Planting Our Strawberries

Thursday October 22nd, Ginger and George from Clemson Extension brought us strawberries to plant. George explained to our Youth Advisory Council/ 4 H group (consisting of 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders) how to plant up to the crown of the plant. Then they assisted this group plant the strawberries into our bed. The children enjoyed learning about the crown of the strawberry plant and how it acted like the lungs of the plant. Since it needs air and light, they were instructed to plant to the crown only. The bed was planted in a grafting pattern. Math and science lessons were intermingled with the fun. Pictures included.

Preparing the Strawberry Bed

Clemson Extension will be delivering strawberry plants to our school. We had the district office construct us another bed. This one is 8x8 and we are again using the plastic surround to have a raised bed. Mrs. Wetmore's third grade class mixed the top soil and the mushroom compost together to fill our strawberry bed. I have enclosed pictures of these students working so diligently to prepare this bed.

Fall

Now that some wonderful parents have cleaned and tilled our garden, we will place a layer of annual rye grass over it to keep the weeds out until we are ready to plant our spring crops.

With some of our grant money, we have purchased our own tiller, green house, and benches for the children to write in their journals. When the district maintenance personnel put together our greenhouse, we will dig up our banana tree and place it in the greenhouse for the winter. We will also store some of our herbs in the greenhouse for the winter as well as use it to start our seedlings for the spring garden.

Start of a New Year

I have learned a very important lesson! Do not leave at the end of the school year without removing the leftovers from your garden, tilling it, and then covering with some sort of mulch. Otherwise you come back to school with 5 feet tall weeds!!!!

My husband and I tried to clean it up with our tiller but the weeds kept clogging it. We used the weed eater and that helped. Needless to say the ground is hard as a rock. This was a very unpleasant lesson!!

End of First Year Pictures

FINAL HARVEST OF OUR SPRING GARDEN

We were so pleased with the success of our first garden. The children in all six grade levels were so excited with their results. They eagerly picked the vegetables, brought them to the health room sink and rinsed them, and then took them to the cafeteria to be prepared.

The children ate fresh squash, zucchini, carrots, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, and radishes. It was interesting to see how they liked the taste as well as how they liked it cooked. Around 75% of the students really didn't care for the radishes. I don't think we will grow them this year. They thought they were too peppery tasting. They loved the carrots, zucchini, and squash both cooked and raw. They really liked eating the zucchini raw as a snack. They loved the salads with the red, and green lettuce and spinach. They perferred the cabbage boiled rather than raw in cole slaw. I found that amazing. So many of the children had never had zucchini, squash, and especially never tried cooked cabbage. They were so amazed they liked it. I don't think they would have been as willing to try them if they had not grown them.

The last couple of days of school, we had so many vegetables that we were able to send a large basket full to our local children's shelter. The children couldn't wait to share the fact with the shelter personnel that they had grown them

Early Results

Today for the very first time, the lunchroom had more salads ordered by the children than cheeseburgers. This is the first week that the children's vegetables from the garden have been put in our salads. There were 38 salads ordered instead of the usual 15-20. Way to go kids!!!

RADISHES

We have radishes. Some of the second graders harvested their radishes this morning. This is the first crop we have had come in, so far. See pictures enclosed.

We are Growing

Upon returning from Spring Break on April 6th, I was appalled at the condition of the garden. We had so much rain and with the poor soil we initially started with, the soil had become hard as a rock. Many hours spent hoeing and mixing in mushroom compost has helped. A good many plants were lost. I replaced those plants without the children's knowledge. They are so proud of their plants! Each class is helping with the hoeing and weeding. I have included some pictures.

Two 3 foot rain barrels were donated by a local company. I am learning how to adapt them into real rain barrels from the Green Steps site.

Our Master Gardener, Judy Camp had a friend who donated 100.00 to go toward our garden project. We are very grateful for all the community support.

I spent some time this morning talking with Ginger Bowen at Clemson Extension. We have a meeting in May to discuss getting a head start for our garden in the fall. We are definitely planning on doing strawberries, in addition to some vegetables. She will help us develop a garden journal for each child in our school to use to document growth, rainfall, temperature, etc, including stories they wish to write.

Planting our Garden

The week of March 23rd, we are finally planting. The children are so excited. The first to plant were the 2nd grade. They have the radishes. These plants were a good 2 inches tall when placed in the ground. A good 48 plants were planted.

The next to plant were the Kindergarten classes. They have the squash. Their plants look so healthy and are at least 2 inches tall.

