November Garden

Scenes from today in our November garden.  It's a busy, happy place.

Beds are all covered up for the cold weather!

Fall Gardeners

The fall garden season has gotten off to a great start!

Here are some shots of Ms. Tabaracci's 4th grade class planting their colorful garden plot.

Mrs. Petisca's first graders are enjoying weekly visits to the garden to tend and taste...

...and get in touch with the Earth!

Sunflower Guessing Game - Results are in!

Congratulations to

Giulia

from Ms. Kruse’s class…

…for her winning guess of 1,231 seeds in the sunflower guessing game at the Family Picnic in the Garden!

The giant sunflower had 1,331 seeds.

Giulia received a copy of 

‘Yucky Worms’ by Vivian French!

Photos from the Family Picnic in the Garden!

 Thanks to all the families that came out to the Family Picnic in the Garden on October 10!

 The weather held out for us, and lots of families turned out.

We enjoyed hot cider,

 and visiting with friends, old and new.

 One teacher brought his baby, who seemed not to notice all the attention he got.  

Here, he "meets" Principal Noonan!

 Sadie and Hadley entertained us with some great fiddle music.

 And they were joined by some other talented musicians, too.

 How to make s'mores for a crowd?  They figured it out!

 A happy Josie gets a s'more from Mrs. Noonan.

How many seeds are in this giant sunflower head?  Lots of students took guesses, ranging from 25 to 3 million!

Stay tuned for the winner...

Family Garden Days

Our after-school garden sessions are lots of fun!

Thank you to all the families who turned out for work and play at our last session, and mark your calendars for next time:
Monday, October 28 from 3:30 to 5:00. 
There will be some building projects, including building 2 new raised beds!  Stop by for any amount of time.

Here, our friend Lucia is running by, delivering an earthworm to her class plot during our last after-school garden session.  Lucia and other friends discovered an abundance of worms in the compost donated by Falmouth Academy, and busied themselves with relocating them to their own plots.  They know worms are good for gardens!  You may have also seen Lucia and her little brother Miguel in the Falmouth Enterprise, working on this kid-invented worm relocation project.

Fall Family Picnic on Thursday, 10/10!

Online Inspiration

Life Lab: Bringing Learning to Life in the Garden:

http://www.lifelab.org/ 

This website is a treasure trove of information and resources for garden-based education - check it out!

Fairy Houses in the garden!

This week the 1st graders are creating fairy houses in the school garden. 

Come and see!



They won't last long.

Magic never does.... 

A huge thank you to the dedicated volunteers who cared for our school garden over the summer!

It was hot and dry this August, in particular, so the watering for our perennial plantings, annual sunflowers and Three Sisters plantings was invaluable.

If you have stopped by the garden this fall, you may wonder what is growing in the raised beds - it is buckwheat, a summer 'cover crop', planted at a Family Garden Day in early summer to control weeds and provide material for composting.  Classes may experiment this fall with harvesting seeds for next year's crop.

An exciting season is ahead - fall greens will be donated by Coonamessett Farm later this month to allow all of our students the opportunity to plant and harvest fresh salad greens in their class plots.  Last fall, classes enjoyed tasting their crops in the garden, having salad parties, and even sharing with the Falmouth Service Center.  Classes may also find curriculum connections to explore in the garden, from observing weather conditions, recording and graphing temperature, to connecting with local history, to name a few! 

We urge those interested in getting involved in the garden in ANY way you can imagine, to reach out and let us know!  It is a magical place!

Hope to see you there - this Friday!

Helping Hands Day 2013

Many thanks to the kindergarteners from Mrs. Scheer / Ms. Knox's class!

Helping Hands Day was an amazing start for the new 5 Senses Garden, designed to enhance kindergarten curriculum and to create a beautiful entrance to the school garden. Our hard-working crew planted, watered and moved soil and should feel very proud of all they accomplished. 

A huge than you, too, to Ms. Goguen for her help with design, plant selection and for plant donations from her own garden, to Clipper Landscape for preparing the ground for planting, and to the volunteers who pitched in and helped make Helping Hands Day a real success in our school garden.

Our Three Sisters

Massachusetts 3rd graders study this native american agricultural technique in Social Studies. The Three Sisters are a combination of corn, beans and squash that grow nicely together, each offering something to help out the others. The beans grow up the corn stalk and the squash provides ground cover to hold back weeds. This year Mullen-Hall 3rd graders are doing more than reading about the Three Sisters; they are planting them in their school garden as well. 

Yesterday and today all five 3rd grade classes made it out to the garden to start planting the corn.  With the help of our wonderful Gardens Alive volunteers, 36 popcorn seeds went into the soil. 

In another couple of weeks, when the corn is a few inches high, the students will come back to plant the beans and squash. Third grade families will help water and care for the plantings over the summer and these same students, as fourth graders, will harvest and save the seeds for the next round of plantings. It's a way for them to experience the whole cycle of the plant. 

While the corn planters were busy, other gardeners worked on moving 7 yards of fresh loam into the newly constructed perennial strawberry beds. 

It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it, right?

Next Garden Work Day on Wednesday, April 17!

 Hope you can join us on Wednesday, April 17 (school vacation week) at 2:00 for our next work day. 

Kids, bring a snack, meet up at the gathering circle in the Bird & Butterfly Garden for a little story time, and then we'll get to work on the latest garden tasks!

On our last work day, Josh worked with some great helpers to cut and bend hoops for the raised beds.  When covered with spun polyester (also known as Remay), the hoops provide some extra protection for those germinating seeds.

Here are some photo highlights:

 Ian cutting metal conduit for the hoops.

 Bending a hoop in the homemade jig.

 Lots of hoops to cut!

The Brienza girls are great hoop benders.

Thanks everyone, and maybe we'll see you next time!