Monday, November 12, 2012

Fall Garden Workday!

lovely fairy garden
So much hard work...
Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you who came and worked in the garden in October!
Our garden workday was a tremendous success. We had an ambitious agenda and thanks to your creativity, dedication, ingenuity and perspiration we far exceeded our expectations for the day. Our garden beds were cleared and compost was added to prepare for fall/winter plantings. The front walkway was planted with a lovely selection of plants and garden barrels were filled with rich, fertile soil and distributed throughout the campus. As if that weren't enough, we now have a strawberry barrel, an herb barrel and an absolutely beautiful mosaic tile sunflower bed at the entrance to the new Friendship garden. I never cease to marvel at the inspiration and tireless effort of our garden community. 
In addition to my gratitude to all of our gardeners, I want to give a shout out to America Soil in Richmond and Ploughshares Nursery in Alameda
American Soil donated the Local Hero topsoil and the Super Grape compost. Our beds were filled with Local Hero topsoil last year and you have seen the results- everything planted there seems to have thrived. By preparing the beds well we will ensure the success of the things planted there this season. 
Ploughshares Nursery in Alameda, which has an incredible selection of natives, donated the many dozens of beautiful plants that we used to landscape the walkway in front of the school. 
Without the effort of our garden community and the generous donations from American Soil and Ploughshares nursery this would not have been possible. We can all look forward to watching the fruits of our labor materialize over the months and years to come.  ALSO, we now have plenty of spaces for planting...




Sunday, October 14, 2012

Mark your calendars: 

October 24th is Food Day
Bring all your garden fruits and veggies to school! Any late tomatoes, early winter greens ready for harvest, or perhaps a few carrots or sweet peas to share? Bring them in to your classroom on October 24th. They will be distributed to kids at snack and lunch. Let's have a low or no carbon footprint meal. Maybe you could even walk those veggies to school.......

October 28th is our next Garden Work Day
We will be preparing garden beds for planting, weeding, clearing ivy etc. We would love to have you all join us 9-12. Coffee and bagels will be provided. Bring gloves, shovels and trowels if you have them. 

If you want some garden inspiration take a look at the beautiful power point below which was presented by Pilar at the PTA meeting last week. 









Thursday, October 11, 2012




The pumpkin patch event was a smashing success!! Each class harvested a pumpkin from the garden and used it for a lesson plan. The lessons ranged from history to math to language arts and beyond. Even pumpkin Haiku!! Thanks to all of the teachers and parents who made this event an incredible demonstration of what garden veggies plus a healthy dose of creativity can teach.

Park Guthrie the OUSD Garden Coordinator joined the garden team to speak at the PTA meeting this month. The garden mission and vision were shared with an enthusiastic audience. Let's bring gardening to every classroom every day!

 Here is a product of the garden !!! This tomato is bigger than a small pumpkin itself.
Our one single apple has miraculously survived the last couple of months of deer invasion. If you have any idea for what we should do with our crop of a single magnificent apple please submit it here!

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Revving our green thumbs...


Yeah for school being back in session! It was a lovely surprise for many to come check out the garden and see all of these big, gorgeous pumpkins, apples, zucchinis as big as tree trunks, monster Kale, and tomatoes plants that would not stop. Oh and bees.. and we like bees, they make our plants happy! We are really excited for our gardening program this year...

We are asking every class to have at least one Garden Liaisons  (Parent) to help weave garden-related activities and lessons into their classroom core curriculum. In plain words, get in the garden with the kids, observe, write, draw, graph, plant, harvest... Without you amazing parents, we don't have a program!

We ask that children only pick when they are with their teachers. We will be officially kicking off the program once we get all of our Garden Liaisons for each class. We can't wait to reconnect and meet new faces..look for a garden work day to kick it all off!

