Fall is here!

Hello garden fans!

Thank goodness for our lovely fall weather that has finally arrived.  Not only are we enjoying this cooler weather but the plants are as well.  Many of the plants we have growing will enjoy the cooler temperatures of the soil, but also the warm days that we will still have for a month or so.  As you can see in these pictures our tomatoes are doing great and we have a few varieties growing, I bet those big ones will be tasty!  We also planted some small cucumber, cauliflower and lettuce plants, and all of the bean transplants have been doing great as well!

Right now is a great time to look at the different colors in our environment as the leaves begin to change and the fall flowers bloom!

If you look closely you will see some small beans and flowers growing along the fence on the bean plants.

I will be in the garden tomorrow from 9:15 to 11 and I hope to see some of you there!

Beautiful croton, zinnia and vinca.

Time to make some herb rubs!

The cucumber plants are already sprouting new leaves!

The third grade bean plants are flowering and fruiting!

Beans and basil, yum!

These will be yummy soon!

Can you see the little ones in the back?

Our fig tree is growing quickly!

Beans, cucumber and lettuce.

Happy tomato plants!

Lovely colors!

Pretty enough to make you smile!

Rain rain don't go away!

The third grade bean plants!

Our bean plant from seed it doing well!

Can you see our new fig sprouts!

Tomatoes ready for picking!

These ones will be ready next!

The plants are huge!

These big ones will be a treat!

The peach tree and lantana are looking peachy!!

Our vinca and croton are loving this weather!

I already had to pick some of our basil before it flowered!

Our first tomato harvest!

Hello garden friends!

Sorry I did not keep you updated last week, I was a bit under the weather!  Even though it is a bit cloudy and rainy outside our garden is loving all this rain and cooler temperatures.

The fun fact of the week that I learned as I was listening to a story about Monarch butterflies on the radio, is that they like to eat poisonous plants!  This way the butterfly eats the poison and when a predator like a bird tries to eat it, they stop because they do not like the taste, if a bird eats a butterfly it could possibly die from all the poison the butterfly carries inside its body!

http://www.kidsbutterfly.org/faq/general/5  you can find more information about butterflies at this website.

Today was a great day for harvesting tomatoes, I picked about 7 of them and there are many more to come as you can see in the pictures.  Also one of our third grade classes went out and planted their young bean plants which are looking very happy in their new home.  Unfortunately it looks like our seed plantings have not done that well, perhaps the seed was not very good and they have also been eaten by some garden critters.  Since our transplanted baby plants seem to be thriving I am going to be in the garden this Friday to plant some cucumbers, broccoli, lettuce and other fall vegetable plants.

With cooler temperatures on the way we can start planning how to build a "cold frame" to protect our plants from a possible frost, this will be a great math and science project!

Teachers, below you can see sample ideas for using the garden as part of your lesson plan and as we get the garden more developed I can work with teachers on formulating specific curriculum.  If anyone would like to contact me I would be happy to talk over how I can help make the garden part of your classroom.

nuzha13@hotmail.com

I will be in the garden this Friday at 9:15 to 11, I hope to see you there!  Please email me if you have any questions!

English	Reading & writing seasonal stories and poems Making a gardening scrap book Producing a school garden newsletter
Mathematics	Counting seeds, plants, flowers per plant etc Using fractions & percentages i.e. Number of seeds that germinate Measuring plant heights Collecting rainfall measurements
Science	Investigating what plants need in order to grow Observing the life cycle of a plant Watching and recording changes in the garden through the seasons Creating habitats for wildlife and watching the results Making weather observations through the seasons
Geography	Studying the water cycle Making scale drawings and maps of the garden
Information & Communication Technology	Inputting data into the computer to produce graphs and charts Investigating topics on the internet Uploading gardening news onto the schools website
PSHE & Citizenship	Carry out sustainable activities i.e. rainwater collection, composting, recycling Develop community involvement in the gardening activity Carry out activities in teams with individuals having specific roles
Food Technology	Harvesting food and learning how to cook it Discovering which foods can be eaten raw - peas from the pod etc
Art & Design	Making collages using natural materials Taking inspiration from the outdoors for drawing & painting projects Creating posters to publicise the garden for fundraising Photographing the gardening year
Physical Education	Getting exercise in the great outdoors Learning about fruit and vegetables and healthy eating
History	Study of plants and their uses historically for eating, medicine, making dyes etc Studies of gardening through history, i.e. dig for victory campaign

Nothing like a fresh rain!

