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Our garden adventures started in August with Pop preparing the garden for the new school year.  Teachers and staff received professional development with methods for using the garden lab across the curriculum and grade level with a focus on use beyond the curriculum as a means to support the well-being of each part of our school family and community.  The doors open for a new school year with teachers and staff quickly connecting our gardeners to the garden with lessons, lunches, and relaxation time.

Kindergarten started the year with their Harvest to Home launch during the first week of school.  All the students in Kindergarten were able to plant seeds for cold-weather crops, such as carrots, turnips, and radishes.  The garden has remained busy throughout the fall with planting, harvesting, and preparing harvested crops for eating in the cafeteria or classroom.  Everything our students plant, care for, and harvest is eaten by our students, families, and staff.

With winter just around the corner, we have worked on extending our late cold weather crops of carrots and turnips by placing frost covers and a cloche over the crops to protect the plants from frost.

Garden Lab Update August 2022

Our amazing staff came out together before school started at the end of the school day to volunteer to move stone and gravel into the garden lab in preparation for the reconstruction of the wooden raised beds.  What an amazing gift it was to work side by side as a school family before school started to move 800 lbs of stone, 3,150 lbs of gravel for a total of 25,970 lbs in a little over an hour.  That is 418 lbs of stone a minute.  In all, we moved 12.5 tons at about 13 stones a minute.  Team work is dream work!  Thank you to all the staff that volunteered to help and made this huge task possible.  Together we shine!

Pop and Mr. Cunningham took the pavers and began the renovation of the raised beds to create stone raised beds.  Funding from the Whole Kids Foundation made this renovation possible!

Thank you to our FDE PTA for the new wind spinner feature in the garden lab to be used both for instruction and for its beauty that brings a sense of calm.

Kindergarten had their year-long PBL launch called Harvest to Home with all Kindergarteners coming together to harvest Mammoth Sunflower Seeds and to plant fall crops to include kale, chard, carrots, and lettuce.

The school year started with great excitement as we returned for in-person instruction. The garden lab is the heart of our school and we were so excited to make it come alive with our students and staff.  Pop and Mrs. Cunningham presented a professional development to staff on ways to use the garden for both instruction and a place for our mental and emotional well-being, as it is such a peaceful, inspiring place.  The garden lab is a buzz with instruction taking place in the garden with a wide range of experiences, such as harvesting summer squash with the teacher discussing the life cycle of the squash, reading a good book together, finding math components hidden within the garden, creating a plant germination experiment in the classroom, harvesting and tasting turnips,cucumbers, potatoes, onions, and more.

Our Monarch Waystation has been an exciting place to watch as Monarch butterflies, caterpillars, and chrysalis have all appeared for observation.

Students are planting and planning the cold weather crops to include cabbage, carrots, radishes, turnips, lettuce and more.  For crops not quite ready before cold weather comes, we will bring out our frost covers to extend the crops.

Lettuce Grow has donated a Lettuce Grow Farmstand for hydrophonic growing with salad type seedlings.  We successfully grew a large enough lettuce crop in the Farmstand and raised beds to feed all of Kindergarten and First grade with salads for lunch. Yet another way our students can see how to grow food for our Garden to Table experiences!

We were pleased when we were able to receive a grant from the Whole Kids Foundation to use to repair and replace many of the raised beds.  Construction will slowly occur over the course of the school year.

Harvest time occurred with big crops of figs, potatoes, onions, carrots, raspberries, gourds, flowers, lavender, garlic, lettuce, green beans, squash and more.  We will end the Fall season by harvesting sunflower seeds, hycinth bean seeds, and zinnea seeds.

The school year started with distance learning in place.  Students were home learning and being connected with their teachers and classes through the use of technology.  The garden lab is the heart of our school and we miss being in it on a regular basis, but it has not stopped our staff from coming up with creative ways to bring our students and families to this special space.  Pop and Mrs. Cunningham presented a professional development to staff on ways to use the garden for both instruction and a place for our mental and emotional well-being, as it is such a peaceful, inspiring place.  Virtual instruction takes place in the garden with a wide range of experiences, such as harvesting gourds with the teacher discussing the life cycle of the gourd, reading a good book together, finding math components hidden within the garden, creating a plant germination experiment at home together as a crop is planted in the garden lab and more.

We were pleased when we were able to use grant funds to care for the pergola by sanding, staining and sealing it as it is such an important shade structure over the main lab table.  Thank you, Pop, for being our on-site manager for this project.