In the Garden with the class
MONSTER Zucchini 

Bees Collecting Pollin!
Stump play


WE rescued our Redbud from the Native Garden and it's ALIVE!
Super Sweet Cherry Tomatoes!
Recess exploration

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

HARVEST SEASON

Welcome back to school Montclair Elementary! As summer starts to fade harvest season is upon us in the Friendship garden. There has been a bounty of greens and tomatoes this summer, along with some mammoth carrots and a stunning pumpkin crop. Chamomile is growing wildly and there are 4+ foot celery stalks.
We are thinking about having a harvest festival this fall, or perhaps some sort of a pumpkin event in which each class would do something fun/creative/educational with a pumpkin and compare results at the end. Let us know what you think. We love to hear your ideas.
This year there will be an emphasis on getting kids out into the garden and integrating all the garden has to teach into classroom curriculums. Pilar has spent  a tremendous amount of time developing garden lesson plans for each grade. The garden can be used as a platform to teach biology, nutrition, health, cooking, life science, diversity, ecosystems, reading, writing, math......... the possibilities are endless.
We are very excited about getting teachers and students more engaged in the garden as we begin to plan for the garden that will take shape with the new construction.
 A joyful moment as we ate the larger than life celery. 

 Never too young to start gardening

 Holy pumpkins Batman!!


We ask all of you gardeners (and nongardeners) to join us in the effort. Our kids thrive in green-space. Get involved! Talk to us, talk to your child's teacher or just stroll around the garden and wonder at the marvel of all of that edible greenery sprouting from the earth.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

The Friendship Garden Thrives

The Friendship Garden Thrives
Now that we are well into summer we can see that all of our hard work (thank you Dad's Club!!!) has paid off. Our irrigation is honed to perfection (Thank you Eric V!), the beds are made and filled, flowers are growing and the tree round amphitheater is successfully in. The students love playing, eating snack or just relaxing on the stumps during recess. Meanwhile, other students are using the tables to pay games or are just running around this new found outdoor space. We checked in on the space a few times and found that teachers were enjoying bringing their classes outside for some outdoor learning. A few of our grades also planted very successful garden beds. We have burgeoning beds filled with herbs (thyme, parsley, chamomile, etc.), pumpkins, peas, beets, flowers, greens, tomatoes, etc. Up above on the play yard the Kindergarden classes planted a "salad garden" where they panted all of the ingredients for a spring salad, and were able to harvest and have celebratory salad at the end of the year!  Last but not least, we have an apple tree which is boasting three tiny little apples.


Finally, our space feels like home as we raised the old "Friendship Garden" gate. A place to call our own. Come on down and check out the garden, feel free to harvest a little something over the summer, tame some weeds or just hang out.


While we are enjoying this delicious summer we look forward to the children coming back and seeing how all of their plants have thrived in the warm weather. And for parents, know that we will be asking for each class to have a gardening rep this year, it's the only way to keep our gardening program rich and alive! Please consider contributing in this way... it's fun and easy!


happy gardening!
pilar and alexis 


Dad's Club Raises the "roof!"
Kale and Mustard Greens Abound!


Beets!
The Friendship Garden
Apples!
Pumpkin!




Monday, February 13, 2012

Sowing season is here!

Last week the Dad's Club came and raised the picnic tables and helped install the outdoor auditorium. The garden is ready!!! Of course, we have lots of planting that still needs to happen and artwork (Remi Rubel has been working with the fourth grade on some amazing stepping stones) installed, but for all intents and purposes (GARDENING!) we are ready to go!

The beds are ready for Spring. We could use more garden volunteers in the classroom to help plant the class plots. The kindergarten beds are up outside Ms. Nicola's classroom, while all of the other grades are down in the Lower Garden. The garden map is posted at the school, across from the office.

If you would like to work as a garden volunteer in the classroom, help in the garden in general or have extra gardening supplies or equipment that you would like to donate, etc. please let us know at thegarden@montclairelementaryschool.org or pilarariella@gmail.com

Happy Gardening!