​From:​ 

Sandra Lubchenko

​, AG teacher at 

 

​          ​

Brooks

​ ​

​

Global

​ Studies Elementary.

Studying worms (vermiculture) at Brooks Global

​ Sudies Elementary​:  

Students used donated Mason Jars to create worm homes. They placed in gravel, dirt and food for the worms. Then after the worms were used to their surroundings, they did some light and movement experiments to look at the worms

​'​

 reactions.

​ Here are photos!​

GCS Gardens: Bumper Sweet Potato Harvests!

 Lindley Elementary 4th graders dug 45 pounds of sweet potatoes, purple and orange,out of a 4'x10' garden bed last week!They sold some at the Corner Market Saturday.

Saving the rest for students to taste!

Jones Elementary has its biggest participation yet in their school garden and by far the most from the leadership side. Nearly 400 students are 

directly working in the garden.

Students harvested over 75 pounds of sweet potatoes from one supersized bed!

Irving Park Elementary also had a bumper crop of 

sweet potatoes this fall with their first ever harvest 

of this tasty tuber!

Harvesting sweet potatoes feels like an

Easter egg hunt in the soil! Students love it!

Fairview Elementary is one of 9 elementary schools in High Point where school gardens are supported by energetic FoodCorp service members. They are also enjoying harvesting a bumper crop of sweet potatoes.

Lots of applied math possibilities here! 

Records can be kept to compare different years 

yield vs. temperature and water applications.

 What do all these schools do with their sweet potato harvest? Many things! One of the tastiest outcomes are tastings prepared by teachers, parents, and volunteers working with students to prepare and taste vegetables prepared in many different ways.

Chefs Move to Schools is a great program to introduce students to the many tasty ways

the vegetables they grow can be prepared.

They are members of GTCC’s Culinary program and present programs in our elementary schools.

 A number of schools sell their produce as a fundraiser for their gardening programs. These are done on-site or at various Farmer’s Markets in Guilford County.

Lindley Elementary has led the way in offering this type of setting for their harvests.

More and more schools use their garden harvest for service learning projects. Donations are made to organizations like Share the Harvest, Greensboro Urban Ministry, and other organizations.

A big thank you to all of our teachers, parents, other volunteers, and students who are making school gardens successful in our Guilford County Schools!

School Garden Network Workshop at Irving Park Elementary

On a warm blue sky afternoon last Thursday teachers and parent volunteers, and other community members gathered at Irving Park Elementary for hands-on training by some of our best school garden experts in

Guilford and Rockingham Counties.

Our first presenter, Sarah Crawford, trained as a Master Gardener and has many years of experience training teachers and teaching students. She demonstrated her knowledge of planting, fertilizing, watering, and composting for workshop attendees. Next, attendees took a turn doing these activities themselves. Sarah is currently the garden director at the Cald Cleugh Multicultural Center.

Next, Jenny Kimmel, gardening director at Greensboro Montessori demonstrated the developmentally appropriate garden activities for children from kindergarten through middle school. She also shared specialty garden ideas and Vermiculture bins that are both portable and inexpensive ways to teach about recycle.

Deborah Crumpton was our final presenter of the day. Deborah is a farmer and an educator. She grows herbs at her Running Pine Herb Farm. She taught school for 16 years and is the School Garden Coordinator for Rockingham County Extension. Deborah shared her vast knowledge of growing and using herbs with attendees. She brought lots of perennial and annual herbs for attendees and described how to plant and these plants that are so popular in school gardens.

This was the first day of our two day workshop hosted by Irving Park Elementary. Next Thursday another group of presenters experienced in teaching in school gardens will demonstrate lesson plans teaching school curriculum

 and tastings from the garden.

If your school is interested in hosting a School Garden Workshop in the spring, please contact Cynthia Nielsen, School Garden Network Coordinator at nielsen.cynthial@gmail.com

Lindley Elementary Compost Bins get a Make-over!

Size of particles, ratio of carbon and nitrogen containing materials, water, temperature, and mixing ALL matter in order to make good compost. We want a carbon/nitrogen ratio of 4/1. 

Carbon is found in dry leaves, straw, basically any brown colored material.

Nitrogen is found in grass clippings, and most kitchen scraps.

Layering is important to proper anaerobic and aerobic breakdown of organic material.

Palmer McIntyre, Garden coordinator at Lindley Elementary worked with Sarah Norton, UNCG Nutrition student and Cynthia Nielsen, School Garden Network Coordinator to recondition their compost bins.

Pitchforks work well for mixing. The compost material Should be kept moist. 

Not too dry or too soggy, Just right!

Fun-Filled Garden Teacher Training at Fairview Elementary

Fairview Elementary School new staff participated in a fun filled garden teacher training conducted by Melissa FoodCorps Tinling .

 The brand new staff found out how much fun they can have in the garden as they get ready to use the outdoor learning center with their students this year! 