Hello garden friends!

Well if you were lucky you also received some rain in your part of town today, certainly our garden did!  This is a great thing because not only does it give our thirsty plants some water, but it is also considered to be "soft" water.  Rain water has not been treated with the chemicals that are used to clean our drinking water, therefore it has a lower pH and can be easily absorbed by the plants.  We hope to install a rain collection bin in the future and that way we can have a sustainable source of water as well as hands on way to teach students about the acidity and alkalinity of water.

Sooo, lots to see in the garden today, we have our first ripened tomato, with many more to follow and all of our other sprouts are growing and looking well.  It does look like a few of our lettuce leaves have been munched upon as well as one of our baby figs, but all in all things look great!  Check out our pictures to see the progress and for extra fun scroll back to the first pictures and see how much has changed already!

This past weekend my daughter and I were able to visit Washington DC and spend some time at the National Botanical Garden, they have a whole garden dedicated to medicinal plants as well as some vegetables, check out the pictures of the big tomatoes and papaya tree and the information on fruits and their medicinal properties.  There was also this really cool house for kids that had a roof made out of plants!

Also thanks to the team at Reynolds Elementary for a great open house tonight, we are excited for a great year to come.

I will be in the garden tomorrow from 9:15 to 10:45 along with Mrs. Swanson our guest reader so we welcome anyone who is interested to please stop by!

This house had the coolest roof!

Juicy tomatoes at the National Botanical Garden in Washington DC

Information about plants and fruit and their health benefits at the National  Botanical Garden in Washington DC

Look at that papaya! National Botanical Garden in Washington DC

Our rain dropped first ripe tomato!

Our bean plant is on the fast track now!

More bean plants!

Starting to look like lettuce!

Can you tell this is rainbow chard?

These will be yummy carrots in no time!

I say it is almost time to make a pizza with our fresh herbs!?

The lantana and the peach tree are looking peachy! get it!!

Even our fall crotons were happy about the rain today.

Wednesday is garden update day!

Hey there fans of the Reynolds Elementary Garden!

So on this weeks "check up" of the garden there were many exciting new findings.  First, as I walked over to the peach tree I was greeted by a lovely butterfly.  I was happy to see that the lantana and the peach tree that we planted were all doing great.  However, we do have some grass growing into the bed that we will have to combat!  Then I checked on the sprouts and saw a furry little caterpillar hanging around, hopefully we will complete his chrysalis without munching on too many sprouts!  Then as I checked in on our tomatoes, I was happy to see that we have more growing and the ones that were already there are getting bigger every day.  As I was inspecting for new tomatoes I found a huge "tomato horn worm" he was an ugly bugger and was happily munching away on our plant, I did leave him there so that the kids can check him out and understand the difference between "harmful" and "helpful" insects...  That being said I think I will show them as soon as possible so he does not eat all our plants!

Our learning lesson thus far has been that some of our seed was not very good, as you will see in the pictures we have two beds that have almost no sprouts at all.  So, Plants for All Seasons, one of our garden donors, generously gave us more seed which Ms. Neskori will plant with her fifth grade students this Friday.

Our herb garden is lovely its bathtub home and seems to have really enjoyed the rain we received over the past few days.

Also be sure to come for a "book in the garden" this Friday from 9:15 to 10:45.

Enjoy the pictures and will check back in

Our resident butterfly

Hopefully this is NOT the very hungry caterpillar!

Our first enemy, the Tomato Horn Worm!

Can you see the baby tomato?

Here are our lettuce sprouts, I think!

I believe this is a bean sprout!

Our seeds that never sprouted, you garden and learn!

more sprouts!

the three amigos!

A pizza waiting to happen!

next Wednesday!

Week 1, the seeds are sprouting!

So it has been one week since we put our little seeds in the ground and now it is time to watch them grow!  It has been very hot this past week so making sure they get a good drink every day has been high on the list of things to do.  So far I have seen a few carrot, lettuce and chard sprouts come up as well as a few baby tomatoes that are starting to grow!  See if you can find the tomatoes in the pictures!

Some chard and carrot sprouts are popping up!

Here are some more sprouts, who knows what might pop up!?

Yummy lettuce sprouts on their way!

Soon this will become a green pepper, yum!

Can you find the baby tomatoes?