Feelin' Wormy!

You have never seen a happier, more excited bunch of kids than when our school secretary showed up at our classroom door today holding a box of 500 red worms.  Who'd have ever thought?  The secretary was not as excited as the children were, but she did come in to watch us open the box...and then scurried away...Thanks Miss Patti!    We've decided to name all of them "Wormy." 

The second portion of our composting adventure began today in the form of classroom vermiculture, or worm composting.  The worm bin was another part of the generous donation through DonorsChoose dot org.  It consists of a large, recyclable, heavy duty plastic box, with a tight fitting lid, though it's also perforated so the worms stay ventilated.  We mixed "magic worm bedding," which looked a lot like peat moss, and some other organic matter, with several quarts of water, and then took turns dumping in the containers of little critters.  Earthworms, nightcrawlers and other worms create castings, or "worm poop," as the students like to call it.  Apparently, some of the best little poopers are our little wigglers: Eisenia fetida. 

After lunch in the cafeteria, we looked over the leftovers and made decisions about what items would go where:  lettuce, raw veggies, and an apple core landed in the hotbox composter outside, while two trays of spaghetti, a lump of mashed potatoes, some pasta with collards, and some bread crusts were buried in the worm bin, no doubt much to the delight of the red worms.

We'll host our worms throughout the year, and in return, they'll provide us with rich soil for our vegetable and herb garden. 

Breaking It Down

Let the breakdown of compostable materials begin!  We assembled our Garden Gourmet composter, which was provided for us by generous donations through DonorsChoose.org, and began to fill it today.  This excellent powerpoint presentation clearly shows what materials and what amounts are essential to efficient composting.  We viewed and discussed this presentation last week, and some of our students really took it to heart, because they arrived at school today with bags bulging with table scraps.

We learned that you really can't just throw a bunch of table scraps into the composter and expect it to create healthy soil.  To balance the "green" material--the fruit and vegetable peels and eggshells that the students brought in, we searched around campus for an equal amount of "brown" or dried material such as leaves, grass clippings and small branches.  In no time at all, we had a good mixture in the Garden Gourmet, and needed only two more essentials to get things cooking--and few handfuls of organic soil, and a sprinkling of water.  The soil contains microorganisms that will encourage decomposition.

We're in the ground, sort of!

Our Cherry Belles are growing!  Our radish seedlings grew rapidly over the Labor Day weekend, and I wanted to get them into the ground as soon as possible.  Unfortunately, the weather was quite rainy this weekend, and kept me from getting to school to build the bedframes.  We decided to plant the seedlings in some flat plastic tubs until we can get the garden area prepared as necessary to get the plants into the raised beds.  We used organic Miracle Grow garden soil. 

Our 1st grade buddy class walks past the garden area on the way to recess every day, so they'll be keeping a close eye on the plants' progress.  Our class decided to be sure we monitor the weather each day, so we'll know whether the plants will need water or to be shielded from the sun. 

Teeny little baby radishes!

Wow! That was fast!

Remember the other day when I said we'd have sprouts next week?  How about today?  Man, those little radish babies grew up quick!  The seeds in the soil and in the baggies sprouted pretty much at the same time.  The "plastic bag students" transferred their sprouts to little starter pots with soil today, so now we have 21 pots with about 5 seeds each working to become seedlings that can handle the outdoors.  I'm getting my salt shaker ready!  The kids asked if we could start the basil and rosemary soon, so I guess next week, probably Monday, we'll get those going as well. 

The composter arrived yesterday, in need of assembly of course.  We're all anxious to get the soil a cookin' in there, but I want to do it right, so we're going to take our time.  We'll probably get it set up next week, or the week after, depending on the schedule--you never know what might change in the first weeks of school. 