Harvest time occurred with big crops of figs, carrots, raspberries, gourds, flowers, lavender, garlic, and more.  Fall has rolled in with the garden lab continuing to grow and change.

Many students created gardens at home during the summer.  Here is one of our Frederick Douglass stars sharing their cucumber harvest with us:

The sprouts from the September and October plantings are growing well!  Ami Mason, our PTA garden lab chairperson, spent a great deal of time supporting our programs and teachers.  Here is Ami’s update with just some of what she and the committee were able to do over the last few months:
>     In the raised bed on the left where the pumpkins were growing we have carrots, lettuce, and some radishes growing. These were planted by kindergarteners and the EL class. In the middle bed next to that one, the fifth graders planted turnips, radishes, beets, rutabaga, and carrots. The next bed over (where the tomatoes were), the third graders planted lettuces. These are now all under frost covers and are growing wonderfully.
>    On the right side of the garden, first graders in Mrs. Morell's class planted more carrots and radishes in the raised bed outside their classroom (the bed with the peas trellised). The bed to the right of the milkweed bed was seeded again with swiss chard by Mrs. Joback's class but they did not germinate very well. I threw some cabbage seeds in there two weeks ago to see if they would take and they are growing pretty well! I wanted their class to be able to watch *something* grow.
>     In the cold frame, the Futura classes planted tennis ball lettuce, arugula, red romaine, and tatsoi greens. These are sprouting now and we will keep the doors shut on them for the remainder of the cold season.

>     In the cotton bed we will wait to see if the last cotton pods open and they will be harvested for their seeds by the kindergartners. Once it is all harvested, we will pull that bed clear and prepare the soil for the spring. This is where we will have some cold weather crops like broccoli and Brussels sprouts in the early spring.
>     As for the Three Sisters Garden, we will clear the bed, not putting any squash leaves or vines in the compost and saving any beans. All else will go in the compost. Once it is clear, some time in the winter, I will cover that bed in Krimson Clover, a cover crop, and then before it flowers we will turn it over into the soil to help provide more nitrogen to the soil.
>    The kindergartners used some of the Swiss chard and kale to make chips last week and there is still plenty left to make with other classes. There is kale and chard left, so if you are interested contact Ami Mason, our PTA garden lab chairperson.

> *Compost Update: there are three tumblers now. The one on the very left is "done" for the season. I would not like to add anything more to that so that we can truly see how decomposed everything gets by the end of spring. If we keep adding things to it, it will push back the finish date. This is a sort of experiment, to see how much or how fast a compost bin can decompose the contents. Any time you need to add to the compost just use the two on the right. Remember; only weeds, coffee grounds, leaves, and leaf/stem material from plants that are NOT tomato or squash related go into them. The PTA garden lab committee will be adding water, as well, because the microorganisms need water to keep getting through the matter. I bring in a plastic container (like people store cereal in) full of my coffee grounds and I add water to it to help pour the contents out and that's enough water to help the bin.
> Over the winter I would love to see parents working with their classes on bird feeders or other crafts for the garden. Let me know if you have any ideas for students to participate in the winter garden!

Our garden hosted several groups this month:  The Peterson Young Naturalist Journal Professional Development training and Hamilton Elementary School Second Graders came on a field trip with our K students acting as experts to give their students information about the garden lab.

Please be sure to thank Ami and the parents who are supporting the garden lab.  The garden lab is constantly changing with the seasons.  The frost covers are up and remind students of “tents” for our plants.  The shade cloth has been removed from the pergola and stored for the winter to protect it from snow damage.  The remaining seeds will be harvested from the garden and given to Kindergarten to prepare for their seed sale in the spring.  In the near future, the fig tree will be insulated with a blanket of straw to protect it from the harsh freezing conditions come this winter.  There are still many adventures to happen before winter arrives.

The first week in the garden lab was busy with students, teachers, and parents exploring the changes and crops that happened over the summer.  The success of the crops is due to the hard work of the PTA Summer Garden Lab volunteers who cared for the garden all summer!  Many crops have already been harvested and enjoyed by our school community.

Kindergarten started out the school year with the launch of the Kindergarten PBL Harvest to Home with all 105 Kindergarten students coming into the garden to harvest (carrots and radishes) and to plant seeds for part of our fall crops to include carrots, lettuce, and sweet peas.  Ami Mason, our new PTA garden lab committee chairperson, was on hand to pass out seeds she donated and to help students plant.  Be sure to touch base with Ami and our garden lab committee if you would like to support your child's class in the garden lab.

