The Garden at Montclair Elementary School

Sowing season is here!

2012-02-13T16:16:00.000-08:00

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!

Making progress!!!

2011-10-09T19:24:00.000-07:00

We finally have a plan! We have been working hard to figure out just exactly how we will make this unused space a place for play, discovery, reflection and beauty. Low and behold our plan. Not only do we have this plan, but we are making headway on it! Last weekend the Montclair Dad's Club came and worked hard to help dig irrigation trenches (HARD WORK), place the tables, and refine our garden entrance. We are making friends with our neighbors and making sure our new space will not affect them. Next up, we will build two more planter boxes, plant a vines and lattice for a privacy screen for our neighbors, secure the picnic tables and secure 20-25 stumps for our outdoor seating areas. If you have friends or neighbors or members of your community that have access to good tree stumps (about 18 " diameter) please bring them to our new space (the area north of the Ottertorium).

Another garden work day is coming soon...we are hoping to have the space usable for the spring, when our outdoor space becomes limited because of the construction. Which means we have a good amount of work to do... we'll make it fun though! come join us! We'll be reaching out soon.

For now we are calling this space the Garden Annex...

Welcome to The Garden!

2011-09-19T20:25:00.000-07:00

Thanks to our parent volunteers who rallied last minute to help beautify the area in front of the school with new plants and mulch. It looks wonderful! We are transitioning the new temporary garden behind/north of the Otterttorium. If you'd like to be involved in the Montclair Garden Group, please contact pilarariella@gmail.com. Our next school work day is Saturday, October 1, 9am - 12noon. This will be a Dads' Club workday, but we will try to get some momentum on the gardening too! Kids are welcome, there will be a project they can help out with, or they can play on the playground.

The Garden program is a volunteer-based garden program that was established over ten years ago. Our program is 100% volunteer-based, which means we rely on you to help to provide our students with a beautiful and inspiring garden program. Our program is an in-class and in-garden program where we learn about seed sowing, planting, harvesting, life stages of plants, plant anatomy, insects and so much more!

Where is the garden?
Good question. We are in a unique position right now where our school is growing and we are in the process of developing a new garden site annex outside our auditorium (Ottertorium). This garden will be established and maintained to work in concert with our amazing new garden to be built on the upper school in 2013.

How can you help?
We are in the process of re-organizing our gardening program, and we will roll out all of the many ways you can help soon...STAY TUNED!
In addition, we will have volunteer garden work days once a month. Swing by for some coffee and dig in for an hour or two!

The Garden (MES) needs a wheel barrow + some large watering cans + any other old gardening tools!
If you have a wheel barrow that is collecting dust, we could put it to GOOD use!!! In addition, if you have some old larger-sized watering cans, or older gardening tools (trowels, etc.) we could really use a couple of hoses. Thank you MES families for your amazing support! Please contact pilar strutin-belinoff at pilarariella@gmail.com if you have any of the above items!

Pilar Strutin-Belinoff
Lauren Disston

A great cleanup day!

2010-09-22T13:08:00.000-07:00

A great big thank you to all of the wonderful folks who came out on Sunday to help maintain and beautify our gardens! The Native garden was cut back and weeded, the Friendship garden had a major pulling out of our amazing and invasive mint plant, and the garden shed was cleaned out and organized! Not only that but the folks who came had a wonderful, genuine appreciation for the garden and an understanding of the importance of getting kids out to see where their food comes from. A wonderful morning. Big thanks to Margaret Chavigny, Jorgen Jensen, Ray Riga, Laurie Halliday, Kat Verani, Nina Senn, & Jill Broderick (for the coffee & scones). Also to the succulent/Koltiska team - thank you.

The year is off to a great start!

-Johnna & Lara

Eat Real!

2010-08-11T11:58:00.000-07:00

I wanted to put out a good word about the Eat Real Festival, which is happening in just two weeks over at Jack London Square. Show your love of good food and our fine city of Oakland by eating and listening to music - all while enjoying the last weekend of our summer break!
What is the Real-Food Festival you ask? It's a three-day celebration of the good and delicious food grown and crafted here in our region, August 27, 28 & 29th. Not only will there be tons of good food, but also food-craft performances including butchery, noodle pulling, and the ins and outs of urban homesteading - what could be more fun?
Come one come all! And for more information, click here: http://eatrealfest.com/

Summer Reading!

