Westminster School Garden Keeps on Growing
Nora Dvosin and Nancy Giffin began the Westminster Elementary School Garden (WE Garden) in Venice, CA in 2004/05. Amid a sea of asphalt they have doggedly carved themselves a thriving oasis.
The WE garden has grown over the years tripling its original size and now includes a new kindergarten area complete with flowering pear trees that will be espaliered along the fence.
The organic learning garden is fully integrated into student/classroom curriculum including: art, science, social science, language, history, & math.
For example, the colonial garden not only teaches history but replicates a colonial era kitchen garden with the same plants and herbs that were grown at that time.
Students are also able to participate in a “seed-to-table” experience through a partnership with long time Los Angeles chef (and school neighbor), Joe Miller of Joe’s Restaurant on Abbot Kinney.
In exchange for cooking classes that Joe performs in the garden, the WE garden dedicates one bed to Joe’s Restaurant and grows whatever Chef decides. Currently there are Okinowan spinach, Caribbean thyme, 3 different kinds of peppers, and a feathery cilantro variety.
School never tasted so good.
Pitchfork – Seedlings for School and Community Gardens
PITCHFORK. If you never been you should go.
If you’ve been you’re probably returning.
Mud Baron and his crew are again giving away 30,000 organic vegetable, herb and ornamental seedlings plus free compost and free potting soil.
Saturday, 5/15,
8:30AM-1030AM
Sylmar High School , 13050 Borden Ave., Sylmar 91342
(Garden entrance on Raven – Past Borden)
The Ultimate School Garden
The Earth Day Network Organization worked with Cesar Chevez Elementary School in Hyattsville, Md. to construct the ultimate sustainable garden on the school grounds.
The Ultimate School Garden from Nathasha Lim on Vimeo.
Woolly School Gardens – Grow it Vertically
Woolly Pockets is sponsoring a program to bring gardens to schools. More information at woollyschoolgarden.org
Sow Easy – Indoor School Garden Activity
By Lisa Gustavson, Getinthegarden.com
Are you looking for an easy garden project to occupy your time while early sown seeds germinate and snows melt away? Seed tapes are the answer. They’re super-simple to make, use everyday items in your home and make sowing small seeds like lettuces and flowers a snap! Seed tapes are simply paper strips with seeds adhered to them. They make planting and spacing small seeds outdoors faster and easier.
What you’ll need: A paper towel or napkin, flour (organic), a small paintbrush and seeds. You may want to recycle a cardboard tube to roll the seed tapes around as well.
First: Mix the flour with enough water to make a medium-thick paste. Don’t worry about exact amounts, just so long as the paste is thick enough for the seeds to stick to.
Next: Use the paintbrush to dab the flour paste at equally spaced increments along the paper towel. Use the packet as a guide for spacing and a ruler if you’d like it to be precise. You can fit several rows along each sheet of paper towel.
Last: Press two or three seeds gently onto each dab of paste making sure they adhere. Let the strip dry completely and cut between each row of seeds. Roll up each strip and store in a plastic bag in a cool dry place until planting time.
This is a great project for children! Clean-up is a snap and if there is flour paste left over it can be thinned with more water and used to decoupage seed packets and flower pictures from catalogs to clay or plastic pots. (Be sure to coat with an eco-friendly sealant so they’ll be waterproof.) It’s sow easy!
