Lee Budish's weekly garden update for the week of March 10, 2008. Happy Daylight Savings Time! More time to play outside! This Friday, March 14, at 8:30am after drop off, if you can, please come to our Spring Garden Meeting. We are planning the rest of this year and preparing for the fall. Unfortunately, my time at Edna is almost done. I have been a garden parent for 10 years and I have enjoyed every moment. When you start as a garden parent in your child's kindergarten and then take it through to graduation, it is the most rewarding experience. You get to see know these kids and you get to see them grow right in front of your eyes just like the trees! And, you get to see how they learn to respect and love the earth over 6 years time. I have been truly blessed to have been able to witness this and to volunteer in a school garden that is so beloved by the Edna community. However, we need to be realistic and plan for the future. The garden is 100% volunteer operated and funded and it really does need you! So please come and hear how you can help and how we can protect and nurture this incredible outdoor learning classroom that our school has been gifted with for the next generation of children to come. Thank you for all your wonderful support and hard work!

Thank you for clearing your beds. If you have not done so, please do this week. Please coordinate a garden time with the teachers for spring planting. I will be available most of the day Tues, Wed and Thursday to help you plant radish, lettuce and sugar peas.

1. Pull the fava beans out and have the kids break them in small pieces with shovels, by hand or scissors.

2. Toss them in the pumpkin patch. When doing so, tell the kids that the favas are high in nitrogen, a vitamin that will make pumpkins grow healthy and big and the plants' root growth improves soil structure. Show the kids the root. Growing it in your garden is like having the roots do the digging for you.

3. Gingerly move irrigation in bed, be careful.

4. Have the kids use hand shovels and dig and aerate the soil. I tell them it is like mixing a cake batter.

5. Then take soil from near the artichokes and amend bed.

6. Mix together, and smooth out.

7. Return irrigation to its place.

Good Luck and please do by Friday. I have been in the garden every day this week in and out, so feel free to contact me.

Thank you and have fun!

Leprechuan Day
Anyone want to volunteer and spray paint individual gravel with gold paint and help hide in the garden for Leprechuan Day, March 17?

New Weather Station
It is nailed to the grape arbor. Thermometer, barometer and it even measure humidity. Visit with the kids.

Greenhouse Seed Directions
We will begin to experiment with greenhouse planting. In the greenhouse there is potting soil, plastic pots and plant labels (white plastic sticks) and various seeds in a clear plastic bag. Here are directions. Feel free to contact me with questions, I will be around. Thank you garden parents! Have fun!

1. Have the children fill the small plastic pot with potting soil.

2. Add seeds from the plastic bag (whatever you wish) and cover with soil.

3. Label with a sharpie (please bring sharpie from the class because every time I bring them out they disappear immediately). Label with information so that you know that it belongs to your class. example: Rm 2, beans, 2/25 (the date) whatever you can fit on the label.

4. Moisten with water.

Some seeds will make it and some won't. Don't feel bad if they don't. If they do not germinate in about 2 weeks, we will start all over again. That is why we will mark a date.

Stay tuned for details of our big spring planting week......

Chore List

1. Weed the area surrounding the reading corner and Ms. Zimmer's garden.

2. If your garden bed is empty, please amend it with soil in the mound near the artichokes. Be careful of the irrigation.

3. Takes a couple of pages of newspaper and role in a cylinder; mark it with your class number and put in the garden somewhere. Check back on your next visit to see if you caught any bugs i.e. earwigs, snails, slugs, etc.

4. Have the kids dry off the stones in the copper fire pit in the front entrance and have them write their most favorite word on the stone and then put back. We make a word 'soup' each year. It is okay to write over the faded words, and please bring a sharpie and paper towels from the classroom. Ask them for their most favorite word in the universe and see what they come back with.

5. We need some worm food. Looking for kitchen composts. Does anyone want to bring in a blender and show the kids how to make a worm shake or a worm salad? Please no citrus.

6. A BIG HIT! Worm stuff.

Here is a fun questionnaire that works really well with a buddy class or by itself. Make a copy and have the kids find a worm in the bin to fill out the form. Worm books in the library.

7. Pull weeds near citrus trees. If it doubt on what it is, do not pull, only if you are 100% sure.

8. In the K 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. K area needs massive weed pulling. We need to clear out and create a sensory garden there.

9. I have three tree companies on notice so we should see more wood chips this week--still no luck. We need to place on pathway between garden beds and citrus to keep those weeds down. And we need to dump in the area outside the greenhouse.

10. The weeds near the apple tree nearest the shed are out of CONTROL. Please tackle.

11. Keep searching for those snails and slugs in dark places. Promise: They are there!

12. Map the apple orchard with the kids, count the trees, and have the kids write down the names of the new trees, do NOT, do NOT, remove the tags.

Posted by Linda Dunne on March 9