SDCCS Green Room

Kids in the Garden!

2009-10-12T21:33:00.000-07:00

This is what it's all about.

The SDCCS kids get to work in the dirt, plant, grow, tend, harvest, eat, cook, and share.

From seed to table!!

Here are just a few pictures of the goings on the garden over the past few weeks.

Many things have been planted: peas, parsley, lettuce, swiss chard, collard greens, radishes, carrots, tomatoes, lambs quarters and green onions.

We still have broccoli, cauliflower, artichoke, potatoes, malibar spinach, fava beans and more of the above to plant. AND the plan is to KEEP ON PLANTING!!! Every 3 weeks or so. The idea is to have a continuous harvest!

Come one come all...volunteers, kids, teachers, parents!

Another Successful Workday in the Garden!

2009-10-06T10:47:00.000-07:00

Lots of eager hands and willing hearts showed up on Saturday to construct a new, well-organized composting area & to re-build raised beds out of mortar and rock in the Kinder-GARDEN!
With our Cooperative spirit, our Garden Program keeps improving. We expect there to be a substantial amount of food planted and tended by our kids this year, along with several parents & teachers to guide them.

And as a parent at the school for 8 years I just have to say...we should all be very PROUD!

We are part of the solution...teaching our kids, by example, that work and community is important and that
much can be accomplished by caring for our world through organic gardening and the slow food movement. For the third year now, the children at SDCCS, especially those in the younger grades, have been able to spend a lot of time in the garden and are learning the benefits of growing food & EATING lots of vegetables. We feel this will not only benefit them now, but in the future as well.

Thank you to every one who helped this past weekend and who want to volunteer in the future. It is proving already to be a very worthwhile endeavor.
We STILL need parent volunteers to take small numbers of kids out the garden every week for 1/2 hour of tending/harvesting/observation in the middle school. If you are interested, contact Amy Zink (e-mail at right).
Thanks again for the wonderful work....see you in the garden!
~Annie

Garden Volunteer Oportunities for 2009/2010 School Year

2009-09-14T20:53:00.000-07:00

Its a new school year, and we have lots of plans to make our school gardens more productive and beautiful. In addition we would like to see more students & teachers learning, exploring, cooking & working in the gardens. This takes a whole community effort to achieve !

Please attend the GARDEN MEETING
This THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17TH AT 12:30 (right after school in the Kindergarten playground.)

If you are unable to attend the meeting but are interested in any of these opportunities, please email Amy Zink with all your information!!

Below we have put together four different area's of volunteer opportunities based on levels of commitment for our parents, grandparents, & family friends at SDCCS.

1)Open Volunteer Days (Super Flexible) *come anytime Monday or Thursday mornings to help (1/2 hour - 1 hour time commitment per week)

2)Weekly Water & Weed (Super Simple) (20 minutes per week on your time schedule)
*pick one or more area’s below*

☐Native plant bed, (next to the storage/janitorial room)
☐Succulent’s & potted plants (gardens around the auditorium)
☐Planter boxes (outside First & 4th Grade classrooms)
☐Newly planted trees
☐Fruit Trees, Berries, Grapevine
☐Compost Care
☐Quick tidy of gardens (rake leaves, pick up trash etc.)
☐Creating & Maintaining signs for plants & garden

3)Garden Guides (Most involved) (2 times per month)

☐ Work directly with children in the garden. We will take beginners in these areas, you don’t need to have any knowledge here, and we can teach you! Its super fun! We will have quarterly meetings to plan accordingly.

4)Construction/Building (Great for Handy Folks). We do have some simple design plans for all of these projects for you to follow.

☐Storage Sheds
☐Sinks/Table
☐Strawberry Tower
☐Rain Barrels
☐Benches

One last thing, we will be having Saturday workdays in the Gardens, which are great for working parents to attend. We will announce those in the next week or two.

Any questions, please contact Amy Zink at alzycat@gmail.com

Summer Garden Watering, Please Help!!!!!!!!

2009-05-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

June 29 and July 2......

1) Annie 2)Tim
July 6 and 9.....1) 2)
July 13 and 16...1)Jorgi 2)
July 20 and 23....1)Tracey 2)
July 27 and 30.....1)Annie 2)
August 3 and 6......1)Stacey 2)
August 10 and 13......1) 2)
August 17 and 20...1)Annie 2) Amy
August 24 and 27.....1)Tracey 2)
Aug 31 and Sept 3......1) 2)

Earth Day. Remember?

