Royle Update

During the monday of Earth week, the Garden would like to have a planting station set up outside during recess, at which the children may make recycle newspaper pots, fill them w/ soil, and plant a vegetable seed, to sprout in shelf bins along the sunny windowsills of the cafe and southern exposure stair wells.  Anouk has undertaken creation of a garden wall display for the front hall, which will be put up prior to break friday after school, or first thing monday morning upon our return to school, post break.

The classes have all been provided with classroom planting kits, and requested seeds, so that they may proceed as their lessons and schedules allow.  Garden parents are ready to help out with this at individual teachers' request.

Thanks to Catherine Gedney for the update!

Last Child in the Woods

Tokeneke Update

Here is an update for you on the Tokeneke garden:  We were given a spreadsheet by Mary Michelson, Tokeneke principal, which details the science curriculum for each grade.  Based on this we all got together and decided the best veggie, fruit and herbs to plant.  In terms of the tie in, the first grade will grow butterflies in their classroom and they will release them in the garden near our butterfly bushes to show the change in behavior of organisms in their life cycles and they will plant marigold to protect tomatoes from bugs.  We purchased Root Vues for the kindergarten so they can see the roots of the carrots they will plant.  We have moved 2 raised beds to make way for a circular bench that the principal wanted for the children to sit on. We will plant a small dogwood -CT state tree - in the center of the benches.  We have order a Roly Pig Composter and brass sundial.   Butterfly bushes and roses will be planted on the outside of our garden.  We have one parent liasion per grade.  Vanessa and I will co-ordinate with them and their respective teachers to provide support  during their indoor growing time, materials  and  we will help to plant everything outside in the garden.  We are making wooden signs to place on a board that will show the children each day that they enter the school what is ripe, what will be served in the cafeteria from their school garden that day. The fifth graders  will paint these.  We have spoken to the lady in charge of our cafeteria and she gave us a list of veggies and herbs she would love to use. We hope to have enough basil to once again sell pesto at the Pumpkin Carnival and perhaps salsa if we have enough tomatoes (the Carnival is 2 weeks earlier this year).   We also are creating a sign for the garden and we would like to name it as well.

Written by Rebecca Bowman.

Meeting Recap

Hi Everyone-
Spring is in the air and so is garden enthusiasm!

Thanks for coming today and sharing your plans! Just wanted to recap a few things:

Everyone should be getting a soil test and amending their soil appropriately.
http://www.soiltest.uconn.edu/sampling.php

Healthy soil biology is essential to "digest" nutrients and make them available for the plants to take up.
Soil Soup is a great way to do it.
Simply gather the healthiest plants form as many different ecosystems that you can find. Soak in water with 1 tbs of molasses overnight. Remove plant material and water your soil with the "soup" which will now be full of beneficial fungi and bacteria.

Composting seems to be on everyone's list for this year. No one is composting at the moment but many have purchased or ordered composting equipment. Role plans to have the DHS shop students build a composting cage. we'll see how it goes!

FYI each school has a "Green Team" PA committee and has plans for Earth Week 2013 which will be taking place 4/22-26.

Chris Filmer of the Darien Land Trust spoke to the Holmes kids about native plants. Then then planted native plants the next day.

Cathleen is in touch with King Arthur Flour and they will be visiting Holmes some time this spring for their 50 minute bread making presentation. If anyone else would like them to visit please contact Cathleen.

I'm sure there was a lot more. Please add whatever you remember!

Heirloom Seed Exhibit

Exhibit

A Need for Seeds

Friday is the last day of The Horticultural Society’s exhibition of the Hudson Valley Seed Library’s heirloom-seed art. Peruse the collection of artist-designed seed packets. Each packet features a creative portrayal of the intersection of art and agriculture, and celebrates the practice of seed saving. The Horticultural Society of New York, 148 W. 37th St. (at Seventh Ave.); 212-757-0915 or thehort.org

Chips and other "Dried Foods"

Hi everybody,

Santa brought us a really cool  Microwave gadget this year. It's an oil free potato chip make for the microwave. It can also be used to dehydrate any veggie or fruit.
Not sure if you have microwave access at school, but it would be a really cool thing for the kids to do with their potatoes!

Free Seeds!

In my Master Gardener class through UCONN I've learned that seeds don't actually "expire" after the first year....

FYI:

The Hart Seed Company located in Wethersfield, CT has started a Donations Department to distribute our surplus seed packets from our previous season to schools like yours for just the cost of shipping and handling ($5.00 -
$14.95)  It is a newly created department and we are trying to get the word out and thought that you might be interested.

Seed is available in sets of 100 assorted packets with a retail value of over
$189 or more!

You can email me, Melissa Hart, at nicole@hartseed.com.  I hope to hear from you!  This is a great opportunity for your school!