Plant Proliferation

Today it was yet another beautiful Friday afternoon at Sanderlin. The garden is looking as lush and healthy as ever, especially the squash, sunflowers, and cucumbers. Brian and I began by preformed our separate tasks: Brian watered the plants, while I planted pineapples and pulled sedge. Also, the pineapples appear to be in great shape, and we’ve got over thirty of them out there.

At around 11:30am, our kindergarteners came trotting out, full of enthusiasm and excitement. Today’s lesson was a combination of this week’s lesson and last week’s lesson, to compensate for when the kids weren’t here last week.

The first lesson was on seeds, and the kids had so many excellent question right off the bat, “Where do seeds come from?” “What’s inside a seed?” “How big do they get?” All of these questions, along with many others, we addressed in a way that made it easy for the kids to understand, while still being able to amaze them with the idea of how much fruit, and how many plants can come from one seed.

We then took the kids into the garden, to make observations of the sunflower, and the hundreds of potential plants within it. The kids were also excited to see how big the squash had grown to be. “Guys! You gotta come see this!”

We then took them over near the pineapples patch, to talk them about the differences between native and non-native plants, and what are the benefits of native plants.

Towards the end of class, the kids became so enthusiastic for any seeds that it was hard for some of them to let them go, and return to the classroom. Hopefully they will carry that enthusiasm with them home, get their own seeds, and start growing their own plants.