Last Day to Shop Local to support Sloat and your Children's Garden (Dec. 8, 2008):

Attention all Mill Valley Children's Garden supporters: Sloat Garden Center is sponsoring Growing Up Green Week, December 1 to 8, 2008.  During this time, if you bring in our Edna flyer (attached to this email), a percentage of your purchases will be donated to the Children's Garden by Sloat. The higher our participation, the greater the benefit we will receive.  So if you were thinking about fall plantings (good time to plant trees now that the rain is beginning) or purchasing some garden tools or furniture, shop at Sloat between December 1 to 8, 2008, 2008 and be sure to present them with our Edna Flyer.  Thanks for supporting the garden.

Interesting Tidbit:

Earlier, we reported that one of the common weeds in our garden (purslane) is a highly prized edible in some circles.  I just recently discovered that another of our pernicious weeds in our garden is a choice edible, common mallow or Malva parviflora.  Mallow was among the plants raised at Delos, Greece for the temple of Apollo as a symbol of the first nourishment of people.  Pliny wrote that a spoonful of mallow would rid one of all diseases.  The young shoots are used for salad in France and Italy.  The fuzzy leaves are cooked like most winter greens, steamed or stir fried or added to soup.  Have the students identify mallow in the garden (it's especially prevalent around the toolshed/teepee area).

 

Tasks for the Garden this week:

1)      Search for and identify common mallow, as described above.

2)      Plant any bare spots in the beds - there are seeds in the shed marked for fall/winter plantings that include Brassica family (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kohlrabi, mustard greens, kale), root vegetables (beets, carrots, radishes, rutabagas, turnips), leafy greens (lettuces, chard, arugula), peas (sugar snap peas, Chinese snow peas), and alliums (onions, garlic, leeks, shallots).  There are also seedlings in the greenhouse that should be used first to get a head start.  Keep a garden journal of what/when/where/how you plant.  Contact me if you need any help.

3)      Water the greenhouse seedlings if they appear dry (mark the clipboard to keep track of when the seedlings were watered).  Teachers and garden parents should determine whether the seedlings are dry before allowing children to water as it appears that the seedlings have been getting overwatered.

4)      Check the worm bins to make sure they have enough dry/brown material; if it seems damp or if fruit flies are present, shred newspaper and add it to the bin

5)      Cut off any dead flower buds on rose bushes and any other flowering plants

6)      Pull weeds in and around the vegetable beds 

7)      Load up a wheelbarrow of woodchips from outside the fence behind the compost area and distribute them on any exposed dirt pathways and throughout the orchard area (this will keep the pathways from getting to muddy and will act as a natural soil builder as the wood decomposes)

8)      Pick up and dispose of any trash

9)      Make sure the bird baths have water

10)   Clean and return tools to the shed

11)   Return wheelbarrows to compost area or behind shed

 

Garden Curriculum:

If you ever are left wondering how to use the garden to tie into the lessons that the children are currently studying, there are grade level appropriate garden binders available in the Teacher's Lounge and Life Lab lesson books that may give you some ideas.  Also, Mari Allen (allenmari@hotmail.com) is our parent volunteer garden-curriculum advisor.  Contact her if you have any questions after reviewing the garden binders.

 

Garden Record Keeping:

We would like to start keeping an online Garden Journal that everyone will have access to on the garden blog (http://ednamaguire.org/garden/) so that other garden parents can compare notes or to allow parents to see what is happening in their child's class.  Please email me once a week to let me know what you did with your class that week (any tasks, planting or other activities) and I will post it.

 

Composting Alert:

Composting is a great way to reduce the amount of garbage that gets sent to the landfill while also producing a valuable fertilizer to feed our garden (this weekend we used many wheelbarrows of our compost to amend the pumpkin patch and reading area).  Edna does a great job of diverting a lot of food waste from the garbage and into the compost.  In the garden, we have two parts to our composting program: worm bins in the tool shed and a compost pile in the back of the garden.  Please remember to only put food waste into the worm bins and not on the compost pile.  Food can attract wildlife and rodents so it should only be added to the worm bins which are sealed.  This weekend we renovated an extra wooden worm bin that will stay just outside the tool shed with the plastic can o' worm bins.  I will pick up more worms for the new bins and then they will be ready for use by Tuesday.  Thanks for keeping Edna green!

 

Owl Boxes:

Next time you are in the tool shed, you may notice two owl boxes that we just purchased for the garden to invite barn owls into our ecosystem.  Barn owls are voracious predators of rodents (rats, mice, gophers, moles, etc.).  Lear more at http://www.hungryowl.org/ . We hope to get them installed this month.

 

Spring Fest (Sunday, May 31, 2009):

Jen Sheets (Jmsheetz@hotmail.com) and Barbara Bleckman (barbaracrampton@comcast.net) have volunteered to coordinate the Spring Fest.  They are seeking volunteers to assist with the Spring Fest, including (but not limited to), Bake Sale Coordinator (Lisa Joss? Please?), Cool Beverage Coordinator (lemonade, iced tea, water), Crafts Coordinator-Teacher Liaison and volunteers to work the event.  If you are interested, please contact them to sign up.  This is one of the garden's biggest fundraisers.

 

Garden Club:

Please let your students know that the Garden Club meets informally every Thursday at lunch in the garden.  Carrie Morgan supervises the garden club and Rebecca from Next Generation is there every other Thursday to help with garden projects.  All grade levels welcome. 

 

Garden blog:

Check out the garden blog on the school website for garden news, pictures and garden recipes (http://www.ednamaguire.org/garden/).  Please send me your nutritious garden recipes for posting.

 

 

REMINDER: At the end of the school day, please lock up the garden if it is unlocked.  The garden is usually unlocked during the school day and I am not always around at pick up time so please take a moment to make sure it gets locked up.  Also, hang up your gloves and put away your tools.  Barbara Bleckman and Luz Castro cleaned and organized the garden shed.  The gloves are now cleaned, organized and hanging above the worm bin.  Please make sure they are returned to their place when you are done using them.

 

Please contact me with any questions.

 

Also, please let me know if you do not wish to receive this email.  Thanks.

 

 

 

Posted by Saor Stetler on December 7