So much growth has happened since we started the Garden Program 4 years ago. Here's is a snapshot of this year's development.
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With the 2015 school year well underway, our school garden is thriving alongside Springwater students. All grades are delving in their garden studies, learning about worms, seeds, soil ecosystems, and how to care for our garden. Student efforts to grow a cold season garden have been very successful, with chard, lettuce, onions, arugula, and a variety of root vegetables feeding out students all the way to winter break. The middle school students are expanding the garden program to now include an oaks savanna and a rain garden. Keep a look out for updates on these great projects! The 2nd-3rd grade Salmon released some of their Painted Lady butterflies into the garden today. Immediately, the butterflies were able to pick out flowers and begin drinking and pollinating! The students raised these butterflies in the classroom from the beginning stages and were so excited to see their learning and work pay off.
Another new FFS event happened last Friday in the Springwater garden. As part of a large scale, 3-hour chemistry event, Kaci Rae hosted small groups of 7th-8th graders in the outdoor classroom to learn about pH testing and the chemistry behind garden soils. Students learned how organic and permaculture gardeners identify problems when the soils aren't productive to certain types of plants and how to solve these issues with on-hand and natural processes. After conducting soil and pH tests, students gave advice on how to amend the garden soils. We look forward to practicing these suggestions when gardening class begins again after Spring Break.
In a new collaborative experiment to create relevant and hands on math experiences, the 4th grade class and Kaci Rae teamed up for a FFS Math In The Garden event. In small groups, students rotated through sessions focused on the ratios of weed parts, the perimeter of garden beds, and solving measurement problems while planting potatoes. Overall, it was a beautiful day, the students had fun, and we were able to pilot a new math event! The idea of student gardeners seems obvious; the whole school gardens every week! But some students want to do more on their own time. A few groups of mixed aged students devote their breaks to getting their hands dirty and growing a garden. The idea is that they can work a plot in the garden as they wish to, with advice from me, and will grow plants for Taste Test Tuesday, as well as for the school. It is admittedly hard to keep quiet when they want to do something I wouldn't do, but that is learning! For them and for me. And their ideas are wonderful in the end. Keep your eyes out in our garden for student run plots and watch them grow! Tucked in the Gridley Annex next to Kaci Rae's office space, there is a three tiered black shelf filled with gardening advice books, seed catalogs, and a wealth of garden themed books for K-8th graders. While most of these books are used in garden classes with students, adult community members are able to access these books if they would like to explore gardening ideas, advice, or planning. Titles include: Gardening For Health and Nutrition, The Year I Ate My Yard, and The Natural Food Garden.
We are also looking for garden book donations to fill the library shelves. If you have some gardening themed books that you would like to find a new home for, feel free to contact Kaci Rae about donating them.
Beginning this spring and summer, Springwater students and families will see the front entrance of the school begin to change. Insect hotels will be erected, the ground will be mulched and composted, pathways will be shaped, and pollinator habitat structures will be built. Over the course of the year, the landscape will alter into a beautiful pollinator garden and learning center. Springwater is partnering with the Clackamas County Soil and Water Conservation District to develop this area into a refuge and home for native pollinators. With their generous support of $10,000 and the aid of planner Erik Carr, the Springwater garden program will be incorporating this project into the springtime pollinator lessons for the K-1st grade classes. Students will study the plants, colors, shapes, and habitat for local pollinators and, come fall, will participate in the planting aspect of the project. This idea began from a concern by myself, Kaci Rae, in noticing the need for native pollinator habitat to help the newly developed Springwater garden. I reached out to Erik Carr at the CCSWCD, and began to meet with him to discuss the potential for developing a pollinator space at the school, in order to provide habitat and to create an education space for the students and families. I am positive that this new space will fit in perfectly with the goals of Springwater. It will provide new environmental and science lessons for all the classes, it will beautify the school grounds, and it will be a refuge for the struggling populations of certain native pollinators. The area is to the left of the school entrance, surrounding the existing Springwater sign. There will be an informational sign that students will help design, and a variety of habitat structures: bee/bird boxes, log rounds for habitat structure, insect hotels, basalt water basins, and more. While CCSWCD is providing the funding and planning support of this project, Springwater has been asked to provide the maintenance and care of the new space. If you are interested in gardening with flowers or would like to know more about pollinators and habitat building, please contact me at[email protected]. Any and all support of this project would be wonderful! We have seen immense change come to our garden over the past few months. The snow and freezing weather have made it somewhat difficult to develop the garden space. But despite these challenges, we have jumpstarted our compost, vermicomposting, and mulching projects with Springwater students. Last Friday, the River Otters and Blue Herons participated in a great day of mulching