Category Archives: Instructional Activities

Spring Planting 2014

In celebration of spring let’s discuss what we’re growing this year. Our list includes: Chayote Genovese Italian Basil Edamame Soy Beans Blue Lake Bush Bean Black-Seeded Yard Long Pole Bean Honey Select Corn Rocky Top Mix Lettuce Imperial Black Beauty Eggplant Cayenne Pepper Jalapeno Pepper Nardello Sweet Pepper Aunt Ruby’S German Green Tomato Kelloggs Breakfast […]

Keeping a School Garden Journal

A School Garden journal is an invaluable tool, not only for the success of your garden but also for the myriad of experiments that can be done in tandem. This is my entry for 10/5/13: Bed 1 (B1) – Fava Beans germinated (broke through the soil), 1-2 days old. Germination took 10 days. B2 – […]

Planning and Planting Your Winter Garden

This is the layout for the Hamilton High School fall/winter 2013 school garden. What’s yours? Bed 1 – Fava Beans We will follow this with corn in the spring. Bed 2 – Lettuce We will broadcast lettuce seeds creating a lettuce “patch” rather than conventional rows. Bed 3 – Beets, Swiss Chard, Spinach, Red Sorrel […]

Harvesting Swiss chard and Kale

Beans are done; corn is done. Squash plants all have powdery mildew and it appears to be spreading to the cucumbers and tomatoes. Welcome to the dog days of summer. Usually during this time we not only harvest the remains of our summer crop but we also look forward to the fall and the new season […]

Zucchini Pollination – Pop Quiz

The following are squash flowers from a zucchini plant. One is male, the other is female. Can you identify which is which? I’ll give you a hint…when the male pollen fertilizes the female ovary zucchini seeds are created and the ovary swells to carry the seed. Here’s a thought, wouldn’t it be great if “the […]

How To Transplant a Tomato Seedling

Tomatoes plants are almost always transplanted into our garden from seedlings. Whether you grow the seedlings yourself or buy them from a nursery it is best to remove the lower branches and bury the stem up to the uppermost leaves. The reason we do this is because the hairs along the lower stem will develop into roots. […]

Seed Saving in a School Garden

It is late winter and many of the crops from our September planting are either finished (cauliflower, broccoli, peas, beets, and carrots) or bolting (cilantro, lettuce, arugula). Now is the time to pick out which plants we want to save for seed. Choose plants that are healthy, vigorous and with characteristics worth saving. The red […]