Over the last two weeks, Kindergarten students have been watching the life cycle of a Monarch Butterfly right before their eyes.  There have been over 5 healthy Monarch Butterflies released into the garden lab.

Loudoun County High School seniors visit Kindergarten to work together with students to observe the pumpkin tower in the garden lab.  Students partner with the seniors and document what they observe with sketches as well as written descriptions.  Our kindergarten students enjoyed having the high school students write down all of their collaborative descriptions and compare their drawings to their high school partner's drawings.  It was a fun and successful partnership!  One high school student exclaimed, "I am amazed at the small details that the Kindergartners noticed in the garden.  I learned as much from my kindergarten as they did from me."

Fall crops have been planted by Kindergarten for the kick off of their PBL called Harvest to Home.  Carrots, spinach, lettuce, and carrots were planted in the raised beds for a late fall crop.

Our first harvest at the cafeteria occurred with the help of Stefanie Dove from the LCPS Nutrition Department.  Kindergartners from Mrs. Cunningham's class were able to harvest chard, prepare the chard in the cafeteria to make chard chips, go back to the kitchen to cook the chips in the oven, and eat the chard chips at lunch.  Yummy!

As the doors opened for a new school year, our school community was treated to a wonderful surprise:  the arrival and installation of a beautiful pergola kit that had arrived from Forever Redwood in California.  Forever Redwood is a restorative forestry company that creates hand made pergolas from Douglass Fir and redwood.  When the company became aware of our common interest in practicing sustainable practices, Raul and his staff wanted to support our program and create the beautiful pergola kit that you see completed today.  With the help of Pop, Mrs. Cunningham's family, custodial staff, PTA volunteers and staff volunteers, the pergola was built over the main garden lab table to insure a shade structure that would protect our students and staff from the sun during instruction at the table.

The garden lab has been thriving this season with the arrival of the Monarch butterflies to our butterfly garden.  Eggs were laid, caterpillars appeared, chrysalis appeared, and Monarch butterflies arrived.  A stream of classes has been flowing in and out of the garden lab learning through a variety of lessons, ways to explore, observe, and connect to educational standards in a real life experimental environment.

Our students were able to experience the garden to cafe experience with the harvesting of chard, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, herbs, and turnips.  The produce harvested was served fresh in the cafe thanks to the cafeteria staff who helped prepare it.  Lavender was harvested and saved for future use with some sensory lessons.

In November, we received a grant from the Virginia Agriculture in the Classroom organization that enabled us to construct frost covers over our fall crops in order to protect them into early winter.

Our student horticulturalist has been busy in the garden lab this season.  Kindergarten has planted sweet peas, watermelon radishes, and lettuce.  Kindergarten was able to harvest some of the crops grown over the summer, such as kale, carrots, tomatoes and turnips.  Mrs. Wilson, our cafe manager, uses our fresh produce in many of the meals she serves to our classes at lunch.  The pumpkin tower is full of pumpkins and will be ready to harvest in October.  Third graders arrived in the garden with their garden journals to document their planting of turnip seeds.  Second grade has been busy planting carrots.  In the meantime, fourth graders are carefully observing their cotton crop and have noticed the beautiful white flowers that have arrived.  You may be lucky enough to see a Monarch butterfly in the garden lab or on school grounds due to Mrs. Cunningham and Mrs. Reles' classes have raised and released 8 monarch butterflies so far.   

In October, our Kindergarten students were busy harvesting the pumpkins from the pumpkin tower.  With great excitement, our students were able to explore the inside of a pumpkin, harvest seeds, and taste roasted pumpkin seeds.

In November, the chard was harvested and prepared by Kindergarten chefs to make Chard Chips for snack.

 In December, fourth grade and kindergarten completed the cotton harvest.  We will use the seed pod, cotton, and seeds for winter and spring learning experiences.  We have a seed bank with cotton seeds available for us to replant in the spring and to raise money for the Kindergarten seed sale.  

Kindergarten students harvested the carrots and cucumbers after having a grade level lesson together in the Garden Lab.  The carrots and cucumbers were delivered by students to Mrs. Wilson, our cafe manager, to prepare lunch.  Students were offered the harvest at lunch and enjoyed their first "garden to table" experience in September.  After harvesting crops, each Kindergarten student was able to plant our fall crop of sweet peas, lettuce, and watermelon radishes.  Students will use the scientific method during a variety of science-based lessons and observation lessons with the growth of these crops.

Congratulations to FDE for being named in the 2015 Virginia Natural Schools!