Month: July 2011

Littlebrook July 2011 Update

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Littlebrook students wrapped up their gardening year with great enthusiasm:

  • Graduating fifth graders not only finished installation of a native shade perennial bed in the courtyard with gifts from D&R Greenway Trust and local botanist Aura Starr, but also they ventured out to the school’s nature trail and labeled the natives they found in order to highlight and preserve them.
  • The fourth grade planted the traditional Native American planting mounds they had constructed and are looking forward to harvesting popcorn, cranbury beans and acorn squash in the fall.
  • Third graders harvested great quantities of lemon balm, which was made into ice cream by the bent spoon and served at Colonial Day.
  • The second grade observed the progress of their improvements to the pollinator beds and enjoyed a guest gardening class from Dorothy Mullen.
  • First graders reveled in the profusion of blooms on the annuals taking over from the bulbs in their gorgeous new bed and also raised over $300 for the garden through selling greeting cards featuring their garden-based art work.
  • Kindergarten students continued to tend and taste our vegetable garden and brought home a final harvest including garlic, lettuce, kale, spinach, peas, broccoli, parsley, basil, chives and more on the next to last day of school.

A team of 18 different families will be helping keep the garden growing over the summer and getting it ready for the students’ return in September! 

– Contributed by Amy Mayer

July 2011

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The Johnson Park garden is a courtyard garden, seen by all who enter the school’s main entrance. The Garden Club, JP’s garden program, is held twice a week during recess hours – children are invited to visit the garden during that time.

The garden’s main focus this spring was the JP Salsa Project, in which each grade was responsible for growing seedlings for a different ingredient to be used in salsa. The seedlings were grown indoors beginning in February, and transplanted in the spring. Two varieties of tomatoes along with jalapeno peppers, cilantro and spring onions were planted and are currently thriving in the garden. The produce will be harvested over the summer, made into salsa and then canned. Students and their families will get a chance to taste their final product at the school’s fall picnic.

Another highlight from this spring was the kindergarten project: The youngest students in the school planted rose geraniums and harvested the leaves for the bent spoon. At the end of the school year, they enjoyed an ice cream party in the garden. For more on this exciting project:

Princeton Patch: Kindergartners team-up with the Bent Spoon to make ice cream
Town Topics coverage

Also growing in the Johnson Park garden this summer are pole beans, swiss chard, carrots, peas, pumpkins, squash, lettuce, radishes, corn, strawberries, watermelon, potatoes, sunflowers and various herbs. Parent volunteers are tending the garden two or three times a week. Food that is harvested is being preserved – frozen, dried or canned – for the fall picnic.

— Contibuted by Tory Hamilton, Elizabeth White and Tina van der Scharr

July 2011

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The outdoor classroom – and edible gardens – at Community Park took a giant leap forward in June with the expansion of the fenced area, courtesy of Judy Wilson, Princeton Regional Schools superintendent.

Now, the picnic tables are beneath the shade of a tree and there is grassy area for doing cartwheels or stretching a beach towel out for looking up at the sky. And the gardens can expand as desired.

John Emmons, science teacher who also once worked in a greenhouse, is taking the lead in both the edible and ornamental garden beds. Edible: two varieties of Swiss chard, sugar snap peas, English peas, lettuces, broccoli raab, red cabbage and kohlrabi. “Whatever cool-weather crops I could find, I got.” said Mr. Emmons. Ornamental: sweet peas and California poppies.

Janet Thomas is working with Mr. Emmons to create a Japanese-inspired shade garden in a Zen style. As part of this work, the two will re-locate the spring bulbs. Ms.Thomas will also use the Zen garden to further her students’ understanding of Chiura Obata, the Japanese-American artists who painted Yosemite Valley.

Curricular links

If edible gardens can continue to expand, Mr. Emmons hopes to plant representative Japanese, Asian, Hispanic, Mediterranean, Native American and Italian gardens, among others. This expands on the existing work of Adam Blejwas, who has grown tomatillos and other ingredients for his classroom salsa-making lesson that he has taught the 4th graders. Ms. Thomas will use the new Zen garden to tie in with her classroom study of feature maps. Japanese gardens re-create geographical features, she said, using mosses and ferns – with gravel as the sea, and rocks as mountains.

Obstacles to participation

“We’re at the beginning,” said Mr. Emmons of the outdoor classrooms. “First, you build it and they will come.” His goal, he said, is to help teachers and administrators see that it’s a wonderful space, and that the students will enjoy outdoor classes even more than sitting inside. “I want to encourage teachers to develop their own uses for the gardens, and encourage them to get out there more. I want them to say, “Wow, this is nice!”