2009-05-12T20:44:00.000-07:00

Like the first three months of the year, April slipped by all too quickly, and here we are nearly half-past May! I know it's been three weeks since our 5th graders hosted our Earth Day celebration, but better [21 days] late than never, right?

It was a great success, with CJ Hawk and Rachel Ulloa's 5th grade students hosting booths and demonstrations developed from their "Wonder" essays. We were even treated to a couple live music performances, for which our outdoor classroom made the perfect stage.

Harvesting & Cooking Fava Beans in the K-2 Garden

2009-03-27T23:22:00.000-07:00

Amy had more garden fun with Miss Karen's 2nd graders, this time harvesting some fava beans!

Everyone had a great time harvesting and shucking the beans...

...collecting a big bowl of husks...

...and a big bowl of beans...

...which was then prepared and cooked by Amy and Daleth.

Some fava bean facts:

Known as Féve in French, Garten-Bohnen in German, Valske Bonner in Danish, Hava in Spanish, the Fava Bean has been cultivated for centuries and is still considered a staple of the Mediterranean diet. Also known in English as the Broad Bean or Horse Bean, it was the only bean known to Europe before contact with the new world. Remnants of favas have been found in archeological sites and medieval peasants made a purée of favas seasoned with a bit of salt pork.

The fava resembles such shelled beans as limas and butterbeans, but it is actually more closely related to the pea family. Although available in their dried form, fresh favas are very difficult to find in supermarkets—farmers markets are the most dependable source for the freshest beans.

Many farmers plant a small-seeded variety of favas as a winter cover crop because they are very cold hardy, and because (like peas and beans) they are a legume and have the ability to fix nitrogen in the soil.
~ from Whistling Train Farm

Inspiration for all.

2009-03-24T11:28:00.001-07:00

This Lawn is Your Lawn from roger doiron on Vimeo.

Second Grade Growing & Harvesting

2009-03-05T15:42:00.000-08:00

Miss Karen's Second Graders have been reaping the benefits of all the hard work they have been doing in the K-2 Garden throughout this school year.

For the past two months now, we have been harvesting & eating lettuce, carrots & radishes. The kids say everything tastes great ! The most exciting part of all this work, is definitely pulling out the carrots. There is nothing like pulling on the green foliage and then finding that there is a big orange surprise on the other end.

Last winter in the garden we didn't have much success with carrots, but we learned this year that radish's & carrots are companion plants. If you plant a carrot seed with a radish seed next to it, and continue on that way, they seem to thrive together. The radish germinates right away, within a week's time and grows to harvest within 30 days. During that time the carrot seeds slowly germinate underneath the foliage of the radishes. Once you harvest your radishes, the carrots take over and are ready in about 60 to 70 days, a long time to wait, but in the end we think its worth it !

Our edible garden plans started this past fall in October after we visited LaMilpa Organic Farm for a field trip. While we were there we learned about the difference between soil & dirt. Soil has living things in it to help a plant thrive, while dirt has nothing in it. We also had a great time tasting different types of greens at the farm and really got excited about planting our own.

When we got back to our own school garden, we got busy adding healthy soil (compost), then we sketched out the plan for everything we wanted to grow from seed. Last year we planted quite a bit of plants that were already started so we really wanted to try seeds and transform our spot into a mini Second grade farm.

What we learned;
~The beets, spinach and chives did not germinate and grow. We think it is because chives needed warmer weather and we just are not sure about the spinach & beets yet, but are working on it.

~We learned how to harvest lettuce by cutting the leaves that are ready to eat on the outside and leaving the baby leaves in the center to grow for the following weeks salad. We also learned how to plant new seeds every other week to keep new lettuce plants growing to replace the old. We also practiced this with carrots & radishes.

~We learned which plants are weeds, and there are several kinds of those popping up everywhere to keep busy hands at work.

~We learned how far away to plant seeds from each other so they have enough room to grow, and how to thin the seedlings after they germinate, in case they are to close together.

~ We also learned that Fish Emulsion smells really yucky, but it helps our plants grow, we used it once a month since January.

We have also planted Fava Beans along the back fence of the garden, those were planted in October and are almost ready to harvest. In addition we planted sugar snap pea's along the fence and the tee-pee, and have been eating those all along, very sweet and yummy. Along the outside fence for some color we planted one of our favorites, Iceland Poppies.

