|  | Current School Initiatives Community Garden | Distinguished Speakers 2011-12 | |
Potato Harvest September 2011
In September, the 4th grade classes visited the garden to harvest their purple and gold potatoes. They harvested over 500 potatoes this year! They plan to cook some of the potatoes in Spanish class and the biggest and best have been put in storage to be planted next spring. However, the bulk of the harvest was donated to the RI Community Food Bank.
|
 | Garlic Harvest July 2011
In late July a handful of rising 4th graders, their families and Ms. Campos met at the garden to harvest the garlic they'd planted in October. While there, they also harvested beans, watered and did a great job helping pick Mexican Bean Beetles off the runner bean plants! Click on the title for more photos and please leave a comment. (Thanks to Tiffany Tapalian for the photos!)
|
 | Gardening Season 2011 Officially Begins
School Garden Opening Day on Sunday, April 17th. Hard-working volunteers finished building the fence, cleaned out winter debris and started prepping the beds for planting. Click on the title to see more photos. Many thanks to: Paul, Jimmy, Lisa, Amanda, Tim, Evie, Micah, Chris, Voz, Aiden, David, Benjamin and Delaney!
|
 | Sleeping Garden
The garden in peaceful rest under a blanket of January snow... what will the spring bring? Click on the title to see more winter photos.
|
 | Fall Planting!
While most of the work in the garden this fall has involved harvesting, a few classes have done some fall planting as well. The Third Grade came out to the farm to plant garlic and spring bulbs. They learned that garlic is a bulb too! Their day also involved creating watercolor paintings of the garden and a going on a fall nature hike. Click on the title to read more about their plans and to find out what they had for a snack while at the farm.
|
| As blog entries are added, read older posts here. | |
Community Garden Curriculum Connection Second grade students worked with Wheeler Community Garden Coordinator Kelly Foss to plant a 3 Sisters Garden, a traditional native American corn, squash, and beans garden, to connect with their social studies unit.
What is a Three Sisters Garden?
It is an ancient method of gardening using an intercropping system which grows corn, beans, and squash crops simultaneously in the same growing area that is typically a rounded mound of soil, often called a hill.
Corn is the oldest sister. She stands tall in the center. Squash is the next sister. She grows over the mound, protecting her sisters from weeds and shades the soil from the sun with her leaves, keeping it cool and moist.
Beans are the third sister. She climbs through squash and then up corn to bind all together as she reaches for the sun. Beans help keep the soil fertile by coverting the sun's energy into nitrogen filled nodules that grow on its roots. As beans grow they use the stored nitrogen as food.
definition from the Garden Web website
The pictures at the right are thank you letters that the students wrote to Kelly. Here is an excerpt from the writing:
Dear Mrs. Foss,
Thank you for letting us pick the three sisters garden. Thank you for teaching us how to peel the beans. And thank you for teaching us what red runners were. Thank you for warning us to not to step on the squash.
Your friend,
Lara |
| |
|