Lets get planning and planting!

Good morning gardeners!

Now that we have the first week or so of school behind us and we are all getting back into a good routine, we need to think about what comes next!?  We are approaching the optimal time to plant a number of different fruits and vegetables and will be discussing what would be best and most fun to plant this Friday the 17th in the garden.

I had the good fortune this past week to visit a school in the HISD, Kolter Elementary, which has a wonderful garden.  I spoke with their garden coordinator and she gave me lots of sage advice regarding the garden.  I am very excited that we are growing our garden community and I truly believe that we have just begun exploring the learning potential of our outdoor classroom!

This semester our goal will be to continue meeting with students in the garden for some hands on gardening, observation and predictions, as well as more "garden to kitchen" adventures.  Many of you worked with myself and Mr. Ferriante on our pizza and green smoothies as well as the 2nd grade vegetable soup.  Lets get creative and enjoy more time learning and understanding about the science, environment, math, vocabulary and fun that are all a part of growing, harvesting, preparing and enjoying our food!

Currently we have lots of cauliflower and broccoli growing as well as some lettuce.  If anyone has ideas regarding what to plant, lesson plans, or better times to meet in the garden please let me know. 

I hope to see you this Friday, tomorrow the 17th in the garden!

Here are a few pictures of our cauliflower, lettuce and broccoli as well as the garden at Kolter Elementary.

Also here is a link to one of the great activities that Kolter was able to participate in.  Our goal is to participate in the Grogans Mill Farmers Market later this spring!

http://blogs.houstonisd.org/news/2013/11/20/students-to-sell-school-grown-produce-at-whole-kids-farmers-market/

Maryah
nuzha13@hotmail.com

Our cauliflower is getting bigger!

Happy New Year!

Happy new year Reynolds elementary gardeners!

I hope that you all enjoyed the break!  Certainly the garden enjoyed all the cool weather we have had over the past month.  Even though it is sad to lose many of our mild weather plants, the reality is that their productive cycle was over and we enjoyed many of their fruits.  The tomatoes, green beans, and peppers have been pulled up and added to the compost.  We are making room for new plant varieties for the spring, believe it or not we need to start our plants next month! 

Right now our cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, beets, and lettuce are all still doing very well and I believe we will have some tasty vegetables to cook up soon!

Teachers, please take the kids out to see how the cauliflower and broccoli are slowly growing into large heads in the middle of the leaves, you can take measurements each week and calculate how much they grow each week.

Also, for those classes that would be interested in participating in growing seedlings in their classroom which we will then transplant into the garden, please let me know.  This form of growing has great success and can be a fun hands on project inside the classroom!

I will be in the garden this Friday at 9:45 for anyone who would like to come out and see what we have going on and discuss plans for the spring!

Please email me if you have any questions.

Happy January!

Maryah