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School Garden: Benjamin G. Brown School UPDATE

By Karyn
A lot has been happening this year in the garden in the Benjamin G. Brown School. In this post we shared some of the first garden activities of the season. Parent volunteer and gardening guru, Shawn Szturma has been heading up the planting, maintaining, and harvesting in the garden. Below Shawn shares a few special entries from his garden journal.

July
We have mesclun/lettuce mix, basil and radishes ready to pick.

Mesclun

Radish

August
I just did some final cleanup yesterday on the Brown School garden before the school year.  When I stopped by, there were some local boys (5th graders) snacking on the tomatoes and pole beans in the garden.  As the garden steward, I thought that was perfect.  I told them to come back and graze anytime they saw something ripe and ready-to-eat.

Cherry tomatoes
 
Pole beans
 

September

Today, I brought some bok choy seedlings to the 2nd grade class at the Brown School (Mrs. Jasper). The kids were ecstatic and can't wait to plant them at home and enjoy their vegetables in a few weeks.  
  
Also, I was handing out tomatoes to the kids heading out the playground.  They snapped them up like candy!

Finally, we just planted some arugula, spinach, salad greens, carrots, and kale for the fall crop.  I'm looking forward to coordinating some picking with the kids soon.
Another garden update from last week.  Picked some more delicious tomatoes and kale.   I also handed out cherry tomatoes to the kids as they were heading into classroom.  They loved the morning treat!
 
Kale

In the next few weeks, we're going to have a green tomato fest!  We will also be making Pesto with the 4th grade class from the basil in the school garden!
 
 
October
Last Friday, we had a 'bulb blitz' and planted daffodils with one of the 4th grade classes at the Brown School (Mrs. Jasper).  It was the first time most of the kids had every planted bulbs, so it was nice to teach them something new!  They picked it up quick and had a great time planting bulbs with their classmates. 


Ready to plant some bulbs!

So that's what a bulb looks like!





Moreover, when they took a break, many of them made 'mini salads' by picking baby greens (arugula, kale, spinach, and lettuce) from the garden and stacking them together for a delicious treat!

Harvesting greens for mini salads
 
Salad "stack"

We can't want till the spring to see the results of the kids hard work.  I'm sure it will look beautiful!
 
 
November
Yesterday, the 5th graders in Mrs. Lynch's class finished the job of planting daffodils in front of the Brown School.  A great time was had by all and the kids also 'taste tasted' the garden greens before they went back inside.  Most of the kids had never tasted arugula/kale or planted bulbs before, so it was great bringing that experience to them!

Planting more bulbs

Eating more salad!

 
 Content and photos provided by Shawn Szturma, Parent Volunteer.
 
 
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