2010-08-11T11:43:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading one of Michael Pollan's bestselling and information packed books In Defense Of Food. To summarize, Pollan finds nutritionism to be an overly simplistic attempt at taking food apart into elements which may or may not ever add up to give us the same quality and genuine nutrition as the original whole food contained. He focuses on our culture's struggle with obesity and diabetes, seeing it as a bi-product of at least three major trends:
- Companies whose job it is to profit off of our eating habits, with no regards to what would actually be good for us to eat
- Policies started in the 1980's which subsidize corn (including corn syrup) and soy - helping to make processed high-calorie/low nutrition snacks considerably cheaper than their whole food counterparts
- Our desire to survive, which over thousands of years has trained us to seek out high-calorie sweet foods as a source of nourishment in a world where attaining nourishment was once a major challenge

But I wanted to include here an excerpt from the very end of his book, in which he highlights things that we can do to take control of our eating habits, and our overly-elaborate food chain, namely, through growing your own food:
"To take part in the intricate and endlessly interesting process of providing for our sustenance is the surest way to escape the culture of fast food and the values implicit in it: that food should be fast, cheap, and easy: that food is a product of an industry, not nature; that food is fuel, and not a form of communion, with other people as well as with other species -- with nature.
The work of growing food contributes to your health long before you sit down to eat it, of course, but there is something particularly fitting about enlisting your body in its own sustenance. Much of what we call recreation or exercise consists of pointless physical labor, so it is especially satisfying when we can give that labor a point.
To reclaim this much control over one's food, to take it back from industry and science, is not small thing: indeed, in our time cooking from scratch and growing any of your own food qualifies as subversive acts. And what these acts subvert is nutritionism: the belief that food is foremost about nutrition and nutrition is so complex that only experts and industry can possibly supply it. When you're cooking with food as alive as this - these gorgeous and semi-gorgeous fruits and leaves and flesh - you're in no danger of mistaking it for a commodity, or a fuel, or a collection of chemical nutrients. No, in the eye of the cook or the Gardner or the farmer who grew it, this food reveals itself for what it is: no mere thing but a web of relationship among a great many living beings, some human, some not, but each of them dependent on the other, and all of them ultimately rooted in soil and nourished by sunlight."

Spring Cleanup!

2010-06-20T18:39:00.000-07:00

Our Spring Cleanup day was a big success, with many new and old faces showing up to help beautify our communal space. Many (many) weeds were pulled, while veggies were discovered growing within their midst! My favorite part of the day was the spreading of our very very local goat bedding - kindly donated by Montclair's own 4-H goats! The garden is loving this water saving mulch already - and the veggies will only grow sweeter from the nutrients - lets make this a Montclair Tradition!

This Saturday - 9am till high noon

2010-06-10T12:25:00.000-07:00

Another wonderful Garden Cleanup day is upon us! Come join our volunteer community in weeding, spreading mulch, spreading goat manure (from a local source!), turning our compost and all sorts of other crazy fun too amazing to even mention right now. These garden days are the basis of our community and our garden. We love to see new and old faces and look forward to working together. Both of our gardens were built and are maintained by community volunteers - come on out and show that you care!

Artickokes!

2010-05-21T09:52:00.000-07:00

The longer I grow food with kids at Montclair, the more excited I become by the amazing lessons that can be learned through such a beautifully simple program. It is all about seed to table, or, to put it another way, having children reap the rewards and taste the bounty that comes from our earth. This healthy and amazing food tastes so much better when you know that you've grown it yourself! Often the kids will enjoy foods (veggies) that presented most anywhere else they would turn their noses up at.
This being said I will admit that I am very proud of the amazing artichoke plant that has come up so nicely in Ms. McClain's veggie bed! I planted it as I plant most things - not knowing how it would do, weather we would get a crop before the end of the school year, and wondering how an entire classroom could possibly share a few artichokes if they did...
Well here we are. Seed to table. The three artichokes were devoured by our 30 students - four leaves apiece. They planted them, they harvested them, and then they ate them up. How fun this is. And what large lessons lie within.

