amy_mayer

Johnson Park Fall 2012 Update

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During the summer months, parents with children at Johnson Park volunteered their time in the garden to help water and tend plants. This enabled the students on their return to jump straight into garden activities, harvesting, cooking and tasting the produce they planted before their summer break. It is interesting and fun sometimes to taste what a vegetable is like before it is cooked and in my opinion when organically grown it tastes even better, especially when freshly picked. During September, students were busy making dishes such as salsa for the Johnson Park picnic event and at this event parents had the opportunity to sample the garden produce.

The Boy Scouts built a second compost for JP; students learned the process of decomposing vegetation and the value it brings to the vegetable soil beds when ready. There is a big oak tree in the garden so plenty of leaves to rake and deposit, as well as left over vegetable plants to start the composting process. The acorns from the oak tree were also collected and students planted them in the hope they will sprout in time for Arbor Day, April 26,  and have grown sufficiently enough to take home and plant.

In October, kindergarten and first grade enjoyed various activities with pumpkins as well as tasting pumpkin seeds baked in olive oil. Second grade learned all about the Black Swallowtail Butterfly. They made soup from the host plants used by this native insect. Third grade had the opportunity to gather herbs and tie them using a slip-knot. The students took them home to hang and dry for later use in their home cooking. Fourth grade experimented with vegetables and berries as a natural dye. Fourth grade also had the chance to make a delicious soup called Three Sisters, consisting of squash and beans. Fifth grade made pumpkin muffins.

November really saw the end of most of the garden produce, the season finished with most grades planting spring bulbs and scattering seeds, the vegetable beds were prepared for the following spring. Tools and equipment were cleaned and safely stored. 

Fall 2011

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This fall, Littlebrook welcomed Lesley Bush to its garden team as Garden Educator.  Lesley is a former science teacher and master gardener and will be teaching garden lessons to each class in the school five times over the course of the year.  In her lessons this fall, each grade started work on its Grade Garden Project for the year, and participated in the school-wide harvest of fall crops.

Another highlight this fall was preparing fresh-from-the-garden veggies right in the classroom using a new cooking cart, which was donated by PSGC through its Garden State on Your Plate grant.  First graders made a rubbed kale salad, with celery and nasturtiums, for the welcome back family picnic.  Kindergarteners made a pear sauce from our prolific pear tree.  Fourth graders cooked up butternut squash from the three sisters bed.  And fifth graders tasted roasted eggplant dip, made from our own eggplants by LB mom and chef, Jen Carson.

The kids brought in the remaining crops just before this year’s fall freeze and they were displayed at a Harvest Table at the pancake breakfast on October 29.  Families and staff in attendance got to bring home a bag of fresh LB-grown veggies!

 

 

November 2011

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Raised bedLast month, in recognition of Farm-to-School month, the Community Park PTO held its first-ever “Help Our Garden Grow” Day. It was an overwhelming success, as more than 20 families around the community showed up to volunteer. As they soaked in the sunshine, these parents and students installed two new gorgeous raised beds, cleaned and mulched existing beds, expanded two gardens in the back of the school, painted rain barrels, decorated and hung new signs in each garden, planted several new shrubs and trees, and repaired garden furniture. Mr. Emmons, the school’s science teacher, was delighted with the improvements. As a result of these accomplishments and the CP community’s hard work, he was able to jump into winter garden preparation with his students in late October.

HerbsWe look forward to seeing winter crops harvested as well as attending a 2nd “Help Our Garden Grow” Day in the spring (date TBD).

September 2011

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LettuceClean up has begun for fall plantings! The salsa garden was fruitful, and the salsa that was canned over the summer from all the produce will be given out at Johnson Park’s Fall Picnic.

TomatoesThe school’s garden club is continuing to grow as many crops as it can, and even has plans to start a Cooking Club. Stay tuned for updates.

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!”