new areas of the garden, getting one step closer to finishing our garden development. The Blue Herons have been learning all about red wiggler worms and have made a home for our new worms in three bins near the shed. They learned how to layer the necessary ingredients to provide a good habitat for these helpful creatures. Springwater students and garden classes are looking forward to planting and imagining the beautiful and bountiful possibilities of the garden. Both Fox classes are designing, developing, and acquiring the necessary materials and plants to build an orchard in the west end of the garden. We can’t wait to see what it will look like! We want to thank the community partners and donors who have supported our garden program over the past few months. Food Waves is a non-profit who has supported our garden by providing us with raised beds, seeds, plant starts, and greenhouse tables. We are happy to partner with them again this year to provide food for Springwater students and to finish our orchard project in the garden. Pistils Nurserygenerously provided the first of the worms for the vermicomposting project. Home Depot and Boyd’s Coffee have also provided mulching materials for our many garden projects. A final thank you for all the parents and volunteers who have provided leaves, straw, and work time out in the garden, supporting the garden program and the development of this space for Springwater students and families. 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. Our garden is changing as the rain and cool weather come. Some plants are dying, others are thriving, and the Springwater students are learning about the natural processes of plant lives. We are sad to see our flowers droop and fall, but we know that they provided so much food for the resident pollinators this year. We watch our natural birdfeeders, sunflowers, be devoured by hungry redwing blackbirds working hard to prepare for winter. We even allowed our lettuces and radishes to go to seed, watching how the finches forage in them! In the Springwater garden, we understand that brown, like red, yellow, purple, green, and white, is another beneficial and natural color in the garden. Springwater students have also devoured the garden’s produce, but not to store up for winter! Students are welcome in the garden at any time and have grazed through the tomatoes, mints, sorrel, kale, lettuces, and beets. Students are expected to ask if they can pick or should eat a plant and then find someone to share it with—in this way, we can make sure they are eating edible plants and only taking what they need. Students are then shown the garden’s many compost systems if they wish to depose of their waste and are taught how nutrients are recycled into our soil. The Springwater garden curriculum is being integrated into every grade through weekly garden classes. Each class has committed to a focus in the garden and will be balancing research, projects, and garden work throughout the year. We will be exploring seeds, pollinators, soil, vermicomposting, composting, rain catchment, and garden maintenance and building. Volunteers are always welcome in the garden, either for garden work or working with students during class time. If you are interested in spending time or donating materials for our garden, please contact Kaci Rae at [email protected]. Our Growing Garden Come visit the Springwater garden and see the wonderful changes that are happening. Our permaculture, edible, no-till garden is becoming well established after the hard work of Springwater students over the past few months. Thank you also to those students who were diligent garden volunteers during their breaks. Make some summer plans! Please consider volunteering this summer with your children, family, and friends for a day of garden work, harvesting, and picnicking with our delicious foods. Contact Kaci about times and dates that will work for you. We are especially looking for volunteers for the month of August when Kaci Rae will not be tending the garden. Please consider volunteering with your friends and family! This week we welcome springtime into our school garden as pollinators begin to emerge and our vegetable starts continue to grow. With the arrival of students, energized from Spring Break, I am looking forward to their help and ideas in building up the soil and making our garden a healthy, thriving space for plants, beneficial insects, and birds. We’ve already learned a few lessons in our experimental garden: * The resident thistle and dock populations are going to be stubborn about giving their space over for our plants. * Birds and slugs abound in the garden and are particularly inclined to munch on the seed starts that we plant in the raised beds. These are simple, but impactful lessons for any gardener—especially one that is just founding—and remind me everyday of the long-term care that is needed to help this garden thrive. Please consider volunteering your time this Spring during our garden classes or during volunteer work parties—see VolunteerSpot for signing up—to help me and our students build an educational garden (rather than a weed garden). As I tell the student gardeners, the work will put in now means twice the enjoyment and half the work in the future. This trimester is flying by in the garden and spring is well on its way. The signs can be seen all over campus from tulip shoots emerging to the garden’s garlic growing higher. Springwater students have been busy as they delve into their compost, worm, and rain garden projects, as well as learn about “Plant Parts We Eat.” K-3rd grades have been exploring their roots, stems, flowers, and fruits through taste-testing of raw vegetables during garden class. Preparation for Spring is coming on quick as I search for seed donations and develop plans for the Springwater garden, with the help of its staff and students. Other than actually planting and tending to the starts, this time of year is great to imagine the bounty Spring and Summer will bring, as well as the possibilities for fun and education in the garden. I have been so welcomed at Springwater