The After School Program took over marigold transplanting and selling this year. Sixth graders kindly volunteered to collect empty milk cartons from all three lunch groups; they demonstrated the recycling steps to each group. Then they washed them and put them up to dry in large plastic bread delivery bins. The After School kids reverse folded the milk cartons and punched three holes into the bottoms of each using sharp pencils. The milk cartons became small transplanting pots. Some marigolds were sold to students before and after school. The rest were added to our school garden. If you scroll back to last summer, you can see how the marigolds fill out and create a hedge for our garden. In the photos above you can see the After School group transplanting them with help from a Jr. high school friend who once was a student here. We also put in a few other crops that hadn’t been planted yet. Many of these children will return to school for summer camp a few weeks after school lets out. I’m looking forward to their surprise when they see how much change can happen in a garden in a few weeks!

 

The courtyard in our school is a daily  reminder of the changing seasons for students passing in the hallway. The pond freezes in December and is snow covered for most of January through mid-March This year fifth grader, Annaleeza, was back to spruce up the courtyard with her friends, Abby and Alexis. (You can also see Annaleeza working in the courtyard last year at this time by scrolling back to May, 2013.) She showed them her method for transplanting strawberry runners. Together with her friends, decisions were made about what to weed and what to move. A group of sixth graders also worked hard to clean out the fountain. Our courtyard is looking good!

 

 

 

 

Last minute weeding in the raspberries and the planting of cabbage starts was also done after school last week. Raspberries will be ready to pick in early to mid July when summer camp begins

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