The first garden blog of the new year. From the calm snowy lands of Ohio and winter vacation, school has been back full swing.
The garden has benefited from the lush winter rains of the Bay Area. There were a few weeks of consecutive rain, torrential downpours actually, that helped the transplanted starter plants jump from mere sprouts to full fledged plants.
In the beds and currently thriving:
swiss chard, snap peas, butterhead lettuce, red lettuce, cauliflower, collard greens, red cabbage, rosemary, and lots of spring flowers taking over our dirt pile.
The lettuce and chard are ready for harvest, salad, and some in school cooking lessons.
The snap peas are climbing the trellis students constructed and the vines are producing juicy pea pods that snap in the mouth.
Students constructed bird feeders from recycled milk and juice containers; complete with camouflage, twig perches and hooks to hang in the trees. They built bird showers from recycled plastic containers; a hanging bath with holes punched in the bottom, so that when it rains, the container catches water and creates a shower effect.
We’ve hung hummingbird nectar feeders, and sure enough sighted my first hummingbird on campus in three years of teaching. It could just be that I wasn’t paying attention; but it was happily hovering around the feeder above the bees pollinating the flowers.
Students handmade observation journals that have diagrams of different cycles, and a ruler on the back cover so they can measure growth in the garden while taking notes.
They bound the books using branches and a rubber band, and have proven sturdy so far.
For our end of semester project, we redesigned the garden. To begin the year, the placement of our garden boxes was dictated more by the powers that be of the Buildings and Ground Division of OUSD, along the lines of “move the wooden boxes off our grass, or we’ll move them for you.” Students collaborated to create a to-scale site map, with plans for six more garden boxes, bird baths, trellises, butterfly gardens, picnic tables and benches, a greenhouse, ponds, signs, murals, walking paths, an enclosed flower garden, fruit trees and much, much more.
We’ve met with outside agencies, and are working on a proposal to the district to beautify and green our campus through an edible school garden.
Finally, we are going to be working with the neighboring elementary school to help their own “Kinder”garden and 2nd grade edible garden. The elementary school also received the grant money from OSSF, and we hope to teach them some of the lessons we’ve learned about planting, composting and gardening.
Roots Ecology students have been volunteering at the local Farm to School Market that sells farm fresh produce every Wednesday. They work in trios weighing the food, bagging it, and working the cash register. At the end of their shift, they earn a $5 gift certificate and a bag of fresh fruits and veggies to take home.
There are talks of a mural, tile art, and of course a harvest party. Lots of adults have expressed interest in coming to EAT and cook our veggies.
Photos and the much promised but seldom delivered student writing coming soon.
