Hooray! Thank you for creating this space, Angela! I am excited to hear of successes and ideas from fellow school garden enthusiasts. Here is what is happening at OMS: We are doing a small, raised bed garden at with four 8x3 beds. Kids will work in 4 teams of 4-5 students per team to plant, tend and harvest each bed. I am starting small since this is our first year, and the kids will be planting very short-season crops because I want them to be able to eat what they sow. (Of course, they all immediately wanted to plant corn.) Kids will be able to choose their veggies from brassicas, radishes, lettuce, peas, - I even found a couple of 55-60 day tomatoes and cukes for them. I really want this to be the KIDS' garden, not mine, so I am trying to give them as much choice as possible. In addition to planting, I want kids to learn to do soil profiles, composting and NPK-pH testing. I offered this as my "Enrichment" class during our Guided Study period and have 22 students.
That sounds very similar to what we are trying to do at Foothills. Do you have a soil testing kit? Do you need any more seeds? We still have some peas, carrots, onions, and lots of flower seeds (marigold, sunflowers). Let me know if you'd like any of them. jqazi@nwi.net
I was going to have the kids use those cheap color-change kits that you can get at Home Depot. I would like to get a more accurate testing kit - do you have one of those? If so, I would love to borrow it if possible. I could also use some more pea seeds. Thanks, Joan. Home Depot was so generous - they gave us 4, $25 coupons to use with our wood purchase saving us 50%! Their foundation requires that they donate a certain amount each year to schools and communities, so I HIGHLY recommend Home Depot for all your building & equipment needs. Also, Penny Creek Quarry donated all of our topsoil - 4 cu yds so I also recommend talking with them for your soil needs. I have just been amazed at how generous businesses have been with this project!
Yum - sugar snaps! You could send them to me in the school pony-mail via Foothills - that seems easiest. I am happy to say that after two loooong days on Friday and Saturday, OMS now has a four small but beautiful raised beds. We have some starts of tomatoes, lemon cukes and chinese cabbage going indoors, and look forward to planting seeds next week (after WASL!). I will try to get some pictures up soon.
OK, I will ask Jake Carvitto (science @FMS) to send the seeds via school pony-mail. Would it be alright to have Oly Mingo (Howell at the Moon Productions) film your new raised beds or even better when you do some planting of seeds after WASL? If so, any students will need to fill in the photo release form on the District Website for 6-12. If you let me know, I can tell Oly when to come or not...
The seeds arrived in perfect timing - the kids were hilarious - it was like Christmas morning! Thank you so much! We would love to have our seeding filmed! We will be seeding and transplanting some next week - hopefully Tuesday - Wednesday. The OMS garden is a 'class' during the school day and we meet Tuesday-Friday for 30 minutes between 9:40-10:10. Feel free to have Oly call me to schedule a time.
Sunnyslope Elementary School Garden Clean Up Oct 26-30, 2009.
Workshops for 2010
August 14-18
Quillisascut School Garden workshop for school teachers, administrators, parents, or volunteers who are wanting to start a school garden or evolve their present garden: We will explore how planting a garden can feed us healthy foods as well as save the Earth, how composting closes the loop in our farm to table cycle, and how we can learn from 'Natures Operating System' and the simple joy of putting ourselves back in the garden circle. Please visit http://quillisascut.com/farm-school/school-gardens/
Grants
2010 Subaru Healthy Sprouts Awards
To be eligible for the 2010 Healthy Sprouts Awards, your school or organization must plan to garden in 2011 with at least 15 children between the ages of 3 and 18. The selection of winners is based on the demonstrated relationship between the garden program and education related to environmental, nutrition and hunger issues in the United States. 30 organizations or schools will be awarded the following:
a $500 gift certificate to the Gardening with Kids catalog and online store for basic youth gardening supplies and supporting educational materials
NGA's Eat a Rainbow Kit, chock full of engaging taste education and nutrition lessons
a literature package from NGA
Submission process: Applications are due by October 1, 2010.
Annie's (natural foods company) offers a limited number of small grants to community gardens, school gardens, and other educational programs that connect children directly to gardening. These funds can be used to buy gardening tools, seeds or other needed supplies. Please visit: http://www.annies.com/grants_for_gardens
Resources
NCW School Garden Resource Guide: Patience...it takes a bit to download!
Please contact ncwschoolgardens@gmail.com for any questions regarding the individual school gardens. Your email will be forwarded to the appropriate individual.
Hooray! Thank you for creating this space, Angela! I am excited to hear of successes and ideas from fellow school garden enthusiasts. Here is what is happening at OMS: We are doing a small, raised bed garden at with four 8x3 beds. Kids will work in 4 teams of 4-5 students per team to plant, tend and harvest each bed. I am starting small since this is our first year, and the kids will be planting very short-season crops because I want them to be able to eat what they sow. (Of course, they all immediately wanted to plant corn.) Kids will be able to choose their veggies from brassicas, radishes, lettuce, peas, - I even found a couple of 55-60 day tomatoes and cukes for them. I really want this to be the KIDS' garden, not mine, so I am trying to give them as much choice as possible. In addition to planting, I want kids to learn to do soil profiles, composting and NPK-pH testing. I offered this as my "Enrichment" class during our Guided Study period and have 22 students.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds very similar to what we are trying to do at Foothills. Do you have a soil testing kit? Do you need any more seeds? We still have some peas, carrots, onions, and lots of flower seeds (marigold, sunflowers). Let me know if you'd like any of them.
ReplyDeletejqazi@nwi.net
I was going to have the kids use those cheap color-change kits that you can get at Home Depot. I would like to get a more accurate testing kit - do you have one of those? If so, I would love to borrow it if possible. I could also use some more pea seeds. Thanks, Joan. Home Depot was so generous - they gave us 4, $25 coupons to use with our wood purchase saving us 50%! Their foundation requires that they donate a certain amount each year to schools and communities, so I HIGHLY recommend Home Depot for all your building & equipment needs. Also, Penny Creek Quarry donated all of our topsoil - 4 cu yds so I also recommend talking with them for your soil needs. I have just been amazed at how generous businesses have been with this project!
ReplyDeleteOK. I have a bag of sugar snap peas for you. How best to get them to you?
ReplyDeleteDoug Bergstrom is helping with our soil testing next week, so I'll let you know once we do it, what he's got.
Yum - sugar snaps! You could send them to me in the school pony-mail via Foothills - that seems easiest. I am happy to say that after two loooong days on Friday and Saturday, OMS now has a four small but beautiful raised beds. We have some starts of tomatoes, lemon cukes and chinese cabbage going indoors, and look forward to planting seeds next week (after WASL!). I will try to get some pictures up soon.
ReplyDeleteOK, I will ask Jake Carvitto (science @FMS) to send the seeds via school pony-mail. Would it be alright to have Oly Mingo (Howell at the Moon Productions) film your new raised beds or even better when you do some planting of seeds after WASL? If so, any students will need to fill in the photo release form on the District Website for 6-12. If you let me know, I can tell Oly when to come or not...
ReplyDeleteEmail the pictures to ncwschoolgardens@gmail.com and I can get them up. :-)
ReplyDeleteThe seeds arrived in perfect timing - the kids were hilarious - it was like Christmas morning! Thank you so much! We would love to have our seeding filmed! We will be seeding and transplanting some next week - hopefully Tuesday - Wednesday. The OMS garden is a 'class' during the school day and we meet Tuesday-Friday for 30 minutes between 9:40-10:10. Feel free to have Oly call me to schedule a time.
ReplyDelete