Good Food from December Harvests

Following last week's test we enjoyed a day to cook! Each class selected and prepared their own recipe. (As time goes by, I help less and less.) 1st period made Broccoli Nacho Dip, 2nd period made Broccoli and Beef Pasta (thanks to Ryan Thompson and his mom who sent delicious stir-fry beef and more!), 3rd period and 5th period made Baked Macaroni and Cheese with Broccoli, 6th period made Cheesy Rice with Greens, and 7th period made Cajun Beans and Greens. I rated all of them a 10!

We will have recipes available soon. All that is left in our garden now is Savoy and Dutch Cabbage. We'll watch it carefully, but I expect to harvest it in January. Then on to plans for our spring gardens...

Now THAT'S Nasty.

We had a severe problem with cabbage aphids. Perhaps it was our warm fall that kept them going strong, but for whatever reason, we couldn't get rid of them in garden #4. Unfortunately, to save our broccoli, we pulled up garden #4's cabbage and mustard and composted them (a mistake too, no doubt?). YUK.

Washing the Cress, Assembly Line Style

Brook was the cress-spinner to dry it.
Michael and Justin handled the second wash.

Dustin, Anthony, and Liam did the first wash and sort.

November Harvests

Picking mustard...
Our November radish harvest...

Fried Rice with Mustard Greens

Start with chopped onions, carrots, and spring onion tops

Saute them together for 3 minutes

Mix in the spices

Add cooked rice

And the chopped mustard greens...

Fried Rice with Mustard Greens!

Everyone gets a taste!

Compost Greens Needed

Our compost bin is in need of lots of greens to balance the brown leaves that are abundant and decompose slowly when our composting recipe is "unbalanced." If you have some clean apple peels or other non-smelly greens that are going in your trash can, put them in a Kroger bag (we can recycle it) and send them to school. We'll put them in our compost bin to make great soil for our garden.

Today's Blind-Taste-Test Experiment

Question: Which radish top soup, chicken or vegetarian garlic, will taste the best?

Hypothesis: The majority of Mrs. Sellers' seventh period science students believe the vegetarian garlic radish top soup will taste the best.

Materials: See Radish Top Soup Recipe, also small cups and permanent markers, and nine radish soup-loving participants

Procedure:

• See Recipe
• Put each finished soup in identical jars and label with identifying numbers #1 and #2
• Label small cups #1 and #2
• Pour a small amount of each soup into the labeled cup
• Taste each cup to see which one tastes better

Results:

• 8 students selected soup #1 as the best tasting soup. Observations included, "It tasted more salty, it tasted more buttery, and it tasted like garlic."
• 1 student selected soup #2 as the best tasting soup. Observation was, "this soup tasted sweeter."

Conclusion:

The vegetarian garlic radish top soup tasted the best. Although one participant thought the chicken radish top soup tasted better, stating it tasted sweeter, eight participants chose the vegetarian soup, saying it tasted more salty and buttery and that it also had a garlic taste. The hypothesis, that the vegetarian soup would taste better, was correct.

Soup Day

Check Out Our Radish Top Soup

With our first harvest of radishes we will make Radish Top Soup! This is great practice for the pre-AP students who are designing their own experiments. As we've said in class many times, cooking is the perfect example of an experiment. I predict this soup will taste great...
Mrs. Sellers

Big News! Critter Cages Coming Soon

We have been selected from applicants across the country to participate in a study of the above test model of a "Critter Cage," created by the Square Foot Gardening Foundation to keep out deer and other pesky critters. Although we have to pay for materials and shipping, we would not have been able to purchase these at full cost in the future, so this is great news. We'll be one of the first in the country to try out this new idea. See our letter of acceptance below:

Dear Glenvar Students- We would love to have you! We will have the critter cages delivered on Tues Oct 14th and ready to ship by the end of the week. What you are doing and have accomplished is exactly what we have been striving with great determination to teach to every schoolyard in America - with the hopes that the children take home the joy and experience and share it with their families, and in turn have a home garden.
Best Regards,
Victoria Boudman
Operations Manager
SFGF

New Vegetables

We planted yellow and white onions today.

Garden Update: 10-2-09

The last time we visited the garden, overall it was doing well. The cabbage has had some problems with bug holes, so we are trying to find a cure that will be healthy for the environment. Some of the pansies have dead flowers, so we are pulling them off. The recent rain has moistened the soil so we have not been watering the plants as much. Recently we have been making garden journals out of used paper, just using the unused side. Tons of materials are wasted because we use it unwisely, so to make a difference we can recycle!
Ryan D.

The beginning of October the garden has grown strong and weak. It is weak because of the wind and wire grass. The rain has given it strength for the plants to grow.
Sebastian H.

We miss you, Solyvien!

