Fall Garden

It has been some time since our garden blog was updated, so here we go! Mr. Swan's 6th graders have been pretty busy in the garden, taking home produce, and eating right out of the garden. And this fall we have a Garden Club as part of our SUN program, run by Katelin Ryan. She has had her group of 3rd graders very busy in the garden, too.

We are trying to propagate rosemary from cuttings in the greenhouse, and hope they will take! We also have a bunch of tomato and pepper plants in the greenhouse, we will see if they produce for us. Plus we have some seed starts going.

Outside, we have a bunch of garlic planted, still have some greens producing. We have some beautiful looking squash that we hope to get the cafeteria to cook for us, and despite some wind damage, we have some great looking popcorn to pop.

Girls in the Garden

Last week several of the 6th grade girls got together and planted garlic and did some general garden maintenance. Here they are :)

Kids take home vegetables!

Last week several 6th graders harvested their fall crops, including potatoes, carrots, beets, and other fall veggies. They brought home HUGE bags over the weekend.

First Week of Summer School 2011

The weather has been great so we have finally gotten out to the garden to tend to some serious weeding. This summer 4th - 6th grade students are working with Mr. Swan in the garden, while also getting a once a week healthy cooking class through Oregon State University. We have planted a variety of starts and a few students have already brought home some lettuce heads.

New Pics from Mr. Swan's Class!

Is it Summer yet?

Despite the cold and rainy weather (will it ever end??), Mr. Swan's class has gotten out to the garden several times in the last month. We took planted of the seeds donated by Bridlemile students into flats in the greenhouse, and then have transplanted those that are big enough. Students also started a bed of potatoes and did a lot of greenhouse clean up.

Mrs. Deacon took her after school class, OMG (Outstanding Modern Girls), and planted flower seeds using eggshells. If only it was warmer!

Our garden blog is also featured on Jamie Oliver's Newsletter as a blog of the month!

Thank you Bridlemile!

It's been awhile since we updated (the garden has been hibernating). But we want to thank students from Bridlemile for their generous donation and new partnership with our garden. This week, pots with seeds and a few other supplies were delivered - courtesy of Ms. Koning's 4th grade class. The students here are very excited to get some spring weather and get to planting.

A couple weeks ago we spent an afternoon cleaning up, weeding, and prepping the beds for planting as soon as the weather gets a little warmer. Also, we are hoping to replace some of the lights in the greenhouse and fix the heater so that we can grow more year round.

We will post pics very soon - thank you Ms. Konig's class!!!!!!!

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.

Before & After updates

Ralph sent me some before and after pics today. Thought I would post them since we haven't had a whole lot of work done due to the weather. We have been putting a lot of thought into our spring plans and can't wait!

What we've been up to...

First off, the 6th graders have had the chance to learning about composting and worms (all taught by Jesse: a GENEROUS weekly volunteer in my classroom). We now have a couple worm/composting bins inside the classrooms where students are responsible for feeding/maintaining everything. 

Next,  classes have gone out and worked in the garden and planted garlic in one of the unused beds.

Our school also offers a "Backpack Program" where 20 backpacks are filled with donated food every Friday and sent home with a student. This ensures that they have food on the weekends. The program started last Friday and we were able to include several different kinds of FRESH vegetables, such as tomatoes, collards, beets, zucchini, kale, and beans. This is a big step for us - showing that when everyone works together, we can help our school & community. We hope to continue donating produce on a weekly basis, for as long as it lasts.

I found this link on the Whole Foods website: Student Lunch Box Planner. Basically it has a weekly planner of nutritious and tasty meals for kids to bring to school, with a cost per serving that I think are all pretty reasonable. Then if you create the possibility of kids bringing home FREE fruits/vegs from our school garden (on a somewhat regular basis) you knock the cost down even more.

Keep money in your pocket. Feed your kids healthy meals. Throw away less garbage! (Has anyone else noticed just how much packaging each school lunch is?!?!?!)

Thought you might like to check it out!

Things happening...

We've been preparing for 6th graders to spend a week at Outdoor School in late October, and the garden has been especially useful. The curriculum for Outdoor School revolves around field studies of Soil, Water, Animals, and Plants. This week we've been studying soil, and students spent time in the garden and there was more than enough produce for each student to take home a couple things. Students also spent time establishing their own rules for the garden and greenhouse now that the entire school has access to it.

The ginger I bought in Hawaii is also growing well in our greenhouse.

In the next week, students are going to start their own compost and plant garlic in one of the empty beds.