We even have journals to document what we have done !

If you are a Parent or Grandparent at our school and want to help your child's teacher start their mini-classroom farm, please contact me and I can get your started !

~Amy

New Year Cleansing

2009-02-06T12:19:00.000-08:00

On Saturday (Jan 25), parents, kids and staff came out in force to clean up the classrooms, paint and build for the Honk Jr. production, hang art around campus and get some work done on our gardens.

The results are astounding! Check out some more pictures from the event here.

A Reverie of butterflies...and a bee...and a scorpion...

2008-12-04T17:03:00.001-08:00

...drawn, woodburned
and painted by Allison
Bell's students
(with help from awesome parents too!)

OUR GARDENS
GET MORE BEAUTIFUL
EVERYDAY!

Garden Workday, A HUGE Success!!

2008-11-09T08:49:00.000-08:00

We had a great turnout of SDCCS Families& Teachers to help build an outdoor classroom, with benches & a platform. We also added 5 more raised planters to the garden, and a circular raised mosaic bed that will become a butterfly garden. In addition we made larger compost area's, redesigned some of the K-2 garden, and made cut out wood painted designs for the fences in the garden.

A special thank's to Shawn Strande who spent many hours planning, designing and building the Outdoor Classroom, Kit Camp for making some beautiful benches, Dan Renner for teaching us how to apply broken tiles and glass to create a beautiful mosaic design (and donating all those tiles!). Of course a huge thanks to everyone else who came to help build & create! We could not have accomplished this without you !!

(click to enlarge any of the pictures!)
If you have pictures of the day and would like to add them to the flickr photo group, scroll down to the right for the link to join.

Garden Workday, November 8th!

2008-11-01T07:50:00.000-07:00

Come One, Come All!

HELP BUILD OUR OUTDOOR CLASSROOM!

Saturday, Nov. 8th

(building starts at 8:00 am, gardening and art projects start at 10:00 and continues all day!)

~gardening includes: making compost areas, planting

~art projects include: working on mosaic for butterfly garden, painting, making wooden flower fence decorations for chain link beautification

~building projects include:outdoor classroom, benches, tables, raised beds, compost corral

What to Bring!

work gloves, water, sunscreen

tools for building (hammers, drills/bits, framing square etc...)

tools for gardening (shovels, wheelbarrows...)

broken pottery or mosaic pieces, old tiles, plates, cups for mosaic project

A Bag or two of Organic Top Soil (Home Depot, EarthGro Blend)

questions? contact amy zink at alzycat@gmail.com

Monarch Caterpillars

2008-10-17T09:57:00.000-07:00

We found 6 different Caterpillars in the K-2 Garden Yesterday! We planted milkweed last year to attract the monarch butterfly's, so we were so excited to see that they were feeding on a few of the garden plants. Both Mr. Jacob's Kindergartners and Miss Jen's first graders observed them first hand. They found that they are "soft" to the touch and have "two heads" on each end. We talked about how they got there, and how we should all make sure that we leave them safe to make it to there next stage of the life cycle, to form a chrysalis, because after that, we think in about 2 weeks they will become beautiful Monarch Butterfly's. You can go the this link to read in detail about them.

We will be making a chart describing all the interesting facts about Monarch Butterfly's and will place it in the Garden for everyone to read and share with their family's and friends. So go see them when you get a chance, most of them are feeding on the plants in the image below, which is in Mr. Jacob's Powerful Puma's bed. We are not sure what these plants are since they were seeds that were planted in the summer, but are very anxious to see what flower they produce, and that our caterpillars have something yummy to eat !

Greenhouse Models

2008-10-03T12:29:00.000-07:00

Pattie Krohn's 8th grade class has been working on a greenhouse design project. The first step was to come up with innovative ideas for portable, small and inexpensive greenhouses and make prototypes.

Two designs have been chosen. Over the next months the class will work to collect the building materials necessary to see their designs in action. Some of the materials will be recycled and some will be donated or purchased. One helpful website with all sorts of ideas is snapclamp.com who also will be donating some of the PVC used.

Gardens Popping up Everywhere

2008-10-01T10:57:00.000-07:00

Miss Jenn's 1rst

grade class has started

a recycled vegetable

garden made from an

old bookshelf turned

on its side.

There are also new plantings springing up in the 3rd-8th grade garden where Jennifer Kelly's 6th grade elective class "Simple Life for Teens" is planting vegetables to use for the cooking portion of the class.

