Back to School 2010

Sorry it has taken me so long to get up and running again. Had some technical issues. We are excited about the start of a new school year and more ways to eat healthy!

We are so excited about our new arbor that our fifth graders from last year helped purchase. A special thank you to Allison and Brad Sumerel, Kim and Brian Plexico and John Turner. They spent hours during this past July, constructing the arbor and securing in the ground. We are so grateful for our parents, teachers, and wonderful grandparent support.

Clemson extension brought us some grape vines from a vineyard in the upstate. We hope it will take root and grow along our arbor. It will be wonderful if we can grow some grapes for our students' snacks!

We have started our new Youth Advisory Council on Nutrition/4H Club this year with some old as well as new faces. Our committee consists of Keondre Shippy, Will Owings, Zach Wheeler, Alana Turner, Sage Skelton, Courtney Pack, Matthew Montgomery, Thomas Wilson, Katie Cecil, Cameron Alley, Emma Horton, Maddie West, Anna Groce, Mackenzie Morris, and Jacob Davis. Cameron Alley was elected President, Maddie West Vice President, and Courtney Pack, Secretary. This group has the awesome task of being healthy role models for their peers. They will encourage their classmates to make healthy eating choices and serve as the core group for our garden sites. I think this group will be very proactive.

On Monday, October 18th, our YAC/4 H group planted the 50 strawberry plants we received from Clemson Extension. This group calculated the diameter of the garden and further used their math skills to plot the distance between each plant to be planted. They further learned the parts of the strawberry plants and how deep to plant them. They will continue to care for the strawberry plants until spring and share their information with their classmates.

Harvesting

We are harvesting! Fourth grade has picked two rounds of their lettuce and one round of their spinach. They were so excited. We have used it in the cafeteria during lunches. They love eating what they have grown!

Our squash and zucchini should be ready to be picked within a week and our peas are also about ready. Beets are slow growing as is the broccoli. Cabbage should be ready within a week.

Our strawberry patch looks wonderful! We have harvested quite a few strawberries already. They are large and juicy and the children have loved having them for a snack. Its hard to get them to wash the dirt off before their first bite! Fortunately, going organic a little dirt won't hurt them!

Our enlarged herb garden looks wonderful and we are so pleased with the statue we have chosen. We have used so many of the herbs in the food at lunch and the teachers are enjoying adding the mint to their tea and water.

Will be meeting with representatives from the Glenn Springs Boys Home today to discuss their maintaining and harvesting the garden during the summer. We are excited to know that it will be maintained and used during the summer.

Enclosing some pictures.

GROWING GROWING GROWING

First let me say a special, heartfelt THANK YOU to the Green Team parents who worked so hard pulling rye from our garden this past weekend. I could have cried when I saw how much better it looked. Thank you also for planting our butterfly bushes. I truly regret planting the rye this past fall in the garden. It was a big mistake and one we are having to deal with on a daily basis. I realize gardening is a learning process but my mistakes have sure created a lot of extra work for us all!

On to the good news! Even with the rye our vegetables are still growing! Our cabbage looks wonderful and I believe will be as large as last year. Our garden peas are doing great and are at least 12 '' tall and flowering. I think the peas may have been a good choice. I'm not sure about our beets. The rows are not as full as I had hoped they would be. I guess we will just have to be patient and see how they do. I hope we have a good production since beets are a vegetable I would like for the children to try cooked as well as raw. Broccoli is growing slowly but is growing. I will side dress with some nitrogen to see if that helps. Lettuce and Spinach are growing extremely well. I believe fourth grade will be able to start picking their lettuce next week and the spinach won't be far behind. The zucchini and squash are also doing well.

We have planted our larger herb garden behind our strawberry bed. With the larger space we were able to include some herbs we had not planted before. We added several kinds of mint as well as fennel and more varieties of sage. We will add a brick border around this bed and I have chosen a statue of a child helping a child to place in the center.

Our strawberries are growing!! The children are so excited. We actually have some real strawberries on the plants. When the vegetables and fruit start producing then the children really get excited.

