MV Children's Garden news from Lee Budish for the week of November 26, 2007.  Welcome back! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday and are ready to get DIRTY and MUDDY in the garden. In addition, need to see it to believe it-- our multipurpose room has been transformed into an amazing, magical, winter "BOOK FAIR" wonderland for the week, hope to see you all there!  Be sure to check out all of the Gardening books that have been selected especially for our school.
 
TO DO LIST for the WEEK: TEACHER'S PLEASE, please LABEL FRONT OF YOUR BED WITH A SHARPIE. (If you delete this email by mistake, please refer back to our very cool WEB Site, Edna Maguire.org.)  
 
Note: this time of year the younger kids may have a 5-10 minute attention span in the garden. You will hear "it's cold, I'm freezing" etc. (It's not you!) What I do in some of my afternoon classes is I bring a jug of hot chocolate made with non-fat milk as a "treat." If you think about it from  a kid's perspective, "I am 7 years old, it's almost December and  most of the country is at freezing temperature and I am working and having fun in my school garden with my friends and I get to have hot cocoa,too...." Can it get any better?
 
1. Weeds are on the attack. The wet weather brings lots of weeds and we need to keep them under control or it will be more difficult later on. Pull weeds in the apple orchard, near the citrus trees, in the front K area. You can have the kids team up and have a contest to see who can make the biggest pile. IF IN DOUBT DO NOT PULL IT UP; DO SO ONLY IF YOU ARE 100% SURE.  

2. Amend garden bed, if you have not yet planted with ORGANIC SOIL NEAR ARTICHOKES. Mix in, but be careful not to damage irrigation.

3. Teachers have seeds for beds: fava beans, buckwheat and winter peas for nitrogen, which can be later composted back into the bed and other places. Please send me email when you have planted or if you need help. Remember to cover seeds with bird netting which is to the right of the green house along the fence side. I know it is tangled, but do your best.  IF THE SEEDS ARE NOT COVERED THEY WILL NOT SURVIVE THE CROWS.

4. In the KG area, you will see farm animals made of terracotta. We need to weed that area and then amend with soil. Please take soil from the new pile near the artichokes; have the kids fill wheelbarrows maybe 4.   

5. We need to harvest the THOUSANDS OF nasturtium seeds on the perimeter of the pumpkin patch. Store in a paper bag and return to me. They look like little pebbles. Turn this into a math lesson: grouping, etc. There are plenty of seeds; have a contest to see who can gather the most.... do teams....

 6. Get the kids in the pumpkin patch with shovels and start turning the composted pumpkin soup. Turn every week and we will watch it compost. Document the stages of composting. What do they see? What do they smell?

 7. We need to move the debris and wood chips away from the apple and pear trees. Okay to move chips to the pathways in between. Use small rakes and supervise the children so they do not hit the bark of the tree with the rake as they move wood chips away. We need to keep the area surrounding the trees sanitary to keep the cuddle moth larvae from hatching.

8. Behind the garden gate on the back side are wood chips. Kids can move wood chips to cover the pathway behind the garden beds and between the citrus trees to keep those weeds in check. Need lots of chips as the rains are coming, and so are the weeds, MAKE A THICK COVER.   

9. Keep searching for those snails and slugs in dark places. They are there!  

Produce: The bok choy is ready in the first bed as soon as you walk in. Please have the kids pick and eat....so sweet.   

Garden News
We are preparing for winter, so now it's basically sleep "dormant" time and clean up time. After the winter break, we will start pruning, deadheading, and preparing for Spring. We want to create a geological garden under the persimmons tree, where things have a hard time growing and tie it back into the geology curriculum. If you have any funky rocks at home, we would love to have them. Also, if you are cleaning out your garages and have sea shells or fake fish for our succulent underwater garden, that would be great as well. Also, for rainy days, do we have any volunteer hobby/woodshop folks or grandparents, neighbors? Thinking it would be fun to have the kids make some signs for the garden and waterproof. i.e carrots, peas, lettuce planted etc. Need someone to donate scraps of wood and make so the kids can paint? Sample: Also, need paperbags for selling persimmons in the next week or two, please bring to office. Thanks!
 
Fun Stuff
Also, each class has a camera. Perhaps you may want to document the seasons with the kids in a photo journal? After you document the seasons, you can do a year end slide show. MAYBE A VIDEO, TOO????? Map out parts of the garden. Have kids count and draw apple orchard, can they tell which tree is pear or apple? Just get out that tape measure and ruler. LOOKING FOR ONE PARENT TO TAKE ALL THE MAPPING INFORMATION FROM ALL CLASSES TO DRAW A REAL MAP OF THE GARDEN, NO DEADLINE. IT GETS DONE WHENEVER.

Rainy Day Fun
Download Vivaldi's Four Seasons and have the kids pretend they are plants and have them guess which season they are  listening to.

Thank you all so very much! Please feel free to call me on my cell 342-1870. MOST IMPORTANT THING IS TO HAVE FUN and keep warm!

Posted by Linda Dunne on November 25