Pistils, Petals & More

Today was a nice day to work in the garden.  The young gardeners weeded and watered.

The lesson was Pistils, Petals & More - all about the parts of a flower and their purpose.

The students dissected day lilies to see the parts, and learned the purpose of each part.

Container Gardening

We had all that rain earlier in the month, which made the weeds grow.  This morning the gardens were very dry, so we weeded and watered.

 

Mr. Charles taught the students all about container gardening.  The young gardeners made their own containers and planted flower seeds.

The gardeners started making signs to identify their gardens.  

Can't wait to see the finished products!

 

Grow, Grow Grow Your Beans

Another beautiful day to work in the gardens!  We're starting to see some produce from the gardens.

Madison's cherry tomatoes

Rachel's purple pepper and cherry tomato


Ms Linda's lesson on the conditions that affect plant growth held everyone's interest

Designing experiment using bean seeds

Lasagna Gardening

Today's lesson was lasagna gardening.  The class learned how a garden plot can be made by layering nitrogen/green and carbon/brown materials like grass clippings, dried leaves, compost, peat moss.  As the organic matter decomposes, it forms a rich compost that feeds the plants.

We worked in the gardens today until the rain started and everyone got wet!

Always weeding to do!

Rachel's purple pepper

Some wet gardeners!

We went back outside after the rain.  The young gardeners made their own lasagna gardens and planted snap pea seeds in them.  Then they helped layer materials in a larger lasagna garden.  We'll watch the layers decompose throughout the summer. 

making individual lasagna gardens

layering materials in the lasagna garden

Coddle Those Cotyls

It was dry enough to work in the gardens today.  There were a lot of weeds!

Today's lesson was all about seeds.  The students dissected bean seeds and identified the parts of the plant: cotyledon, epicotyl, hypocotyl and the radical.

After the lesson they worked on some garden art.  They started painting these ladybug stones

When they are done they will look like this - 

Weed or Seed

Rain again, so we couldn't work in the gardens!  We'll have a lot of weeding to do when the sun comes out!

Too much rain?

 Two of our young gardeners brought this turtle in to show the class.  They found him (?) in the road.  Dad said they were turning him loose today.  We've got some nature lovers in Garden N Grow!

Today we learned about weeds - how to control weeds by cultivating and mulching.  We also identified some common weeds.  Then we divided into teams and went out in the field to see how many different weeds we could find.

What's this weed called?

Can you whistle with a blade of grass?

Morgan's green pepper 

We had some time left after the weed hunt, so we made slime with glue and liquid starch.  Stirring it took some effort, so this exercise called for teamwork!

SLIME!

Working together

Planting Day

The rain has stopped long enough for us to plant our gardens.  

It's a little muddy though!

Planting 1, 2, 3

Today was supposed to be planting day.  Mother Nature had other ideas!

Raining in the garden

The young gardeners learned about planting seeds vs transplants, and the importance of proper spacing.  They'll be ready when it quits raining!

After the lesson, everyone made labels for their plants.  This is a very artistic group!

Growing Together

We have a great group of young gardeners for this year's Garden N Grow!

Garden N Grow 2014

Today we got acquainted and learned what we'll be growing in our gardens.

Selecting our plots