First off, a big thank you goes out to the local non-profit, A Seat at the Table, which funded the purchase of some new garden tools for our school. We very much appreciate their support!
At the beginning of October, the new sixth graders were introduced to the garden. Though there still were a few tomatoes left and the ground cherry was still going strong, it was time to put in some winter crops. The students sampled the ground cherries one last time then pulled the remaining plants out to make space for broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower starts. They worked the soil and planted seeds of sugar snap peas, carrot seeds, and white icicle radishes as well as onion sets brought by Mr. Whitney (who also brought more worm soil from the Earthworm Soil Factory for our beds-- thanks to both!). There was a large harvest of sweet basil and some students had never tasted pesto so I made some and offered it as a taste test to students the following day. The results were surprising. Of 48 who sampled the pesto and voted, 45 checked that they liked the pesto-- sweet basil was a definite hit among our students and staff. This is good news as basil is packed with good stuff for the body; it is high in vitamins K, A, and C as well as manganese, copper, iron, folate, calcium and magnesium.
At the beginning of October, the new sixth graders were introduced to the garden. Though there still were a few tomatoes left and the ground cherry was still going strong, it was time to put in some winter crops. The students sampled the ground cherries one last time then pulled the remaining plants out to make space for broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower starts. They worked the soil and planted seeds of sugar snap peas, carrot seeds, and white icicle radishes as well as onion sets brought by Mr. Whitney (who also brought more worm soil from the Earthworm Soil Factory for our beds-- thanks to both!). There was a large harvest of sweet basil and some students had never tasted pesto so I made some and offered it as a taste test to students the following day. The results were surprising. Of 48 who sampled the pesto and voted, 45 checked that they liked the pesto-- sweet basil was a definite hit among our students and staff. This is good news as basil is packed with good stuff for the body; it is high in vitamins K, A, and C as well as manganese, copper, iron, folate, calcium and magnesium.
The following week some of the seventh graders came out to make their contribution to the winter garden. They planted celery, lettuce and a few more broccoli starts and more seeds-- kale, rainbow chard, beets, carrots and parsley. We reviewed some of what they learned about earth science in the 6th grade. We talked about where soil comes from and what it is composed of. We also tested soil for nitrogen levels and learned that we definitely need to add some nitrogen to the beds. Perhaps the next lesson should be how to make good compost to add nitrogen back to the soil. Lastly, the beds were covered over with bird netting to keep the local birds from sampling our seeds while we eagerly await a winter harvest.
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