Today we talked about the water cycle.  What better way to learn than with a little song and dance in the garden?!? #gardeningwithkids #gardening #ediblepeacepatch #SanderlinIBworld

Today we learned about the water cycle.  What better way to learn something than with a little song and dance in the garden?!?  #gardeningwithkids #organicgardening #thefuture

Join Our Earthday Workday

The Edible Peace Patch Project

invites you to join our

Earth Day Garden Workday

Saturday, April 19th

9 am - 1 pm

We'll be meeting at Campbell Park Elementary, 

1051 7^th Avenue South, St. Pete, 33705

Morning refreshments will be provided.

Bring along your family and your gardening tools!

RSVP by signing up at http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C45ABAA23A0FE3-spring

See you there!

March 18th Sanderlin

Hank and I decided to grow more pineapples by planting the heads of old pineapples.

Here is a photo of the new pineapples we planted.

Hank doing some weeding of the beds.

The old pineapples look great they are starting to flower!

I did some maintenance of the bananas by stripping away old/dying branches thus allowing the bananas to breath better and produce new offspring.

Pollination Proliferation

Every class we had today was really excited about the pineapples. Some kids were even begging us to take some home with them to raise themselves.

Due to the high attendance rate of butterflies, this was our primary subject for the pollination lesson.

I had a class try some of these mustard greens. Some enjoyed it, and so were just downright overwhelmed by the spice.

A few of the kids were really fascinated with this fungus.

Near the center of this photo, you should be able to see a pollinator.


 

Wednesday March 19, 2014.

It could have been one of the ten best days of the year today.  The morning was perfect when I found Matt and Nikki at Sanderlin.  Today’s assignment was, to discuss the parts of a plant with our fourth graders.  Matt came up with a great idea for the kids, he sent them over to the mulch pile and had them pick saplings that drop from the oak tree overhead.  Then he had them point out the parts of the plants.  Both classes had a perfect score when naming the roots, stem, leaves and flower.  They were able to identify the root having a duel role, as root and flower in this case.  We then dispersed out into the garden, to further identify plants and plant parts.  We have been really trying to impress on the classes the necessity to make daily or weekly observations in the garden, changes, even minor changes in the garden can be really important.  I know for me, changes in the garden are the first things I like for.  And whether the changes are good or discouraging, they are part of our garden.  My group was really excited about the corn, and named its parts even though they realized we still had some time before we would see flowers on it.  When then found some plants such as tomatoes, and eggplant, and discussed the flowers.  We talked about how the flower was the reproductive part of the plant, and that it was necessary to have pollinators in our garden for the fruits to grow.  I was thoroughly impressed to have kids in both classes, Ben in the first, and Toby in the second explain the process of photosynthesis.  How the plants leaves take in energy.  They both almost perfectly detailed the intake of carbon dioxide for food and the release of oxygen as its waste.  I might be embellishing a bit but, they did a great job.  Other children obviously knew the process of photosynthesis as well, and it is truly a credit to their teachers.  Of course we talked about the importance of the roots and the stem, and then it was time to casually lollygag around the garden.  This is fun because this is when a flurry of off topic  questions come out.  These questions today concerned when the pineapples and bananas will be ready, or can we look for bugs?  And of course we eat!  We ate a lot of herbs, green onions, some tomatoes, and kale.  I have never seen such an enthusiasm over kale before, it’s so funny.   

We seem to be making an impression of the children. I do more hand holding now then a few weeks ago.  I think the time in the garden is important to the kids, I know it is for me.  To think that this program, our time in the garden with these kids could help shape their future ideas; To help someone make good decisions concerning their education, or their career, or just choosing to be sustainable when they're older makes me really emotional.  I’m fully in!

KALE FOREVER!!

Wes

Waiting on bananas!

Anything for the Plants

Here is Alex pulling in the hose after a thorough watering of the plants.

When the there's a leaking hose segment, watering cans always suffice.

I suckered these tomato plants a bit more today, so those pretty little tomatoes can get more energy.

Here is Alex pulling the dead leaves off of the banana plants.

I did some weeding today as well. There's my hand shovel digging one of them out.