Winter is gone and we are making way for Spring at Kenwood!

Kenwood Garden is well underway with the help of 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students! Thanks to all the hard work from families and community volunteers. When it was too cold outside, we were busy inside working on planning, designing and crafting. Then when it was warm enough we headed outside to get planting. 

We need volunteers to help water and weed. Over the Summer there will also be an opportunity to meet every Tuesday morning at 10am where we will use the fresh produce from our garden. Families will also have an opportunity to adopt our garden this Summer. 

Take a look at all of our had work this year...   

    

                                                                       

At the beginning of winter we learned about different types of gardens and practiced designing our own beds. 

 

We learned about the optimum germination conditions for seeds and planted some to take home.

 

 In out Lit in the Garden class we took inspiration from authors, artists and poets and came up with our own songs, stories and poems.  

   

When it was finally warm enough to head outside, students were eager to learn about the different insects in the garden and then go out and find some. We measured, tilled and amended our beds so they would be a great place for our new seedlings. We also played with more worms!

  

We painted, crafted and earned our green and yellow thumbs and arms...

 

At our workday, we spruced up the Little Free Library and cleared out our main bed (getting it ready for pumpkins).

       

We hauled, we dug, we watered and weeded   

       

 

We made our garden pretty. Soon we will lay down mulch, sit back and watch our garden grow!

 

1/16/16

Garden gnomes are thought to have originated in Germany and have characteristic faces with pointy red hats and were used to adorn front lawns. This week we made our own garden adornments- They ranged from snails to narwhals to turtles.

1/12/16

It's January and this week it was so cold our faces burned. It was a great time to start planning our Spring garden though. Students learned that a good garden site has access to water, sun and great soil. We went over the concepts of square foot gardening and students wore the landscape design hat for a class.

 1/5/16

This week we talked about seeds. We took fast growing seeds, 4 small cups and paper towels. We wanted to see what the best growing conditions for seeds were.
Cup A had water, light and warmth
Cup B had no wamth and no light
Cup C had no light
Cup D had no water
Students made predictions about which cup would produce viable seedlings. After a week Cup A and B had sprouted. Seeds like darkness and water and warmth the best.

Before Winter break it was time to get creative with craft projects. In these classes, we made terrariums, painted plant markers for our Spring gardens and had an art challenge where we were allowed just this once to play with our food! We also sampled more fruits and veggies.

11/17/2015

Crafts this week in Garden club! We had three stations; a picture station where students could draw or paint their favorite fruit or vegetable then write a story about it; a home-made clay station where they made small fruits, vegetables or people for our upcoming terrarium project and bird feeders from ice-cream cones, bird seed, pipe cleaners and peanut butter (clean-up took a little longer this week!). we also passed out snacks which included dill pickle sunflower seeds and kale chips. They were a hit with some and not with others.

10/20/2015

Soil is the key to a great garden and worms help to break down this valuable resource! This week students learned all about worms, including what they eat and their basic anatomy. We were going to head outside to race some worms, but it was pouring with rain (great for worms, not so great for students).

We also read "Diary of a Worm," by Doreen Cronin and "Compost Stew," by Mary McKenna Siddals

9/29/15

This week we started with a book by Will Allen called "Will Allen and the Growing Table". The book describes Allen's life from the garden as a child, to his sports career in Belgium back to his love of food and helping others. We headed outside and cleaned up the garden. We filled up 10 giant bags!

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.
 

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!

Here is the syllabus for our garden club school year

September- Seed Saving, clean up and extending the garden season

Tuesday 8^th. What are seeds, which types are in our garden and how do we save them?

Tuesday 15^th. Types of seeds and seed saving techniques and garden clean-up

Tuesday 22^nd. Hardy vegetables and extending the season

Tuesday 29^th- Hoophouses and ways to extend the season

October- Soil and Compost

Tuesday 6^th-  What is soil and why is it important?