A video for Solyvien- in the blowing wind!

Garden Update 9-25-09

We are so thankful for today's rain, which has been long awaited. The garden seeds have germinated sporadically, and I would infer this to be because of the hot, dry weather. This will be a major topic in the garden journals we are creating. Hopefully next week we will be documenting much more germination, particularly the kale, which has done almost nothing.

We Have Baby Plants!

During 6th and 7th period today, students watered the seedlings and seeds planted last Friday. We observed many sprouts of radishes and mustard, with a few sprouts of Green Ice lettuce, spinach, and Swiss Chard. Pictures will be posted soon...

Maintaining the Garden

Fall gardens are very dependent on cooperative weather. It's unfortunate that we didn't receive any rain from the local storms last week, so on Friday afternoon, 7th period students carried buckets of water to the garden to moisten the soil for the weekend. Solyvien showed his classmates how to pour the water over their hands to simulate rain, as they do in his native country.

Fall Planting

With the help of all of my science classes, on Thursday, September 10, and Friday, September 11, we finished planning and planting the Glenvar fall garden. After the purchase of seeds and vegetable seedlings which should thrive in cooler weather, 1st period designed the gardens' layouts. We then spent the next two days preparing and planting. We planted:

• Dutch cabbage seedlings
• savoy cabbage seedlings
• broccoli seedlings
• pansy plants
• smooth leaf kale seeds
• spinach seeds
• cress seeds
• mustard seeds
• Swiss chard seeds
• radish seeds
• 3 kinds of leaf lettuce seeds

We also covered our new plants with the chicken-wire cages made by last year's students so that the deer, skunks, and rabbits don't eat our garden before we do.

A NEW YEAR, A NEW GARDEN...

Welcome to the 2009-2010 Glenvar Garden. After covering the raised beds with black plastic for the summer (wish I had taken a picture), we left the soil to bake, hoping to eradicate any nasty pests, including the slowly encroaching wiregrass. No doubt the pests are gone, but the wiregrass only thrived in the heat and lack of sunlight. We have spent much time pulling it up by the roots up in hopes to at least get a head start with fall plantings.

This week we will put in German and savoy cabbage plants, and kale, cress, spinach, and mustard seeds. These greens are very hardy, so we'll experiment with a late fall garden to see what happens.

How Proud Can a Teacher Be???

Yesterday, my 7th period science class finished a BIG project. After harvesting over 25 gallon bags stuffed full of lettuce, kale, spinach, Swiss chard, beets, carrots, and radishes, celebrating with a wonderful salad party, and culminating with the long-awaited, much-promised water fight, my students donated the rest of their produce (over 20 gallons) to the Rescue Mission. (yes, Jon, it was your idea a LONG time ago) Miss Scott delivered it for us after school, and we hope they enjoyed it as much as we did. As we said, not everybody gets to eat stuff fresh out of a garden, and ours was really, really good.

What a great class. What a great experience. We left our compost "can" in its special place near the school, with hopes to return next fall to find rich new soil to add to our garden. It makes it hard to leave school and eager to return...
With love, Mrs. Sellers

Boxerwood Gardens

Our 7th period class went on a field trip to Boxerwood Gardens. We took a bus; it was one hour and 10 minutes until we got there, but it was worth it. When we got there we put our lunches in back of a car and then we started our tour. First we saw the crow's nest, then Hunter took us to the angel statue. We went in the greenhouse; it had fish in there and n.e.w.t.s. The other group saw a black snake but not in the green house. After that we had lunch and we saw Uda the boxer dog. Then we saw the zig zag bridge and the great oak. By Shane

Chasing Uda(dog)

Uda (the boxer) was a big part of our trip to Boxerwood Gardens. She ran and ran until she finally pooped out.

Our class is going to Boxerwood Gardens on May 29. We are going to see all kinds of beautiful plants and we will see how they do their septic system. Ewwww!!!!!
Krissy, Shane, and Josh

Salad Party Practice

On Friday the students selected a salad dressing recipe, created it, and did their first taste test on new lettuce and radishes, comparing it to some brought from home. Mrs. Sellers

What We Did Today...

Today we picked radishes and lettuce. Before that we put worms in the garden to make the soil better for growing.
Then, when we came in we had to pick a picture for everyone that we wrote a thank you note for. Then we had to put some stuff on the pots that we made to make then look glazed and done. Everyone got have a radish if they wanted one. I had one, and it was spicy. Zac D.

One day we looked at all the plants and watered them. What kind of plants did we look at? We looked at radishes and lettuce, and we took a picture with the whole class. Today we put in worms that were really big and disgusting. Shane B.

Today we picked lettuce and radishes. I didn’t plant any radishes; I didn’t think I would like them, but they are ok. Ryan S.

After...

