I am happy to say that this year every student has been engaged in our garden program, whether through the weekly garden classes, the gardening Enrichment course, or everyday exploration during breaks and recesses. Over the past few months, students have helped harvest the bountiful food, save seeds, and plant garlic, carrots, and kale for winter.
Putting our garden beds to sleep with straw, manure, and leavesWendy and Loren’s Salmon classes helped mulch some of our garden beds using donated leafs and straw, learning how we put nutrients back into the soil, create healthy soil, and prevent erosion. In garden classes, we have been discussing how some plants are dying and others are thriving in the winter cold. This has raised great conversations about healthy soils, animal habitat, and plant life cycles.
We have started Taste Test Tuesday this year, where students can come out to the garden and taste raw plants from the garden. So far, students have sampled butternut squash, chard, kale, celery stalk and leaf, kohlrabi, turnips, beets, and fennel. They also loved the Brussels sprouts we grew and the massive Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes) we dug from the soil. So far, every sample plate has been cleared by the end of the taste test!
The best of our brussels sprouts An impressive sun choke the size of a water bottleFinally, we are looking forward to developing the final garden space into an orchard and social place to encourage social permaculture and community interaction in the garden. The Foxes are working during garden class to develop benches, a covered area, and plants for the space. Each group will be gathering materials, writing donation letters, and lead as project managers during the assembly or building of their project. We also look forward to having parents and Springwater community supporters aiding us as “experts” and volunteers in the building of these projects.
Putting our garden beds to sleep with straw, manure, and leavesWendy and Loren’s Salmon classes helped mulch some of our garden beds using donated leafs and straw, learning how we put nutrients back into the soil, create healthy soil, and prevent erosion. In garden classes, we have been discussing how some plants are dying and others are thriving in the winter cold. This has raised great conversations about healthy soils, animal habitat, and plant life cycles.
We have started Taste Test Tuesday this year, where students can come out to the garden and taste raw plants from the garden. So far, students have sampled butternut squash, chard, kale, celery stalk and leaf, kohlrabi, turnips, beets, and fennel. They also loved the Brussels sprouts we grew and the massive Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes) we dug from the soil. So far, every sample plate has been cleared by the end of the taste test!
The best of our brussels sprouts An impressive sun choke the size of a water bottleFinally, we are looking forward to developing the final garden space into an orchard and social place to encourage social permaculture and community interaction in the garden. The Foxes are working during garden class to develop benches, a covered area, and plants for the space. Each group will be gathering materials, writing donation letters, and lead as project managers during the assembly or building of their project. We also look forward to having parents and Springwater community supporters aiding us as “experts” and volunteers in the building of these projects.