by the staff, students, and parents and have been amazed at the kindness and interest expressed by all. I hope that many of you and your families will seriously consider volunteering and spending time out at the Springwater garden this summer, honing your garden skills and harvesting food with your children. Spring is also a time to look at the steps it will take to grow a thriving garden/school relationship. My goals are to get each student engaged in planting a part of the garden so that they can each connect and be in ownership of the space, individually and as a community. I hope that this will become a communal space, growing together through positive experiences, hard work, and a fulfilling yield. I want students to return net year to a space that is ripe for inspiration, eating, and learning. Personally, I am hoping to engage more with families, students, and staff through the garden during my remaining time here and see eager and helpful hands working alongside me. I also hope to compile a portfolio of the projects, curriculum, successful and working ideas, and future plans around the garden space so that this program can continue and grow in strength each year at Springwater. I am continually excited about the endless growth that this space provides for the ideas and inspiration of the staff and students. Thank you again to the staff, students, and parents who have made me feel a part of the Springwater community. I look forward to seeing you out in the garden! Thank you also for the parents who have donated time and materials for garden class, Naomi’s Organic Farm Supply for their seed donations, and for Food Waves, which has provided the greenhouse structures, raised beds, and supplies for our endeavors! We have plants in the ground! This week, both Salmon classes put in the first plants we can expect in the springtime: garlic bulbs! We hope to continue planting garlic and flower bulbs in the next few weeks, as well as finish our mulching process in the garden before Christmas Break. Keep your eyes out for notice about the big mulching day in a few weeks. On Friday, the Foxes and Otters spent their field studies day putting in the last of the raised beds that were donated by Food Waves. Each class began the process of building healthy soil and eliminating weeds in the raised beds, by layering cardboard, manure, shavings, leaves, and soil–all which were donated by parents and community partners. These are the first steps towards building a healthy garden. To all the parents who have volunteered their time and resources, thank you for your support and efforts! Our 7th-8th grade "Foxes" were really inspired by what they saw on a field trip on Friday, October 12, 2012. Read what they had to say about the gardens in their own words!
” My goal for the Springwater garden is to give it the magical feel….the secret garden theme. Besides plants and fountains I really enjoyed the benches and interactive decorations.” – Kelli ” We found some interesting colored beans…. these would be a good addition to our garden because they were interesting, bright, colorful and would add some variety to our garden.” – McKenna “Today we were sent to Sellwood to scope out people’s gardens for inspiration. We found trellises, benches, fountains, covered areas and a kids play “den” made out of big branches.” -Micheal “Another things I saw were benches, bird baths, bird houses, stone paths and arc ways.” – Amber ” A bird bath and some climbing plants would be cool in the garden.” -Patience ” We could make mosaics and paint flagstones. It would make the garden really nice.” – Izzy “I am glad we got to see the plants and inspire everyone to work on our school garden.”-Tessa “We saw that they used clover for a winter crop. It puts nitrogen back in the soil which I think is a good idea.” -Grant With the arrival of AmeriCorps member Kaci Rae Christopher and a new greenhouse, Springwater’s garden program is ready to bloom. As the new garden coordinator, Kaci Rae has begun to work with staff and students to both expand the school’s garden space and weave associated topics like sustainable agriculture into the school’s integrated environmental science curricula. Kaci Rae is collaborating with first grade teacher Mr. Jon to develop new curriculum associated with the garden, as well as tying garden work into existing school lessons. “Every teacher has committed to working in the garden this year,” explains Mr. Jon. “As a staff we created a tiered system of responsibility that allows every grade level to help make the garden work as a system that will be sustainable.” Some tasks, like weeding and mulching and planting, will be done by all classes. Others will be grade-specific. Oak Leaves and Dragonflies will be studying and trying to attract pollinators. The 2/3 classes will become soil experts, testing and managing the garden soil to make sure it is healthy and productive. Fourth-graders will be constructing worm bins to help compost food waste from lunch. The 5/6 students will be studying compost and then redesigning and building compost bins to break down the lunch waste the worms can’t handle. They will also try to solve water management concerns and develop plans to collect rainwater for the garden. Springwater’s Foxes will be engineering different garden structures, such as vertical growing trellises. They will also develop a garden leadership program to help mentor younger students based on the gardening know-how they’ve accumulated over the years. What’s happening in the garden right now? “This trimester is about working together in the garden space,” explains Kaci Rae. “We’ve been weeding, and next we start mulching. Everyone will start laying down cardboard, leaves…to break down into healthy soil over the winter. We’re also starting to focus on the greenhouse…making it a space where it can really get into production. “ Kaci Rae also has been nurturing new partnerships for Springwater. Food/Waves, a local non-profit organization (www.foodwaves.org), has donated lettuce, kale, and leeks to help students begin to grow their crops. Lori Bell, volunteer