Year two of our garden

We had a great 2011. Our garden project was funded by the State Department of Education, Boy Scouts helped us to build our garden, and we were able to get the entire school involved one way or another in the garden.

For 2012 we are trying some new things. We have started a garden committee to involve more parents in the process of growing our garden. This already seems to be a wonderful development and we are looking forward to having more parents join the ranks on the garden committee. We also were able to get an additional grant from the State Department to make our garden even better. Our plans now are to increase the number of garden boxes we have, add winter boxes, finish our strawberry boxes, add paving stones, and to put weed cloth between the beds.

Willow Creek was also selected as one of only a few schools to pilot a garden curriculum through the USDA. Mrs. Rosenbaum and Mrs. Clements are using this curriculum to teach their students about health and gardening. So far the kids favorite lesson was tasting a variety of vegetables including beets, swiss chard, carrots, raspberries, and many others. They were great sports and found some vegetables that they liked that they had never tried before. Thanks USDA for giving us this opportunity!

We are also looking for donations and help in the garden. If you are willing to help us out please email me at akoenig@nsd131.org.

It's a jungle out there!

A big shout out to the Storts family and the Cary family for filling out the log book at school! It is great to see that people are coming to the garden and pulling weeds and hopefully getting some wonderful local food!

Yesterday there was an invasion of third grade teachers at the garden Mr. B, Mrs. Dillon, and Mrs. Koenig came out to pull weeds and see what was growing in the garden. The Cary family was also able to join us in our weeding adventure. We have found that the grass isn't doing so hot in the middle of the garden, but couldn't water it because the hose isn't working. Maintenance is pretty busy and haven't had a chance to make it over to help us out, but luckily the rest of the garden is looking great. The plants are truly growing like weeds!


Mrs. Dillon, Mrs. Koenig, and Mrs. Cary spent the time weeding and picking fun vegetables and herbs to take home. Our bounty included green beans, peas, 6 zucchini, basil, and parsley! Please don't be shy and head to the garden and see what you can find.

zucchini blossom

can you see the zucchinis growing?

Basil galore!

parsley

cauliflower

the corn before Mr. B thinned it out

tomatoes getting bigger

Mr. B spent his time thinning out our corn garden. If you make it over there look in the corn for the beans and squash. It is called the "three sisters." A story we read in class said that Native Americans used to plant the three together. The corn would grow tall and the beans could climb the corn. The squash grows around the bottom making it so critters don't eat all the beans because they don't like the large leaves.

beautiful flowers from Columbia High Students

Sunflower from Mrs. Heath's class

marigolds

cabbage

Third grade teachers hard at work

goodies going home!

We had a great time gardening as a group and were hoping to do it again soon. Are there days or times that work better for people? Mornings are nice because it isn't too hot yet. I will try to head back to the jungle next Thursday morning. I will aim to be there sometime between 9:30 and 10. Please come and join me if you can!

From seeds to weeds

A huge thank you to the Smith family and the Cary family for remembering to fill out the log book at the garden. This is a great way to keep everyone up to speed on what is happening in the garden. The log book is inside the green bucket. Feel free to write your thoughts about the garden and what you are picking/seeing. 

Since we just started posting our adventures online I thought it would be good to get some pictures up of what we did during the last part of the school year. We received our grant at the end of March and had to get busy getting the garden in. We had a wonderful Boy Scout help us out and he built (with his troop) all of our garden boxes and the amazing benches. So here for your garden viewing pleasure is a quick view of our garden from when it was simply seeds to now. Enjoy!

Our garden at the beginning

Troop 116 moving our new fence into place.

Neil Diamond even came out to lend a hand!

Troop 116 proud of a job well done.

The benches the troop built. There are 4 8' benches.

Mrs. Clark our principal helping to plant at our garden dedication.

Our benches got two big thumbs up!

Third grade and kindergarteners were busy bees in the garden during the last week of school.

Mrs. Koenig and Mr. Butts paint hands of third graders to decorate the benches.

One of the finished benches.

Our garden sign donated by the Mortensen family!

cabbage

lettuce

raspberries

tomatoes

Sunflowers

potatoes

Zucchini

The Cary family hard at work weeding the boxes.

Growing a little everyday

Our garden now has its own blog! As a way to keep our community up to speed on the growing of our garden we decided to reach out and plant our seeds online as well. During the school year we will have updates from students as well as pictures and notes about the blog. If you want something posted on the blog email it to me at akoenig@nsd131.org and I will make sure it is uploaded.

Please make sure that you are coming by the garden to see what is growing. This week we have radishes and lettuce that is growing well. Some tomatoes are starting to make an appearance as well.

 These are the beautiful benches Boy Scout Troop 116 built for us. They have since been "decorated" with some helping hands. Pictures soon.

 For our garden dedication families came out and helped plant some peppers in the garden.

Mrs. Geraud helped a couple students plant at our dedication as well.