Beet Harvest

Mr. Swan's class harvest almost 30 pounds of beets this week. The beets were taken home by students and donated to the school backpack program so that students of all grades could enjoy the harvest. The 6th graders are headed to Outdoor School this Sunday so they will be taking a short gardening break!

Info about our new playground & community garden space...

Grants have been approved and we will be building a new playground in a couple months, but we are also hoping to expand some green space into a community garden. Here is a link to a blog with information on those projects:

HP Playground & Community Garden

Summer Wrap Up and into Fall...

Here are some final pics from our Summer School class (field trips included).

Fall is officially here and Mr. Swan's class already harvested a bunch of beets, cabbage, and carrots and cooked Borscht together. More to come....

Cooking from our garden

In addition to Mr. Swan leading the gardening science class during this summer's session, Mrs. Deacon is teaching a healthy cooking class. We are using food harvested from the garden to cook using several supplies donated through Donors Choose. 

Thus far we have made several steamed and grilled vegetables, and various salads with dressings. Today we made salsa and grilled mushrooms. The students are learning terms for cooking (i.e. the difference between baking and broiling, or grilling and sauteing), and also the proper ways to prepare foods (i.e. how to hold a knife). 

They are so eager to learn new skills, and believe it or not they don't mind doing the dishes :)

Summer School

We are in our 2nd week of Summer School and Mr. Swan has made a lot of progress. We have currently broken up about 30 students into two groups, and every other day they work in the garden.

Today most of the garlic was harvested, along with some broccoli and lettuce. Last week in our Healthy Cooking class we made a corn & bean salad and steamed green beans using produce grown in the garden.

Spring Progress...

The sixth grade classes have been steadily working together and we are starting to see a lot of new plants growing in the garden and greenhouse. The pics below show garlic stalks, several lettuce varieties, cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprout, peas (on the trellis), and asparagus in the garden. In the greenhouse, we have pepper, herbs, an avocado and tomatoes started.

Getting ready for spring...

We've had a oddly cold winter (I seriously saw snow the week after spring break!) but we are getting ready to start doing some serious work in the garden.

We've planted several different seeds in the greenhouse, including several native Hawaiian plants that I purchased in Hawaii last summer.

The 6th grade classes have also planted several different vegetables and herbs in the garden beds. Mr. Swan's class built a pea trellis and we are just waiting for some sprouts :) Mr. Swan also spent a lot of time bringing new compost.

Using some of the grant money we received from Annie's Homegrown, we have ordered a bunch of vegetable and herb starts that will be delivered in a couple weeks. 

$250 Grant Awarded from Annie's!!

Our garden/greenhouse project has been awarded a $250 grant from Annie's, Inc! In addition, we have been entered in a contest to double our money! Click the link below to visit Annie's Facebook page and click on the "Poll" tab. Then vote for Harrison Park! The school with the most votes by February 24th gets an additional $250.

Show your support in less than a minute!

www.facebook.com/annieshomegrown


And don't forget to support Annie's by buying their products!

New Bench Dedicated to our Most Important Volunteer

Here is a picture of a great bench that our school nurse, Carol, arranged to have built secretly for an amazing volunteer here at school: Ralph Leftwich. Not only has Ralph been a major component in getting our garden built and functioning - but he is also involved in many other activities, including running Chess Club.