Winter/Spring 2018
Struggling with when to plant.
Second grade students transplanted an assortment of brassicas--baby broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflower plants--into the garden during the third week of September. Because these plants may take almost three months to mature, in order to have a harvest before the Christmas break, they are ordinarily planted in late August or early September. But this year's fall weather was exceptionally hot, so planting was delayed. Broccoli and some of the cauliflower was ready to harvest before mid-December, and the students who planted it enjoyed cutting off the heads and eating it raw. They also sampled some of the broccoli leaves and compared their flavor and texture to the nearby kale. The brussels sprouts and cabbage was not ready for harvest until nearly January. Unfortunately, an unusual cold wave hit the area and all the remaining normally cold-hardy plants were destroyed by the freezing temperatures. A catastrophe in the garden is a learning experience, so teachers showed their classes the dead plants to demonstrate the importance of weather on plant growth. The children also brainstormed ways that the plants might be protected from the cold. |
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Preparing a bed for planting.
Students enjoyed the task of spreading bag after bag of Black Kow, a commercial manure product, over the bed formerly planted in brassicas. To keep themselves motivated, the children began joyfully chanting "Spread that poop! Spread that poop!" as they emptied the bags onto the bed and spread it evenly over the soil. (Each child was outfitted with plastic surgical gloves from a local pharmacy.) Even though Black Kow is a sterilized product, the children were required to remove their gloves and wash their hands thoroughly before returning to the classroom. Compost from the garden's compost bins is also added to the garden beds as it becomes available. Teaching children about compost has an almost spiritual significance, since it demonstrates that nothing, even rotting material, is useless and that the death of one living thing can help other living things to grow. The circle of life is perhaps most easily understood in a pile of composting plant debris. |
Crop rotation.
Changing the plant families growing in a particular location will reduce the likelihood that diseases and pests build up in the soil over time. The bed planted in brassicas during the fall of 2017 were planted in spinach, lettuce, green peas, and red potatoes during the spring of 2018. Corn and sunflower crops were planted over the summer. |