Spring Planting

 

 

The winter weather didn't keep us from planting our early spring crops including lettuce, spinach, beets, and carrots. We will continue to monitor our winter wheat and onions through May! We plant to try out a few new items in the garden this year including sesame.

 

Discovery Garden Herbal Soap

5th graders dried, stored, and then used herbs from the garden to create lovely Discovery Garden soap this week. 5th grade used fennel, rosemary, lavender, and cloves grown in the garden last season.
The soap will be sent to Ethiopia to an orphanage in need of basic supplies.  Just another example of Terra Centre giving back on a global scale.

Native Dyes

 

2^nd grade students used materials from the Discovery Garden to learn about the ways Native Americans dyed clothing and other materials.

Some dyes used included black walnuts, dried mint, acorns, madder, and marigolds. They dyed fabric placemats that will be donated to families in need this Thanksgiving.

Pansy Patterns in Kindergarten!

 

kindergarteners took advantage of the warm October weather to plant their AB, AABB, pansy pattern garden. Did you know that pansies are edible? They are often candied and used as garnishments in salads and on cakes.

 

Discovery Garden Mustard!

 

Kindergartners were hard at work today making mustard!  Students used dried mustard seeds from the garden along with vinegar, salt, and a few other ingredients to create a mustard that would put Grey Poupon to shame. What a great measurement activity.

 

Fall Harvest Time

 

 This Friday Terra Centre students harvested all of the Discovery Garden bounty that students planted in June. Items harvested included luffa gourd squash, okra,  beans, tomatoes, cantelope, and African cucumber which were grown in the slave gardens at Monticello. Our cotton crop is still growing and will be harvested in early November. Students also planted our winter crop including winter wheat, chard, brussel sprouts, spinach, garlic, and onions. 4th graders will be canning green tomatoes this week and pre-school will use the luff gourds to make sponges that they will use for painting.

 

 

 

Fall is almost here!

This summer we have had luck growing our largest pumpkin crop since the start of the Discovery Garden. Ms. Nevin's kindergarteners harvested the first pumpkin this week. They can't wait to use it for math and science experiments in class this month.