Hampton Gardening Update
The gardening event on Saturday June 4 was a TERRIFIC success, as evidence in the attached photos:·         4 raised beds installed in new area to the west (notice – no sun in that area until about 9 AM, but I am thinking that we will get 6 hours starting around mid-day)·         3 new raised beds, including one creative triangle!, in the existing gardening area·         Cardboard under the beds should retard grass through the summer·         Soil in the new beds contains fertilizer; we will need to provide some supplemental nutrients for the other beds·         Plantings, current area: tomatoes, peppers, bush beans and sweet potatoes·         Plantings, new area: cucumbers, squash and one tomato

TO DO:Monday June 13 – clear the two beds of pansies and daffodils, save daffodil bulbs; add supplemental soil;  separate transplants that are too crowded and spread them into these beds.Monday July 18 (tentative) – interactive day with students as follow up to their reading assignments; need produce from farmers market to show what the vegetables will look like at time of harvest
Harvest – around August 4, we should have the first green beans, squash, cucumbers, and early tomatoes.Harvest of these plants should continue for 3 to 4 weeks, if they are cared for and harvested regularly
Sweet potatoes should be harvested right after Labor Day, and must be cured in a dark place for six weeks before eating.

Suggestions for the use of additional grant money – we need analytical instruments to measure soil temperature, moisture, pH AND weather station to measure rainfall and temperature.
It would be nice to have an outdoor classroom sitting area – perhaps benches on the opposite side of the walkway facing the gardens.

Family Garden Day at Cone Elementary

Sarah Crawford, school garden educator and Deb Caludsian, ESL teacher at Cone 

delivered a load of compost donated from White Street Landfill

 to blend with soil in the raised beds.

 School children attending the garden event enjoyed shoveling and filling beds. 

Sarah also demonstrated seedling thinning, watering and fertilizing.

Foodcorps service member Quina Weber-Shirk shared vermiculture activities 

which were very exciting and engaging for the children!

 

Master Gardener Jean Aller shared a presentation on container gardening which 

can be done with very little gardening space at home.

Sarah Crawford, garden educator, also demonstrated seedling 

thinning, watering and fertilizing.

Brooks Global students supplied the transplants used in the garden as part of 

their service learning project.

It takes a village of parents, teachers, students, and school garden volunteers to

 make for a lovely hands-on experience!

A Partnership that Makes School Gardens Grow

Trequan McGee cares about Agriculture and young people. He enjoys connecting both of these through service learning at some of our Guilford County schools with gardens.

 We connected with Trequan at NCA&T through Ms. Odile Hutchette’s   HORT 351- Practice in Sustainable Horticulture- class. It has a project with service-learning component. Here you see him with Ms Lubchenco’s 4^th grade class at Brooks Global Studies. They are learning about why to do square foot gardening.

Trequan is a great role model for these young students. He shares with them about his classes in horticulture and how he plans to get a graduate degree in plant breeding (and hopes to work his own small farm). He really enjoys answering their many questions.  Trequan will also work with 4^th and 5^th graders at Wiley El. and lead an activity at Jones Elementary’s family garden day Saturday March 30^th.

Thanks Tre!

*Trequan McGeePresident of Collegiate FFAPresident of Young Farmers and RanchersChairman of the DSACUndergraduate Representative for the SAES Advisory BoardUSDA Multicultural Scholar School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences North Carolina A&T State University

Lindley Elementary Garden Workday today!

Saturday was a cold but beautifully clear blue sky day. Lindley Elementary parents, students, and teachers came out to make short work of the garden work so necessary to the success of a spring garden. 

One more reminder of the plant and nature cycles. Lessons these students learn first hand! 

Lindley is one of the oldest, most successful school gardens in Guilford County. We treasure it!

Planting Day at Brooks Global Studies!

The entire school got to participate at Brooks Global Studies

 planting day on Wednesday!

The sunshine felt so good after the cold snowy winter days!

We used flour to mark our rows to put our seeds. We planted spinach, kale, radish, lettuce and carrot for our early spring garden. We will add marigolds to protect our plants from insects.

We also prepared trays of seeds for our Service learning projects.

We planted peas, beans, radish, spinach, kale and lettuce to share with our sister Schools: Cone, Jones, Foust, Gillespie, and Hampton which also have school gardens.

We will share stories about how the plants grow in our gardens this spring!

We can’t wait to see all the seeds grow into yummy plants!

Installing low hoop season extenders at Brooks Global Studies!

Brooks Global Sustainability garden just got the structures for season extenders installed last weekend! 

 Every bed can be protected from the freezing temperatures with frost protection fabric.

Clear plastic covers will be applied during the day time when needed to provide a greenhouse effect.

Sandra Lubchenco, AG teacher and Stem Garden Sustainability project leader at Brooks Global and Cynthia Nielsen School Garden Network Coordinator smile after completing the installation.

Thanks to our helpers/ husbands Bill and Nick!

Cooking with Greens, local Chef Josh Kenny Feb. 9th