Kindergarten and First Grade Planting Their Seeds

On March 18th, 2010 our kindergarten students and first grade students planted their zucchini and their squash. They did such a great job of digging their holes and placing 2-3 seeds in each hole. We spent time discussing squash with the kindergarten students. Most said they had tried it cooked but few had tried it raw. I assured them they would get to try it both ways before the end of the school year. All of our students seem excited about planting again this year.

Continuing to Plant

Our second graders have planted all of their beet seeds. And now fourth grade has planted their lettuce that they sprouted in their recycled milk cartons and also planted their spinach seeds. Fifth grade has started planting their broccoli that they sprouted. Mrs. Camp's class also had some extra seeds so they planted the seeds next to their sprouted plants. They will be able to do a comparison chart on the seedlings versus the planted seeds.

I was very proud of some of our students who willingly picked weeds and grass out of our garden area while others were planting. Have enclosed more pictures.

Strawberry Garden

This past weekend I removed the hay from the strawberry plants. I would say approx 75% made it through the winter. I guess that is a pretty good amount for our first attempt. The children have spread calcium nitrate in the strawberry garden as suggested by Clemson extension. We will continue to spread that weekly in the amount of 1/2 cup per 50 feet until the plants begin to set fruit. Can't wait to see if we actually are able to have good ole strawberries for our school snacks!

Spring Garden of 2010

The weekend of March 6th, my husband and I tilled under the rye that I had planted in the fall. It took a couple of hours with my husband's larger tiller. On Tuesday, March 9th, Mrs. Camp our substitute teacher and master-gardener, and several boys from the after school program, worked in the garden. Mrs. Camp and I tilled using the small Mantis tiller I bought for the school with grant money. The boys spread Poconite (deer and rabbit deterent) and calcium nitrate which we were able to till in. These three young men were such a great help. They not only carried the bags, and spread the fertilizer, they were instrumental in marking off the garden for the different grade levels. They were able to use their multiplication skills with this indeaver. So I want to again give an extra thank you, to Cameron Alley, Jackson Van Herwynen, and Noah Layton. Great job, boys!

On Wednesday March 9th, our third grade classes planted their garden peas. They also planted around 9 of their Bonnie Cabbage plants. A couple of the second grade classes were able to plant their beet seeds. See pictures. I am anxious to see how the children like the beets. So many of them have never tried them. They are so healthy and provide so many vitamins and iron. I like the fact that they are good raw and also cooked.

Its Almost Planting Time

We are gearing up for our spring garden planting. We have asked the fourth graders to bring in spinach and lettuce seeds this week. We will plant the spinach seeds outside the middle of March. We will plant the lettuce seeds in milk cartons inside and then transplant outside the middle of March. We are using our milk cartons from our breakfast and lunches in the cafeteria. We will wash them and use them to grow our lettuce on our classroom window sils.

Our fifth graders will be planting broccoli. We have asked them to go ahead and start bringing in seed packets. They will plant their seeds in milk cartons also and then transplant to the garden the middle of March.

We are making a difference

Today in Mrs. Cranford's first grade class. Their lunch orders are: Choice 1: Spaghetti-3

Choice 2: Hot Dogs-0 Choice 3: Fruit and Cheese Plate-14. Way to go healthy kids!

Composting

As of January 11th, 2010, our composting is under way. A new large trash can was bought and placed in the cafeteria. The trash can is labeled with what kitchen waste products can be composted. After the students finish eating, their teachers choose one student from their class to monitor the dumping of the lunch trays. These monitors ensure only what can be composted goes into that trash can. At the end of each week, this trash can will be dumped into our outdoor composting bin and turned. We should have good fertilizer for our spring vegetable garden by planting time. At this time only a handful of classes are participating, but I believe it will become school wide soon.

The shredded newspaper over our strawberry patch has mostly disintegrated over the holidays. One third grade class in currently collecting newspapers. They will shred and place back over the strawberries this Friday. I believe we lost a few of the plants during the extreme cold but all and all they seem to be holding up.