Wine Barrels

2010-05-13T12:13:00.000-07:00

The wine barrels are looking great! Thanks so much to Larry Magid, Lara Jealous, Eric Veldhuizen, & many from the dad's club - this beautification project has been a true team effort. Now that spring is here, the mums are getting ready to bloom and the drip irrigation will ensure their survival!

Thanks to all of you who showed up to our "cleanup day" to help with this great project. We couldn't do any of this without you.

Cheese Making? In Oakland?!?

2010-02-14T10:40:00.000-08:00

I used to work on an educational farm in slightly-upstate New York. Goats, Cows, Sheep, Ducks, Chickens, Veggies, and lots of fun. Of the many activities that we taught to children, this Cheese making recipe is surprisingly simple and delicious. I just tried it with my daughter's fourth-grade classroom at and they loved it!

This is a "farmer cheese"; similar to a ricotta or a cottage cheese. The taste is a little plain - most kids love it!
ingredients:
1 gallon of milk
1/4 cup of white vinegar or lemon juice
tools:
pot to heat up the milk (non-aluminum)
colander
cheese cloth or fine cotton (optional)
thermometer
big (slotted) spoon

Simply put, you heat up the milk to 180-190 degrees (just before boiling if you forget your thermometer) stirring as it heats. I have the kids form a line so that they can take turns stirring.
[Things to talk about as this happens: what does a cow eat? (a: grass, hey which is dried grass) How big does a dairy cow get? (a: depends on the breed, between 800-1600 pounds) Why does a cow make milk? (a: for her baby, just like all mammals) How much milk can a cow make per day? (a: depends on the breed, between 4-12 gallons)]
Once hot, remove from heat and slowly add the vinegar while stirring. (again, the kids take turns stirring and pouring little bits of vinegar)
The milk should separate into Curds and Whey (just like little Miss Muffet). At this point all you need to do is separate the curds. It's nice if each kid can scoop some up and put it into the colander which ideally is lined with the cloth.
Put it into small cups for the kids to try (still warm)- I like to give them a taste and let them know that they can come back for seconds.

For more fun and simple "cow facts" (to discuss with the kids) click here to check out moo-milk.com

Gardening in the fake-but-true NY Post

2009-09-22T11:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my friends the Yes Men distributed thousands of copies of a fake-but-true NY Post, a completely realistic "special edition" all about global warming. Included in their articles is a short about Rooftop Farms in Brooklyn (NY's Oaktown). Urban farms such as these seem to be sprouting up all over right now. It's an exciting movement that helps limit our carbon-output while also letting people know where their food comes from. Count us in.

Fall Cleanup a Rousing Success

2009-09-15T11:43:00.001-07:00

A great big Thank You to all of the wonderful people who came out and helped us get the garden prepped for a new school year, you guys are what keeps this program going. Our hard working volunteer crew meant business, and thanks to them we completed all of our lofty goals. We pulled all of the weeds (& mint) from the existing veggie beds, then added a good amount of soil to bring them up to within a child's reach. We also sanded, oiled and filled twenty 1/2 wine barrel that extend the garden and beautify our campus! A big thanks to the dad's club as they joined in the wine-barrel prepping - together we got it all done.

A special thanks as well to to Noah's Bagels, Nellie's Coffee, Thornhill Cafe & Lucky's Market for making food donations to our cleanup event.

If you missed out on the fun, don't worry- we're scheming up another one in a few months when we are hoping to revive (once again) our native garden. These are fun community-building events. Just check out the fine photos below!

The highlight of your weekend...

2009-09-05T18:20:00.000-07:00

WORK DAY IN THE FRIENDSHIP GARDEN!

THIS SATURDAY THE 12TH; 9 AM - 1 PM

Come to get a little dirty and lend a hand as we beautify, modify and prepare the friendship garden best for the school year.

On our agenda:

* Clear debris & add fresh organic soil to the raised garden beds.

