!


Over the Summer we had more monarch caterpillars come and munch on our milkweed. We collected some and gave them to our eager first graders.


Here is a link to our school featured in New Pioneer Food Co-ops newsletters. The article highlights the importance of planting milkweed and how everyone can help with saving the Monarchs!
http://issuu.com/newpioneer/docs/september_catalyst_-_final/5?e=1