Fourth grade has had poor success with their lettuces. They planted 4 different types into their milk cartons. They shot up quickly but over the last couple of weeks have really wilted. We have planted what few we could salvage but it doesn't look good. We have a few seeds left over so we will plant those also. I think we have learned that with lettuce we need to plant the seeds directly into the garden. Fortunately we have some cabbages so we will plant those in the rest of the lettuce space.

Fifth grade has planted their spinach and that is also looking good.

First grade, zucchini and third grade, carrots also plant this week.

Fertilizing our Garden

The weekend of March 6th, my sweet husband agreed to come to the school and til our garden. After tilling and removing a large number of rocks and clay, we put 3 bags of lime into the garden and then tilled that in also.

On Friday, March 13th, I put 2 bags of Purlite and with the help of a group of 5th graders, spread 400 pounds of top soil to further inhance the soil.

With watering, the soil is starting to look a little more fertile. The weekend of March 20th, my sweet husband agreed to til again. A 40 pound bag of 12-12-12, 2-36 pound bags of Milorganite used as a fertilizer and to prevent deer and rabbit intrusions, and a bag of soil conditioner were further tilled into the garden.

We were very fortunate, that our local Garden and Farm Supply Company agreed to donate some of the above. With our red clay type soil, I hope this has been enough fertilizer.

Herb Garden

I have received some interest regarding our Herb Garden. When we started our Youth Advisory Committee on Nutrition, I decided to incorporate herbs into the lesson plans. I watched several television specials on herbs, bought numerous books, and tried to learn as much about them as I could. The last two years, at each of our monthly meetings, we would discuss a different herb, its nutritional value, its medicinal value, and what foods we could incorporate them in. We started growing them in pots in the healthroom and then gave them to the children at the end of the school year.

Last year, our Green Team planted some for us in one of our little garden areas. They have done well outside even during the winter until our 5 inches of snow this month. One of our YAC children, Allison Dunlap, comes one day each week at 7:15 A.M. and helps cut the fresh herbs and takes them to the cafeteria. They are then incorporated in the lunch menu each week. On our morning television show, the herb of the month is discussed.

We have recently replenished the herb garden with some new plants and seeds since the snow. I have included some pictures.

We've Sprouted!!!

After 5 days in our recycled milk cartons . We have sprouted. The children are so excited!!!

Community Input

On February 27th, we had a School Improvement Council meeting. This meeting consisted of numerous parents, teachers, myself, principal, a master-gardener, and two guests from Roebuck Greenhouses and Carolina Farm Supply.


The "Eat Smart, It's in the Garden grant and the "All-Health Team" grant were explained. Then all of us went outside to the garden site. Input was given from numerous parents re: landscaping and donations. Our two guests walked off the garden and gave recommendations regarding preparing the soil for planting. Our master-gardener helped measure off the areas for the different vegetables allowing for children to walk between the rows.

We are excited about all the good advice from these excellent resources.

Healthy Harversters Planting Their Seeds

On February 19th and 20th, the children saved their milk cartons and the cafeteria staff and teachers washed over 400 of these cartons. They were placed in each of the classrooms to dry. I purchased two bags of 2.8 cubic feet of Fafard Super-fine Germanating Soil and the children filled their milk cartons and planted their seeds in them this week. They are keeping up with the date they planted the seeds and will document how often they water, when the seeds break the surface of the dirt, and how much growth before we plant outside, the end of March. They will also document how many seeds matured. All the children are very excited about the garden and can't wait to plant outside. I will enclose pictures of the children planting their seeds.

I am so fortunate that this faculty is so enthusiastic. They have supported this project 150% and are constantly providing me with great resources and ideas. I think we all feel that with the economy and the world in the shape it is, that teaching these children how to grow their own healthy foods and how to recycle will make a huge impact in their world and in their health.

I have never done a blog before and am not very computer smart. I have not been able to figure out how to post the letters that I have sent home to the parents. At this point I am afraid you will have to just see the pictures.

Healthy Harvesters Recycling

Thursday, February 19th, 2009.

We are sending a letter home to all our parents tomorrow re: the garden. I will enclose the letter. Each grade level has chosen a vegetable to grow. Kindergarten will grow squash, first zucchini, second radishes, third carrots, fourth lettuce, and fifth spinach. On Monday the students will bring in their seeds. We will recycle our milk cartons from the cafeteria. These will be used for the students to plant their seedlings. The students will watch their seedlings grow in their classrooms and document their growth until time to plant.