* Prepare, fill & place new soil in 1/2 wine barrels as additions to the garden beds

* Setup compost bins

* General improvements so the garden will be ready for the new year!

- Bagels, Coffee & Light Snacks generously donated by local merchants - available while they last.

- Recommended to bring: Gloves, a refillalbe water bottle, sun-block & tools (wheel barrow & shovel are especially helpful)

- QUESTIONS? Just ask Johnna Arnold or Lara Jealous

or send an email to montclair.compost@gmail.com

SEE YOU THERE!

Introductory Letter about our Program

2009-09-04T13:53:00.000-07:00

Hello prospective volunteer! We at Montclair Elementary are lucky enough to have an organic raised bed vegetable garden as well as a beautiful California native garden for our students to use! When paired with some excellent volunteers and our wonderful long growing season, there is much fun and learning to be had. The COMPOST program has been established for many years but we are always looking for some new energy and ideas to make this one of the best garden years ever.

How can you get involved? There are many ways, but the most common is to work in your child’s classroom as their garden teacher. This works especially well in pairs, so you will hopefully find a garden buddy to share the job. The program is incredibly versatile (and fun!). You will need to meet with your partner and your child’s teacher to discuss what lessons in the garden are most appealing to you, as well as what works well with the established curriculum. You can then lead your child’s classroom activities as little as once a month or as often as once a week. The more time and energy you put into it, the more the students will get out of it.

We will have an introductory meeting a week or two after school begins. We also have many different books and web sites that can help you to come up with ideas for your class. We have folders that provide you with information on what some of classes before you have done. Ultimately the curriculum is up to you. The garden can be used to teach lessons in math, science, language arts & art, as well as just how to work as a group and where their food comes from… There are many options available and I firmly believe all are important and educational.

If you are not interested in teaching in a classroom, there are many other ways to help! We have big garden cleanup days twice (or three times) a year, on a Saturday morning. On these days we work to maintain the gardens, as well as beautify the campus with trees, bulbs, mulch, paint, etc. We would also love some secretarial help, as well as help with fundraising and grant writing. Meanwhile, if you see a spot on campus that needs some attention and you’ve got a great idea – run it past us, chances are we’ll think it’s great.

Below is a quote from Alice Waters, who explains the importance and strength of gardening in the schools beautifully. Ms. Waters has pioneered an integration of gardening and cooking into the Berkeley public schools with amazing success. At MLK Jr. High, all school lunches include ingredients grown by the students, on the campus. We would love to have the program gain momentum and influence within our community, but to do this we’ll need all the helping hands we can get.

“The aim of education is to provide children with a sense of purpose and a sense of possibility, and with skills and habits of thinking that will help them live in the world. A key way to learn these skills and habits is to learn how to eat well and how to eat right. A curriculum designed to educate both the senses and the conscience–a curriculum based on sustainable agriculture–will teach children their moral obligation to be caretakers and stewards of the finite resources of our planet. And it will teach them the joy of the table, the pleasures of real work, and the meaning of community.” -Alice Waters

Thanks! We’re looking forward to a great year.

- The Composters 2009: Johnna Arnold, Lara Jealous & Eric Veldhuizen

Novella Rocks

2009-08-19T16:59:00.000-07:00

We COMPOST folks are big new fans of fellow-Oaklander Novella Carpenter, who's new book Farm City details her adventures while starting up a farm on squatted land in West Oakland. We are envious of her goats and chickens. We are admiring her get-up-and-get-to-it attitude. We think the idea cities hosting demonstration farms is brilliant. Best of all, we like that she wears an old flannel and does not do her dishes before TIME magazine comes over.

We're planning on checking out her farm in person on the 29th, when she'll be having an open-farm day. All are invited. You can check out the details here.

Upcoming School Garden Workshop

2009-08-12T14:31:00.000-07:00

Growing Learning Communities:
Ideas & Connections for the New School Garden Year

Teams of 2-4 are encouraged. Teachers, parent volunteers, garden managers, community partners, or any other leader in your school garden program may come as part of your team.