coordinator at Friends of Family Farmers (www.friendsoffamilyfarmers.org) and parent of a Springwater pre-schooler, has volunteered her time to work with Kaci Rae promoting the garden and making connections with local farmers. Plans are underway to develop a relationship with a sister school that may not have the knowledge or resources yet for their own garden program. Kaci Rae’s vision for the Springwater garden is a bounty of food that can be shared among the Springwater community and others, a sustainable system based on permaculture and a place where lots of people gather – even in the summer. “Every bit of help is needed,“ Kaci Rae said. “When we start planting in the springtime, it will be great to see families working together. And the kids can be proud of getting things going and then involving the larger community. “ If you’re interested in helping support the new garden program, drop Kaci Rae a line at [email protected], or you can find her office in the Gridley Annex. Article written by: Paul Heimowitz One good thing can lead to another, and that’s the case for how Kaci Rae Christopher came to join Springwater this year as the new garden coordinator. Last spring, Kaci Rae met Springwater Foxes while working as a guide for a group that assisted with the 8th Grade Outdoor School. “The students were really great to hang out with…they were very active, and we had great conversations, “ notes Kaci Rae. Impressed with the school’s approach of inquiry-based learning, and attracted by the potential of Springwater’s existing garden space, she eventually learned enthusiastically of the garden coordinator AmeriCorps position. This September, she came aboard in that role. AmeriCorps is a program that provides funds for temporary positions that help communities throughout the nation. Members receive guidance, training and an opportunity to apply their particular talents to a project. Kaci Rae’s appointment is 11 months, and she mainly works at the school Mondays-Thursdays. As garden coordinator, Kaci Rae is sometimes a facilitator, sometimes a teacher, and always a promoter of sustainable agriculture. Gardening has been a continual part of her life…from her days growing up with a big family garden in Hillsboro to involvement with community-supported agriculture and farmers markets. She recently spent several months working on a farm in Fairbanks, Alaska. “It was cold and dry – they only have a 3 to 4 month growing season”, she explains. “It made me appreciate coming back!” Kaci Rae has also appreciated the warm welcome she’s received at Springwater. “Everyone has been so inviting,” she said. “There’s a lot to do, so it’s really nice to connect with the students, staff, and parents and be part of the community.” She’s been excited by the enthusiasm of the students. “Last week, we started the weeding process for the garden, and the labor force just among the K-4 students has been incredible! I wasn’t expecting they could get so much accomplished in such a short period of time. We talked about how this work meant getting dirt on your hands…and they all ran out of the building shouting Weeds, Weeds, Weeds!” If you haven’t met Kaci Rae yet, stop by and say hi if you happen to pass her office in the Gridley Annex. And bring your garden gloves…she just might put you to work! Article written by: Paul Heimowitz When a visitor arrives at Springwater and heads towards the playground, one of the first things to catch the eye these days is the new greenhouse. Funded by a HEAL grant, the greenhouse is already working its way into the hearts and minds of the students and staff, and is being used extensively for curriculum in all the grades. However, before any of this, the greenhouse needed to be built.
One of the conditions for final approval of this grant was that the funds had to be matched by the school in terms of materials and/or man-hours. While A. McGill & Son Nursery kindly offered the materials, which still left the actual building process to volunteers. So Casey Beatty, Mark Tilden, Dave Boloto, Hilario Santiago and Carolyn McGill all offered to step in to help to fulfill the grant requirements. In order to erect the structure, it was necessary to first dig out the footprint for the greenhouse, then lay down ground cloth and gravel. Casey began that process in July, as well as removing a part of the garden fencing. Then life interfered. Being as it was summer, finding a time for all the volunteers to get together proved difficult. Everyone had plans they were trying to work around, and to complicate things further, the supporting poles for the greenhouse were bent out of shape and all needed to be straightened so that the pieces would fit together. As the summer stretched on, and the poles were finally fixed, some progress was finally able to be seen. After verifying that all the pieces were there and would fit together as they were supposed to, the vertical supporting poles were set in concrete and the top curved poles were attached. Hardware was used to help ensure the greenhouse would stay together, then the ends were covered with a hard polycarbonate plastic and the doors were attached. At this point, it was down to the home stretch – both on the greenhouse, and for the start of school. Students were due back soon, so the pressure was on to get the greenhouse completed. The last step was to cover the rest of the structure with clear poly, pull it tight and firmly attach it with wiggle wire (A specific kind of wire that looks just like it sounds – wiggly – and is often used in both jewelry making and greenhouse construction.). It was finally complete – and right before school began. A little over a month into school, and there is already life in the greenhouse. There are lettuce plants and onions growing in there now, with extensive conversations going on between students and teachers about future use. What was an empty space is now one more stepping stone in the science-based, environmental curriculum that drives Springwater on the path to the future. Article written by : Beth Cummings |
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