Tuesday 13^th. Types of soil, worms and vermiculture

Tuesday 20^th. Compost- what can and can’t be composted

Tuesday 27^th-No garden club (conferences)

November-Art and science in the garden

Tuesday 3^rd- No garden club

Tuesday 10^{h- -} No garden club

Tuesday 17^th. Garden crafts

Tuesday 24^th. Measurements in the garden

December- Indoor gardens and plants

Tuesday 1^st- Terrariums

Tuesday 8^th. Upcycled crafts

Tuesday 15^th- Containers and crafts

Tuesday 22^nd- No garden club

Tuesday 29^th- No garden club

January- Planning our garden

Tuesday- 5^th- Seed catalogs

Tuesday- 12^th- Garden planning

Tuesday 9^th- Types of gardens

Tuesday 26^th- Garden Crafts

February- Art, History and music in the garden

Tuesday 2^nd- Different cultures in the garden and some seed starts

Tuesday 9^th- No garden club (conferences)

Tuesday 16^th- Literature and the garden

Tuesday 23rd- Music and the garden

 March- Prepping the garden

Tuesday 1^st- Seed starts

Tuesday 8^th- Soil testing, amending

Tuesday 15^th- No garden club

Tuesday 22^nd- seed starts and transplant explained

Tuesday 29th- Beneficial  and bad bugs

 April- Botany

Tuesday 5^th- Plant parts

Tuesday 12^th- Pollination

Tuesday 19^th- Composting revisited and planting

Tuesday 26^th- Planting and crafts

May- Planting

Tuesday 3^rd- Making garden art

Tuesday 10^th- Planting and garden art

Tuesday 17^th- Stories in the garden

Tuesday 24^th- 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

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

8/18/15

Last garden harvest before students come back to school. This week we have melons, cucumbers, chard and beautiful heirloom tomatoes (many from Seed Savers Exchange) that students started from seed.

Also, check out these little guys- Thai peppers from Seed Savers Exchange

8/11/2015

This week's haul has kale, chard, heirloom tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, jalapenos, beets, basil and a midget melon! Available tomorrow :)

8/4/2015

Flowers and veggies are blooming! Check out the melons, cucumbers, bell and Thai peppers coming soon!

This week we harvested basil, orange mint, lemon balm, chard, cabbage, beets, marigolds and different types of tomatoes. If you are interested in produce, available fruits and vegetables will be at school every Wednesday. Email victoriafernandez6@gmail.com for more information.

7/21/15

Did you know we have a lot of edible flowers growing in the school garden? You can eat marigolds, nasturtium, radish flowers and borage. Also, check out the chard and tomatoes!!!

7/14/2015

The first tomatoes of the season!!! There will be lots and lots in the coming weeks. There is also more chard, lots of herbs to harvest and the first sunflower also opened up.

7/1/2015

So far we have harvested radishes, chard, broccoli, lettuce, kale, edible flowers and herbs. This week we will have more available. I harvested some chard yesterday to demonstrate chard chips (this also works with kale).
Take the chard and take out large stems with a knife. Make sure leaves are dry. Toss in a little olive oil and salt, or soy sauce. Place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake for 350 for around 10 minutes. Delicious and healthy!

We also have peas ripening

A great way to preserve herbs is by freezing. Below I picked cilantro, basil and chives. Wash them, dry them and put them in ice cube trays until you need them. You can also cover them in olive oil.

6/25/15

I have made notes to show which crops are where

This is the old bed by the entrance to school with the rain barrel

This is where we planted the raised beds- the pollinator, salsa and veggie bed

As produce becomes available, I will try and post ahead of time. So far we have had some radishes, kale, chard, basil and cilantro ready. I have had to freeze some cilantro so we can have it for our salsa recipe later on in the year. If you are interested in produce, let me know. This week the rest of the broccoli will be ready, more radishes, borage and chard.

Beets, peas and onions will soon be ready. Haven and Riley have already harvested some radishes and onions and basil.

05/26/15

This week Scott Keopke from New Pioneer Food Co-op (a kind sponsor of our school garden) came to give us a presentation called "From Tomato to Potato". Students had to say whether the vegetable or fruit grew underground or above ground. We then went out to check on the progress of our garden.

              Photos courtesy of Ben Partridge, New Pioneer Food Co-op.

We also finished installing our Little Free Library! Garden club students helped to paint the post and the car (minus the windows). We will have a small ribbon-cutting ceremony tomorrow, our last garden club class of the school year.

To find out more about Little Free Libraries, go to http://littlefreelibrary.org/. If you have any questions about donations, please email victoriafernandez6@gmail.com

5/12/15-5/23/2015

We've been very busy getting everything prepped and planted. The gardens are all sprouting. We had a workday on Saturday and painted pots, cleaned out the rain barrel and planted strawberries and tomatoes.
The first milkweed plant we had was nibbled down to the bone. A wonderful Master Gardener let us take a few plants from Lowe Park. Hopefully that should satisfy their appetite for a little while!