Today the first-graders of room numbers 6, 8, 3, 4, and 5 got to do a little wintertime prep. The freeze hit some of the plants really hard, so a lot of the green beans needed pulling and everything needed to be covered in straw to protect the living vegetable plants from the next freeze. The peas seem to also be on their way out, but Farmer Tiffany is holding out hope that they’ll come back to life. The older salad greens did okay during freeze, but the newer ones didn’t. There were still plenty of garlic bulbs alive and kicking and at least one head of very green and delicious-looking cabbage.
Farmer Tiffany asked the first group of first graders if they knew what had happened to the plants. One student raised his hand and proudly recalled that the plants were, “overripe.” Everyone seemed pleased that a lot of the students like this first-grader remembered vocabulary that had been integrated into their talks a while back. Another student pointed out that they might be able to use the beans inside still, but Tiffany pointed out that since some of the plants died, the beans might not be able to be used.
Each class discussed the importance of worms in the garden for aeration and soil production and learned that Farmer Tiffany has chickens at home, a fact that seemed to perplex more than a few city kids.
When future plans to decide what to plant in January were discussed, a few kids yelled, “yes!” and jumped in the air. Cleary this is a very exciting part of the gardening process, probably since we just saw the results of the harvest. Pulling a few carrots from the ground, students were able to do some light harvesting today, but admitted that the little carrots needed more time to grow. When a little nub of orange is visible at the top, you can pull and eat the carrots, but the longer you wait, the bigger they get.
All in all a wintertime gardening day’s success!
Farmer Tiffany asked the first group of first graders if they knew what had happened to the plants. One student raised his hand and proudly recalled that the plants were, “overripe.” Everyone seemed pleased that a lot of the students like this first-grader remembered vocabulary that had been integrated into their talks a while back. Another student pointed out that they might be able to use the beans inside still, but Tiffany pointed out that since some of the plants died, the beans might not be able to be used.
Each class discussed the importance of worms in the garden for aeration and soil production and learned that Farmer Tiffany has chickens at home, a fact that seemed to perplex more than a few city kids.
When future plans to decide what to plant in January were discussed, a few kids yelled, “yes!” and jumped in the air. Cleary this is a very exciting part of the gardening process, probably since we just saw the results of the harvest. Pulling a few carrots from the ground, students were able to do some light harvesting today, but admitted that the little carrots needed more time to grow. When a little nub of orange is visible at the top, you can pull and eat the carrots, but the longer you wait, the bigger they get.
All in all a wintertime gardening day’s success!