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.