Merrill and Dmitry's 3rd grade classes are also working on their garden beds .

If you'd like to help with these new gardens contact Jolie Barboa, garden liason for these classes, at... j_barboa@yahoo.com

Name That Bean?!

2008-09-11T15:06:00.000-07:00

Do you know what type of bean Olive is holding?? You guessed it. A Chinese Yard Long Bean! Miss Morgan's Kindergarten class planted these last spring and the new Kinders are picking them, cutting them up in pieces and eating them. We hear they are quite yummy. To read more about the Chinese Yard Long bean, click here.

Take a look at our little apple tree, and all the fruit it is going to gift us with this year. As some of you know, when we took over the school site this was the only living thing planted in the K-2 garden. Last year it only had one apple on it, and since it has had lots of TLC from our caretakers, its much happier now ! We can't wait till the children can eat them !

Out in the Raised Bed Garden, the 3rd graders are busy getting there beds ready for a new season of fall crops. They worked hard to mix in compost, and water with there friends. Lots of digging going on. Very exciting !!

fresh garden start!

2008-09-02T10:40:00.001-07:00

The herb gardens look great after a sunny summer...just in time for the cooking classes to harvest!

Welcome Back Gardeners and Nature Lovers

2008-08-27T15:02:00.001-07:00

After a wonderful summer we are all excited to start tending the many garden spaces we have created at SDCCS, in it's second season. Many families participated in watering and harvesting over the summer, taking good care and enjoying it's bounty...and for that we say THANKYOU!!! Now its time to think about fall planting and tending.
If you are interested in helping with your classroom garden plot, talk to your teacher about how you can get involved.
We will have a garden day on November 8th where we will begin to build the outdoor classroom, some more garden fencing, benches and general garden maintenance.

Hope to see you all in the garden!!

Films About Food

2008-08-09T10:26:00.000-07:00

If you are interested in seeing a great documentary about how the First CSA was created, (CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture), mark your calenders for Saturday August 16th, and see the Film highlighted below. Slow Food San Diego, & San Diego Roots are featuring films about food to bring about awareness to our community. Please take a look at there upcoming films here.

The Real Dirt on Farmer John
Saturday, August 16, 6pm
Joyce Beers Community Center
3900 Vermont St., San Diego 92103
(Hillcrest, Uptown District Shopping Center)
The Real Dirt on Farmer John will turn every idea you've ever had about what
it means to be an American farmer, or an American dreamer, on its head.
Meet Farmer John, the incredible human being whose inspirational story
of revolutionizing his family farm and redeeming his own life has won accolades
and awards at film festivals around the world.
After this film we'll raffle off five pairs of tickets to the Jack Johnson concert at the Cricket
Amphitheater in Chula Vista on August 30 and "San Diego Loves You" t-shirts!

Celebrate Summer Solstice at a Local Organic Farm !

2008-06-18T08:40:00.000-07:00

If you & your family would like to get away from the city this Saturday, and spend some quality time at an amazing farm, check out the information below. I have been attending the monthly potlucks at this farm for over a year now, and each time I walk away nourished, inspired and in awe. For more information about LaMilpa Organica farm you can go to their website here.

Also, check out the San Diego Roots Sustainable Food Project Website at the end of this post. Read about The Willow Glen Farm Project and watch the video produced by the students at the Terra Nova Garden at Morse High School, some amazing stuff happening right here in San Diego ! San Diego Roots has served as inspiration for us at SDCCS.

SUMMER SOLSTICE, June 21!
Roots Fundraiser & Farm Summer Fest
@ La Milpa Organica Farm | Escondido
Saturday, June 21 @ 4pm to 10pm
9928 Protea Gardens Road, Escondido California 92026

Live Entertainment | Puppets & Circus Acts | Potluck & Pizzas
family-friendly films under the oaks after dark

This is a perfect opportunity to visit this little agricultural gem. Farms are nice places to hang out, and what Barry Logan (farmer) has created is a perfect example of how beautiful things happen when a community embraces a farm -- and a model of what Willow Glen Farm is intended to be. There will be fun entertainment and they'll serve freshly made, wood-fired pizzas. After dark they'll show a family-friendly, inspiring food-related short film -- including a cartoon or two -- under the oak trees. Rain cancels.

For a map or more information about San Diego Roots Sustainable Food Project, visit their website: www.sandiegoroots.org

Have a Wonderful Summer Everyone!

