Fruit or Veggie

It was hot and dry in the garden today.  The young gardeners found these squash bug eggs.  Several of the eight-ball zucchini squash plants have developed powdery mildew.

Squash bug eggs

Powdery Mildew on leaves

 Today's lesson was "Fruit or Veggie".  The students learned that many of the foods they know as vegetables are botanically fruit.  If it has seeds, it's a fruit.  Tomatos, squash, cucumbers - as well as apples, cantelope and peaches - all fruit!

After the lesson the gardeners painted picture frames to hold pictures of their gardens.

Mariah and Morgan painting picture frames

Landon's picture frame

Pistils, Petals and Other Parts

Today Lala Kumar taught the students all about the parts of a flower.  The lesson started in the garden and continured in the classroom.

Lala teaching the class about squash blossoms
 

Learning the parts of a flower

Miss Cass brought watermelon and cantelope flower "cookies" for snacks

 

Here are som of the plants we're growing

Burgundy Beans

Purple Bell Peppers

Sweet Banana Peppers

Okra

Sand, Silt or Clay

The young gardeners weeded and fertilized their gardens today.

Today's lesson was all about dirt - and the kids got to play with it.  They learned about soil texture and structure in a hands-on way!

 

Shine On

                                                Welcome to Garden N Grow News


Today the young gardeners learned about photosynthesis. They learned about the formula and a bunch of big words like chlorophyl and chloroplast. We had a lot of produce, mostly peppers. In other news we found more squash bug eggs and a mushroom in the lasagna garden.

We had time for 2 crafts today so we made visors and plant markers. Our young gardeners are very creative.

 

 

Posted by Mariah, young gardener, year 2

Grow, Grow, Grow Your Beans

It was hot and dry in the gardens today.  The young gardeners found some squash bug eggs.

in the garden

 
The students learned about the "ingredients" needed to grow and produce vegetables - light, water, nutrients and air. They designed experiments to see the results of altering the ingredients. We'll check their beans in two weeks to see how well they grew.

Coddle those Cotyls

Today the young gardeners learned all about seeds - how they are dispersed and how they grow.  They got to see the germination process in bean seeds soaked in water, and they learned to identify the five parts of a bean seed.  They looked at the inside of the beans with hand lenses to see the roots (radical) forming and tiny leaves of the embryo of the bean seed called cotyledons.

Out in the garden everyone pitched in to weed and water.  Our young students found these two stages of a lady beetle - beneficial insects.

Lady Beetle Pupa

Lady Beetle Larva
 

Lasagna Gardening

Lasagna Gardening mimics the forest floor, with lots of different layers of carbon and nitrogen (think brown and green).  Lasagna gardening is an easy way to plant a garden in your yard without tilling.

Today the young gardeners created a Lasagna Garden out of newspaper, grass clippings, dried leaves, and manure.