Mark your calendars! We're planning a volunteer day on Saturday, April 12 from 8:30 til 11:30 so that parents and community members can visit the Nature Center and Garden, and help out with things the children cannot do. Bring your gloves and some sunscreen! I'll look forward to meeting you all and giving you a tour of this wonderful space.
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Where did March go?! It seems as though we just filled up the first of the raised beds, but here it is, time to harvest the first radishes already. They are one of the easiest things to grow in a school garden because they are ready in just about 30 days.
Mr. Zawacki was using some of the plants that were left from last fall's planting for his labs, but now he is finished, so out they came! Our Garden Club, some of the classes, and my recess volunteers cleared out the rest of the raised beds and filled them with the amendments donated by Kellogg Garden Products - all OMRI rated. The Garden Club learns more detailed things about plants and the environment. We looked at a PowerPoint slide show that illustrated how important the conservation of water is, and what makes up healthy soil. For instance, in a teaspoon of "good" soil, there should be:
We have already planted two kinds of radishes, three lettuces, a spinach, three kinds of carrots - including a purple one and a round one, turnips, beets, Italian broad beans and peas. Next week it will be time to start the summer vegetables and fruits - pumpkin, tomato, watermelon and peppers. We purchased the first of three new fruit trees, courtesy of our friends at Armstrongs Garden Centers, Grow Strong school garden program. We have a dwarf Necta Zee Nectarine and Honey Babe Peach and a semi-dwarf Snow Queen Nectarine. There are many new plants in the Nature Center as well. If you think of California Native Plants as dry looking and brown, please come visit! There is a huge range of size, texture and color, many with beautiful flowers, among our Native Plants. There are many, many happy birds living there now - along with butterflies, bees, wasps, lizards, beetles and bugs. It is full of busy creatures doing their jobs. I love hearing all the sounds they make, from the rustling of the leaves as the lizards pass by, to the bird song and bee buzzing. |
Kathleen IrvineCertified Horticulturist, Artist, Teacher Categories
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