Date: Thursday, August 20, 2009
Time: 9 A.M. - 2:30 P.M. (lunch provided)
Location: University of California Botanical Garden, Berkeley
Directions and parking information may be found at: http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu

Large Group and Break-out Sessions will include:
Garden Curriculum and Support Resources
Considering the Elements and Making a Plan for the School Garden Year
Participant generated break-out session
Getting to Know our Local School Gardens and their programs
School Garden Activity Swap

Please be prepared to share briefly as a school team the characteristics of your school garden and the various ways it is used. If you have already been teaching in gardens, please bring an example of a successful activity you have done with youth in gardens to share. You are welcome to bring pictures or examples of the activity, or lead colloquium attendees to try their hand at an activity element with time permitting. (Time limit: 3 minutes.)

Please RSVP the following information (for each attendee):
School or Organization * Name * Position/Title
Years working in school gardens * Level of garden expertise
What is 1 topic you would like featured in the break-out session? (e.g. pest management; cooking ideas; parent involvement)

Send RSVP by Thursday, August 13 to:
Christine Manoux, UC Botanical Garden Education Coordinator
510-643-4832 or manoux@berkeley.edu

Michelle explains what it's all about

2009-06-26T23:02:00.000-07:00

An insperational video of our first lady discussing the

White House vegetable garden with local school children.

Enjoy!

Spring Harvest Day for Mrs. Norris' Kindergarten

2009-05-30T14:01:00.000-07:00

We had a great day in the garden today!

The Garden Grows!

2009-05-14T13:30:00.000-07:00

When we began the rejuvenation of the native garden, there were a lot of folks who were skeptical of it's ability to grow and thrive with so many children using it. It became a real irony; wanting to give the children the gift of a garden yet being afraid of what might happen to all of the plants once we did.

Our way of working with this was two fold:

1) Install a path and some stumps, so that children can jump and play in the garden.

2) Make sure that the students understood that this garden is a special place for them, one that needs to be treated with care in order to grow.

The great news is it worked! After four months of being open to the public, the garden is looking better than ever! (It also appears to be a pretty good spot for a game of hide-and-seek.)

Montclair Native Garden Grand Re-Opening

2009-01-03T19:40:00.000-08:00

Last spring COMPOST was lucky enough to receive a grant from the California Department of Education to revive our existing California Native Garden! We quickly got to work: researching, re-designing and then re-planting the area across from our friendship garden.

And now- low and behold! We have a beautiful new green space with a plethora of flowers and plants (and hummingbirds!) growing nicely.

Now that the plants have had a chance to grow and settle into their new surroundings, we wanted to let the children in! So on Friday, December 5^th, we had an official opening in which each classroom had a 15minute guided tour. The day was a great success- it was wonderful to be able to walk small groups of children through our new space. The children learned about the different plants that are growing and about how they were used by native Americans. They were also taught that this new garden is a place for quiet play and careful feet- so that it can continue to grow and flourish and be shared by all.

The success of the day was largely due to the wonderful teachers at the UC Botanical garden who volunteered to help us with the classroom tours, as well as the wonderful parents who spent the day helping with introductions and explanations.

Now that this new space is open, please take some time to come check it out! Stroll on our lovely new boardwalk, check out the beautiful plants that are flourishing throughout the space, and ask your kids what they remember from their tour. There are maps available if you are interested in knowing what is planted where- just send me a message.
THANKS to all of our kind helpers for their support! The garden is a visible testament to what a community of people can do when they each take time out to work together. May it continue to grow and be a shared treasure for our school. A special thanks to the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden, Ploughshares Nursery, & our impromptu COMPOST committee: Eric Veldhuizen, Lara Jealous & Cathy Sharp - without all of their generosity the garden would still be bear.