— at Fairview Elementary School. High Point, NC

Open House kickoff highlights School Garden support

at Irving Park Elementary

 As with many of our schools with gardens, parent volunteers play a key role in supporting teachers in their use of these outdoor learning centers. Heather Fullagar, Dana Davis, and Kevin Reddy are just a few of the many parents atIrving Park Elementary (IPE) volunteering to support the garden.

Every teacher has a garden bed with signage. Parents and teachers signed up 

to care for the garden for a week at a time over the summer.

As a result, we saw beans, okra, sweet potato, tomatoes, strawberry, 

peppers, cantaloupe, watermelon and pumpkin!

Students and teachers are excited to come back to these yummy fruits and veggies! Teachers are already talking about what they want to grow in their

garden beds this fall. 

GCCE School Garden Network will hold gardening

workshops at IPE in October for interested teachers and parents.

 Let us know if you would like to participate!

Brooks Global organizes to revive their School Garden!

Right now we have some mustard green and some yellow snow peas (for snacking, not enough for cooking just yet) that’s ready for picking. Perhaps we will have some green squash and grape tomatoes which might be ready in the next month or so. Other squash might take a longer time. I’m assuming the radishes that Mrs. Langer’s class planted will be ready soon as well.  Whoever signed up to take care of the garden can pick anything that’s ready, not much for now, hopefully we’ll have more in the future.Parent Sharon Guerraro offers an abundance of Thai Basil, Lemon Palm, Chocolate Mint and Papaya plants if anyone is interested for the garden.

 Parents and the School Garden Network unload compost for gardening beds. Linda Kidd, principal at Brooks Global is highly supportive of the garden plans in addition to parents and teachers. Cynthia Nielsen, SGN coordinator spoke to the staff at their final meeting before the summer break.

Thanks from Brooks Global parents to  Mrs. Langer, Kindergarten teacher getting the Garden Committee started. I am excited that Brooks will have a most wonderful School Garden for all teachers and students to enjoy teaching and learning!

Jones Elementary Garden Update: Bumper Spring Crops!

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to let you know what has been happening in the garden this spring and what our summer plans are. Do you remember last August when we came back to this?

 We have turned it around to a workable, productive school garden!

We have had a very bountiful spring in the garden. We have had a lot of produce go home to Jones families, bags and bags of lettuce, spinach, cabbage, swiss chard and broccoli. Teachers have also been the grateful recipients of spinach, peas, swiss chard and cabbage. Three classes have come out to sample snow peas and sugar snap peas they picked from the vine. At least two classes have snacked on what they raided from the strawberry patch.

There are lots of red potatoes curing in my crawl space right now that Sra. Soto's class grew. Sra. Ospina's class will harvest more red potatoes this week. We still have carrots in the ground, trying to give them every opportunity to grow, but they will be pulled before the end of the school year. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the 30 heads of garlic that just finished curing in Marcia Jones' game room. Wow! Thank you all so much for all your help to make this a great year in the garden. We had eleven classes come out and get their hands good and dirty in the garden this spring. All the kids LOVE being in the garden and it is so awesome that we facilitate that. 

As the produce has been harvested, I have been turning the beds over to summer vegetables. So far, volunteers and I have planted cantaloupe, melon, red, yellow and green peppers, sunflowers, corn, red tomatoes, summer squash, butternut squash, grape tomatoes, yellow pear tomatoes and cucumbers. We have just two beds left to plant and our garden will be ready for the summer!

I have put together a summer gardening schedule that is almost full, but there is room if you want to help us out this summer. Basically, you would be responsible for weeding, watering and harvesting the produce from all the beds for one week. I think it would take someone maybe 3 or 4 hours that week. I would be available by phone and e-mail for questions, and if I am in town (which I mostly am) I can meet you in the garden if you need another pair of eyes and hands. The garden really does require care over the summer. Otherwise it is a disaster to return to in the fall. Please help us out if you can. 

I am excited that Melissa Tarleton will be co-chairing this team next year. Melissa has a lot of gardening experience and is a great asset to us. 

Please talk up the garden to all your Jones friends. We have a great team, but we can always use more help. Several of you know from personal experience that you really don't have to have any gardening experience to be successful in the garden. There are lots of folks who can help every step of the way and lots of people are checking in on the plants to make sure they are all being tended to. Please help spread the word that our garden is a real gem in the Jones community. Let's keep this great thing going!

Last but not least, a request for help. I could use some help with weeding this week. If you can stop by, the strawberry patch needs to be weeded, as does the cucumber rows in bed 10. You do not have to weed the potatoes in bed 10 as they are coming out this week. I have a great weeding tool in the bin. It is from Ace Hardware and looks like a metal forked tongue. Jane Forbes Fields turned me on to it and it is a great tool. Just dig it under the weeds and they come up roots and all very easily. 

Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks again for all your help!

Jennifer Jacobs, Jones School Garden Coordintaor