2008-06-13T21:28:00.000-07:00

While relaxing on the beach, let
your mind wander to our school
gardens and try to imagine how you
would like them to be. Design an
"outdoor classroom" in your mind. If you
come up with something please let us know.
We would love input from the entire school
community if possible.

And if you are one of our fabulous teachers,
ask yourself how you'd like to use the garden
next year and how/if it could be incorporated
into your curriculum planning.

See you in September!

Summer Watering....HELP!

2008-05-20T13:43:00.000-07:00

There are 11 weeks in summer and we hope to have 2 people/families per week to "adopt" our gardens. It will involve coming in on Monday and Thursday of that week during business hours to water and turn the compost. It will take about 1 hour to accomplish this. (That's only 2 hours the whole summer to put towards your volunteer hours!!) Your kids will enjoy helping or playing at the K-2 playground while you tend the garden and you are welcome to bring a picnic ... enjoy the grass and shade...
The schedule/sign-up will be posted all summer long on the link section to the right, but here it is so far. If you are interested in helping us out, e-mail Amy at alzycat@gmail.com We will have a quick walk-through on Thursday June 12th from 11:30 to 12:30pm just before school lets out, to go over what needs to be cared for.

June 16 and 19.....1)Annie 2)Amy Z
June 23 and 26....1) Gabby 2) Tara Border 3) Susana Anaya (June 26 only)
June 30 and July 3......1)Tammy 2)Mark Decker (7/3 only) (need one other 6/30)
July 7 and 10.....1)Polly Camp 2)Amy Hooker
July 14 and 17...1)Annie 2) Gabby
July 21 and 24....1)Juanita & Lee 2)_______
July 28 and 31.....1)Lydia 2) Robin Roberts
August 4 and 7......1)Robin Roberts 2) Susana Anaya
August 11 and 14......1)Lydia 2) Susana Anaya
August 18 and 21...1) Susana Anaya 2) CJ Lucke
August 25 and 28.....1) Amy Z 2) Susana Anaya
Sept 1 and 4......1)Juanita & Lee 2)_________

Thank You

2008-05-16T08:42:00.000-07:00

We are so happy to announce that our SDCCS gardenening project has been selected to receive a 2007-2008 Lowe's Toolbox for Education grant from the Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation (LCEF). This grant will award us the sum of $5000, which we will use to expand the 3rd through 8th grade raised garden beds, build an outdoor classroom, and a Greenhouse ! A big thanks goes to our own SDCCS Parent Kari Finch for writing this and other grants for the garden.

We would also like to thank The Village Garden Club of Lajolla for a generous financial donation which funded our reed fencing in the K-2 garden and our Succulent Garden. In addition, we would like to thank Rain Bird for donating irrigation supplies that we will be installing sometime over the summer or at the beginning of the new school year.

One last thank you goes to the National Gardening Association for awarding us the 2008 Youth Garden Grant earlier this year. With this award we received a $500 gift card for Home Depot, and an assortment of excellent books to help us learn more about Garden Curriculum. They believe that "today's youth are the future of American Gardening" ! So do we !!

The 3-8th Grade Garden is Looking Healthy!

2008-05-13T16:44:00.000-07:00

Corn, beans, tomatos, squash, strawberries, california natives...and more!
Thanks to many different classrooms and a few very dedicated parents, this garden is flourishing! In a month many of these veggies will mature and it will be time for a feast!

After all the Soil Ammending...

2008-05-04T13:36:00.000-07:00

...our K-2 garden is still not thriving.

We are pretty sure that a growth inhibitor was used on the plot of land that is now our k-2 bed. This would explain why, after adding compost, fish emulsion, chicken manure and worm castings as well as horse manure and mulch, over and over, our garden is still just barely growing. There have been a few successes with larger seeded plants like sweet peas and nasturtiums and the native mexican sunflowers seem to be doing pretty well. Some of the hardier herbs are looking good though not growing any bigger. The grape and weeping mulberry are not doing too badly either but these were both established to begin with...
It is very frustrating but we are trying to turn this all into a learning experience for the kids by conducting some experiments with charcoal....this is supposed to help a great deal. We also plan to plant many more beans, fava beans especially. Beans, over time, really help clean and nourish the soil.
So, for all the first time gardening kids and teachers, be patient. Little by little we will purify this contaminated soil and teach a valuable lesson in the process about how much damage can be done with a bit of weed killer.