Germination Anticipation

We prepared seeds for sprouting today!  I went on a mad dash for tomato and bell pepper seeds this weekend, forgetting that even though we're having typical Florida hot and sunny weather, the rest of the country is thinking in terms of Autumn planting.  No tomato or pepper seeds to be had just now.  Opted for "cherry belle" radishes, rosemary and basil.  Half the class pushed seeds down into starter soil in small cups and the other half tucked seeds into moistened paper towels and nestled that into a plastic baggie.  These are taped to the classroom window, while the cups are perched on the window sill below.  We hypothesized about which preparation would help the seeds to sprout fastest.  Most students were confident that the soil would be the best choice.  We'll see in about a week.  It feels so good to know that life is getting started in those cups and towels...I can almost taste those crunchy little treats!

Happy New Year!

Yes, that's right, I said,  Happy New Year!  Happy New School Year!  I met all of my new students today and I'm so excited about our year together.  We seem to have a wonderfully diverse mix of personalities and interests.  It was fun to get to tell my students about the composter and the worm bin that were donated to us via DonorsChoose.org.  We're also receiving an audio CD of the book The Gardener and a pair of work gloves, which we will sign as a symbol of our inaugural vegetable garden at SES. 

Coincidentally, or perhaps, serendipitously, our order for the gardening and composting items shipped today.  I can't wait to get our table scraps and lawn clippings cooking away in there so we can get some nutritious, organic soil into our veggie beds!  Obviously, we're going to "cheat" a little by purchasing organic soil at first, or we'd have to wait two months to plant anything.  I'm hoping Home Depot will donate some soil to us in exchange for free advertising at our school. 

The best part of all of this is how enthusiastic my students seemed about getting to dig in the dirt and produce food by themselves.  I'm so eager to get us going, I may have to go to Home Depot this weekend!

Feeling the Love!

Monday the 9th was a good day for the garden.

The girls and I took a drive to Habitat for Humanity in Vero Beach to have a look at scrap lumber we could use to frame out the raised beds.  They have a LOT of what appeared to be usable wood, but I learned something interesting:  We can't use treated lumber for this garden.  Of course, this made sense once I heard some one say it, but I hadn't thought of it myself before.  Treated wood has been chemically changed to make it more resistant to critters like bugs and mold.  Sounds good...except the chemical treatment is toxic.  Obviously, that's not going to work in a garden where the results are supposed to be eaten!  The man I met at Habitat also said that it would be a good idea to use untreated wood to outline the beds, but that ultimately, we will want to use pavers, bricks or something else less subject to weathering and decomposition than wood.  He also mentioned the polyvinyl edging blocks I have seen at places like Lowe's and Home Depot, but, we're Sea Turtles Gardening Organically, and it wouldn't do to be using non-renewable resources to edge our gardens. 

Our next stop was Orchid Island Botanicals on US 1 in Vero Beach.  Neil, one of our school crossing guards, works there and came right over to say hello and see what help he could offer.  He donated a giant stack of black, plastic pots we can use to get seeds started and suggested that we build our beds right on top of concrete, instead of over dirt in an attempt to circumvent the nematodes that would eventually destroy our crops.  Neil told me he would stockpile supplies for us when they weren't needed at the garden center.  It feels so good to know that community people are on our side!

Getting the vision

Our ultimate goal is to grow fruit and vegetable plants that will produce snacks for our 1st and 5th grade classrooms. Eventually, we'd like to expand this to provide healthy snacks and a learning garden experience for all students at SES.


Today I'm taking the girls over to school so we can do some exploring around campus.  I have my tape measure and a compass ready so I can measure possible sites for the raised beds, and so that I can get a good idea of what kind of sun exposure the plants will be getting throughout the day.  I spoke with Barbara from the Master Gardeners of Indian River County on 8/2.  She gave me some great resources to check out through the University of Florida's extension office (UF).  It's going to be important that we choose plants that will grow well in Florida's heat.  We're right on the edge of Zones 9 and 10 Here's a link to a Hardiness Zone Map. 
 
We're planning to use raised beds because the soil conditions at school are pretty poor, and with raised beds, you can control the nutritional content of the soil better.  The hope is to garden organically with compost created on campus from compostable scraps from the cafeteria and home. 
 
 

Getting Started

All great ideas need solid planning to bring them to fruition.  This blog will serve as a record of the beginning of our community garden at Sebastian Elementary School.