Bagels and Mulch for all

2008-09-21T14:08:00.000-07:00

We've been off to a bit of a slow start for Gardening at Montclair school this year, but yesterday we set things straight with a wonderfully hardy crew that got things going with a bang- our fall compost cleanup day was once again a pleasurable sight of people putting their muscle, sweat, and kindness directly into our school- not to mention having a little fun along the way.
Our big task of the day was a generous (~9 yard) supply of mulch that was donated to our school from Traveres Tree Service. This mulch is now spread throughout the floor of the friendship garden, between all the plants in the native garden, and on top of most of the soil at the front of the school. It was a lot of hard work and now that it has been dispersed everything looks great!
Meanwhile, we weeded and turned the soil in the beds for the friendship garden, and put a few more plants in the native garden, which is getting ready for it's school-wide unveiling on October 3rd.
If you missed this cleanup day, never fear! There are many ways of getting involved with the gardening program at our school, and there is talk of another cleanup day in just a few months. Kids are invited to come and help or just to ride their bikes and play. Bagels and Coffee and juice are served- these events are a wonderful way to build community and to help our school. The old phrase "many hands make light work" really applies on these days- so please, bring a friend!
And to those of you who did come for the Cleanup day-
THANK YOU!!!

California Garden Rejuvenation!

2008-05-05T23:14:00.000-07:00

Last weekend a bunch of wonderfully kind-hearted parents gave up their Saturday to come out to dig in the soil here at Montclair Elementary. And what do we have to show for it? A beautifully restored all native garden- with a wonderful new boardwalk, a new irrigation system, and bunch of new plants growing in the soil!

This garden was first established ten years ago by parents who wanted to give their children a place to learn about the beautiful plants that are native to our landscape. A wonderful plan but unfortunately between the kids playing and very little upkeep, the garden had fallen into some disrepair. But no longer.

With much thanks to George Manalo-LeClair and Tracy Zeltser, the school received a grant to bring this garden back to life. Suddenly not only did we have the money, but we needed to spend the money quickly- or else we would loose it. A rare problem for the programs here. I got together some fine parents and we set to re-designing this much needed green space.

The new garden is full of some wonderful fast growing flowers and shrubs- so many that a few years from now it should be overflowing with greenery and flowers.

Much thanks to all of the people who came out on this unusually warm spring Saturday to help revitalize our garden- demonstrating that digging in the dirt can be both worthwhile and fun. A special thanks to the parents who helped get things ready before the big day- most notably Lara Jealous and Eric Veldhuizen. And a great thanks to Nancy Bloom, who has supported us all along the way. We're keeping the fence up for the remainder of this school year to give the new plants a chance to grow. Starting next school year the students will be able to walk and touch and even learn from our beautiful new garden.

Name that Bean

2008-04-01T17:14:00.000-07:00

I made it outside today in time to catch Ms. Morozumi's 2nd grade class rummaging in the garden. Look at these amazingly large and hearty unidentified beans! Who cares what they are, as long as they taste good...

Daffodils! It must be spring...

2008-03-25T17:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick photo in appreciation of the beautiful daffodils that popped up all around the new trees along Mountain Boulevard. These daffodils bulbs were donated to our school through the city of Oakland. Cathy Sharp was the wonderful one that figured it out and picked them up. Meanwhile it was Eric Veldhuizen & his landscaping crew that got them into the ground in time. Look how great they are- thanks to all of them for the beautification.

Compost Cleanup Day

2007-12-06T11:55:00.001-08:00

Although it was a little while ago now, we had a wonderful and successful compost cleanup day this fall. For those of you who do not know, the cleanup day is a weekend day when kind-hearted and generous parents come together to care for the school garden as well as the school grounds in general. These days happen twice each school year- once in the fall and once in spring. I find these days to be community-building and heart-warming events. Not only that, but when we work together we really do get a lot done!
Below you can see some photos of all that we did, which included:
-Weeding the existing raised beds in the friendship garden and in front of the portables.
-Putting fresh composted organic soil into the raised beds and turning them (so they are ready for the new crops coming in!)
-Planting the flowers around the new trees on the lower and middle playground.
-Painting the wall in the front of the Adventure Time Classroom.
-Transplanting perennial herbs to create a communal herb garden.
If you took part in the day- once again, thanks so much! The school looks better because of you.
If you missed the cleanup day, do not despair! There will be another one this spring, towards the end of the school year. And you can check back here for dates and more details!

Yeah Montclair Elementary!

2007-11-07T20:28:00.000-08:00

This will be our home for the wonderful gardening program at our school. Come by to see what is happening!