One of my job descriptions is to spread the HM Garden model to our friends and neighbors in FCPS. The Quander Road School has requested my advice on the garden they are beginning and the following is the latest update on their progress! I wanted to share :)
"In honor of Earth Day I thought I’d send everyone a little update about the garden.
We have a shed!
If you haven’t looked outside recently, you should do it. The garden is looking more and more like a real garden every day. Thanks to Mr. Kelly’s hard work, and Ms. Vance and Ms. Rudert’s donations of tools we’ve made some real progress!
So here’s what’s growing in Quander Garden.
We’ve planted a berry patch. Soon we will have blackberries, raspberries, grapes and strawberries! This year’s yield will be pretty low, if we have one at all. But next year we should have a significant amount of fruit coming right out of our very own garden. We are also experimenting with melons!
We’re working on a three sisters patch. This is now the Native Americans used to grow their fields. Corn, beans, and squash are all planted together. Beans climb up the corn stalks and the squash benefits from the shade given by the corn plants. It should be an exciting experiment.
Each of the students have been given a row to be in charge of. So far we’ve got cauliflower, carrots, lettuce, spinach and onions all planted and growing right along. It is really neat to see how differently the kids care for their rows. Tyler has tied each of his cauliflower plants to a stake in order to ensure that they don’t fall over. This is not necessary for the plant, but shows a real above and beyond level of caring for his plants. Sarah weeds with gusto and pinash to protect her plants from the ever present weeds. This is particularly cool since she was pretty unsure about this whole garden thing a few months ago.
Attached is a picture of their “dramatic weeding”. Thanks to Tyler for the dramatic coloring. (note: the color of the hair is the real life color. It’s a fabulous sight to see them in the garden together)https://webmail.fcps.edu/owa/attachment.ashx?attach=1&id=RgAAAABlR%2bEZLIsmT7ucPleC8MjhBwAAru7l36XSQp0ZBOLUyy%2fEAAAEm6i5AABj0JO7nHx4QYu%2bDvjfVn7rAAHP9PqRAAAJ&attid0=EACd8%2bFODPZnQKsqp4nUT5r5&attcnt=1
Please come out and see our garden. Bring students out to explore! There is also always work to be done if you want to help and/or know of a kid who needs community service.
Thanks for all your continued support.
Ms. Bottle and the Gardening class."