May 1, 2009

Before...

March 11, 2009

Thank You Mr. Bradshaw

This was NOT an easy job, especially when you're wearing a tie.

We couldn't have done it without you.

Another Video!

Planting Snapdragons. Patience, please...

First Bite

We watered our plants before the week was over. We took buckets and buckets of water out. I took a big bucket of water outside. Ryan also took a big bucket too.

On Friday Dusty helped put the plants out in the sun. Other students helped put the plants in the shade. At the end of the day we brought them back in. Then we put them under the grow lights. Then Zac got stung by a bee. Zac and Adam had to scrub off the permanent marker off the lattice.
By: Shane, Ryan, Dusty, and Cody


Today, I, Zac, had a radish. It tasted very spicy, and it had a little dirt taste to it, but it was still a little good.

Happy Earth Day!

Today we spent the day celebrating Earth Day, discussing what it means that we are all leaves on the same tree! Today's hit was "Air in a Jar," a commercial we watched, talked about, watched, and talked about some more. Watch and enjoy!
Mrs. Sellers

After Spring Break Update

The plants have grown since the beginning of spring break. While we were gone, Mr. Blankenship watered our plants.
Rachel, Adam M., Zac, and Matthew


The plants are growing, but they're not very big yet. They are getting there; they didn't die thanks to Mr. Blankenship. The plants look healthy and nice and look like they're growing right.
Adam C. and Shane

The plants grew over spring break. They got a lot bigger, and they are still under the grow lights. Mr. Blankenship watered them while we were on spring break.
Krissy, Cody, Ryan, and Dusty


The garden is growing well and we have many plants in it. Our plants are growing rapidly and it looks good. The plants grew really fast, and we have very many plants to grow. They grew up and most are green. They are growing fast.
Jack, Josh, Matt, and Michael

Greetings from Montana

While I spend "spring" break here in Montana watching it snow, I sit and wonder about our hundreds of little seedlings growing in our window sills at Glenvar. Mr. Blankenship is keeping watch over them while we are gone, but I wonder how they've grown?

Updates

On April 3, 2009 we planted some seeds in our raised beds like lettuce and radishes. We also put down our lattice on our raised beds. It was really windy that day. The lattice almost blew away, so did we. Also, a lot of soil blew in our face and in our eyes but we were fine. Everybody got a turn to nail the lattice. Nobody got hurt.
Shane and Zac

You are probably wondering what we are doing now. Well, we just got done with watering plants and transplanting basil. We are having a lot of fun.
Matthew

Shane's Observations

Today everybody looked at the plants that we planted. They have grown a little bit but not much. We also watered them. We don’t have a lot of spinach or beets, but we have a lot of Little Gem lettuce. Shane

Getting Started

Last Thursday we made big boxes to put our plants into. We also made lattice so that we can put the plants in organized. On Monday we made our garden soil. Zac

Wednesday we mixed potting soil and smoothed them into cells to put them under growing lights. Ryan

Today is April 2, 2009 and on April 1st we planted our vegetables like lettuce and other stuff. One day we built our raised beds and it took a lot of muscle to screw in the screws. Now we are building things that go over the raised beds. Shane

Today we went out in the rain and spread the rest of the peat moss and donkey manure. We layered out the soil in the four gardens. The rain is packing down the soil and making it ready to plant our flowers and vegetables. Tuesday we planted the seeds and we have them under grow lights. Jon

Building the Raised Beds

Please be patient while the graphics download....

Donkey Manure

On Thursday we're going to add donkey manure to our garden. My mom used it on her garden and plants for a long time, so my dad is going to bring some for school. It helps them grow. We're going to use the old kind that does not stink. You should smell it when it's fresh!
Jack

Welcome to the Glenvar Garden Website

I am excited to announce that with the brains and brawn of my seventh period sixth grade science class, Glenvar Middle School will soon have a garden. We have been making plans since January for a small vegetable garden, and with the help of extension agent Sheri Dorn, we are well on our way. Last week we measured and staked our four 4' x 4' gardens in the grass behind the school sign. This week we will fill our beds with a mixture of compost, vermiculite, and peat moss. We counted the days until the end of school and selected vegetables that will be ready to harvest before that time. It is my plan to get the seeds planted and under grow lights in my classroom by the end of this week.

We have already used a great deal of math and English skills in our garden preparations. We are creating "Square Foot Gardens," and this week each student will be assigned two or more squares that will be their own. Their assignment will be to select their desired plants from the list provided, determine how many can be planted in one square foot, and do the math to determine the number of potting cells we will need to start our seeds. The students will remain responsible for their assigned squares throughout the remainer of the year, enjoying the fruit of their work at a salad party on June 2.

It is my intention that future posts will be generated by students. Stay tuned!