Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes!

       This month has flown by! Just as quickly has the garden at Lakewood almost gotten away from her crew of dedicated workers. As conflicting Spring Break weeks between Eckerd College and the elementary school have put us in a daze of catch-up we invested our time without garden visitors to get "Down and Dirty with Garden Maintenance!" (Trademarked working title for my future HGTV debut show;)

    When I arrived this morning I was stunned by the amount of food that had sprouted over the week. I had forgotten the diverse plants we had chosen to sow this semester and we've got quite a few interesting veggies for the kids to sample when they return on Monday:

Garbanzo Beans (Also called "Chickpeas") --- Maybe we can make some Hummus!

Zebra Pole Beans ---- The kids are going to love the crazy colors

Yellow and purple Eggplant are bursting from their bushes --- I counted at least 8 this morning!

       I am so excited to incorporate the food aspect of gardening into the lessons this week! Along with these few images I have, I also discovered a ton of squash nearly ready to harvest, the blossoms of the squash were booming and their one of my favorite things for the kids to try. It tastes like queso cheese and the kids are always pleasantly surprised when they try them raw.
       The radishes are also in need of harvesting. Some have even bolted to the point which their flowers and seed pods are sprouting. I'm really excited to keep one or two in the ground to show the students where the seeds of a radish come from! It's so exciting when you get to utilize your passion to get young children interested as well. This weeks lesson is going to be on pollination and it will be awesome to use the bee and butterfly lesson from a few weeks ago to bring all the growth and activities together. The kids especially love drawing the insects we discuss and then finding them in the garden. I'm sure we'll see tons of butterflies and bees this week with all the beautiful flowers coming up from the growing Sweet Potatoes, Radishes, Pollinator Garden, and Eggplants.

    Maybe this week we can try to make an easy dish for the kids to try. I really like to enforce a team-work and kindness aspect to every lesson and I'm sure working together to make a fresh salad or Salsa dip would be a different way to project those themes while focusing on the food as well as the science.

    All in all the garden is looking beautiful and wild! I hope my Monday students feel a little less melancholy coming back from Spring Break into a world of munchies and art!

Enjoy the rest of your Spring Break Lakewood students and families!

Lakewood Elementary ---  Edible Peace Patch Garden

-Erin Mattick
 Gardens Manager

Sneaky Bugs and a Tasty Herb Garden

Today was a beautifully sunny work day in the Patch! After a week of relaxation during spring break, we regrouped at the garden with batteries recharged to run through the second half of the semester. Elena and I first tackled the shed. After precariously reorganizing pitchforks and rusty shovels (perhaps flip flops were not the best choice for footwear), disposing of the rubbish, and giving it a good sweep, we moved into the garden for maintenance. In the first bed, I was startled to see a whole host of leaf-footed bugs (adults and nymphs) sucking out the precious juices from our last few tomatoes.

We spent the remainder of our shift weeding and watering. There are no classes this week because Lakewood is on spring break now, but there was a whole playground of squealing kids. A few curious ones wandered over to check us out as we fiddled with the water key and pulled the hose along. They haven't been in the garden before, but they didn't hesitate to ask if we had strawberries and fruit (this is a common pattern of interest... hint, hint next year's gardeners!).

The sunflowers and gourds look healthy and are growing very quickly, while the cauliflowers and lettuces are past their prime. Carrots and radishes are coming along nicely, and the wildflowers in the back are buzzing with pollinators. The herbs look, smell, and taste great, too! Elena and I nibbled on some basil, peppermint, and citrus mint, reminiscing of iced tea and Italian fine dining as our Tuesday morning in the garden came to a close.

Peace!
Carly

DECOMPOSERS

Hello all!

The garden is flourishing and the kids are HUNGRY! On Thursdays, Randi and I have two classes- kindergarten and first graders.  Our kindergartners are eager learners and constantly asking and answering questions.  This makes my job a little easier considering the material we are throwing at them!  The first graders are also little sponges, wanting to know more and more about our garden and all the background information.

This week is all about decomposers! That means, BUGS BUGS BUGS!!

The Lakewood Edible Peace Patch Garden gets most of its help from roly polys:

These roly polys help aerate our soil and break down material to create rich, fertile soil composition for our plants to flourish. 

Our classes found most of these creepy crawlers underneath the rocks in the pollinator garden. They were so intrigued by what can happen underneath the ground, out of our eye site.  

Our exploration was successful and afterward both grade levels were able to complete the lesson plan, a challenge we are facing but assuredly overcoming with each weekly lesson plan.  After the exploration, the kids drew what they saw in the garden and shared with their classmates, Randi, me, and their teachers.  They all seemed genuinely proud of what they had accomplished today in the garden.  

Once the real work was done, Randi taught them about metamorphosis.  Have you ever tried teaching a 6 year old the word 'metamorphosis'? It is nearly impossible, but, we felt as though they were able to grasp the concept behind the word--egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly.  The kids really seemed to want to understand what everything was and I'm curious to see if they remember it next week.  After the hard stuff, the first graders made their own butterflies out of coffee filters and clothes pins! It was a lot of fun! Some of the final products are displayed throughout the garden! Come check them out at our harvest festival!

happy ides of march!

-sydney :) 

~Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.~
                                               Nathaniel Hawthorne

It was a beautiful day in the garden today.  We had two classes come out.  The first was a kindergarten class (coincidentally the same class I worked with last semester!), and the second was a first grade class (a class with which one of my fellow gardeners worked last semester!).  They are such a great group of kids, smiling and bouncing into the garden and then showering Carly, Alina, and I with hugs when the time comes to leave the garden.  Today was a particularly hug-filled day, as we won't be seeing them for three weeks.  Eckerd's Spring Break is next week and theirs is the week after that.  

Today we taught a lesson on decomposers and butterflies.  At the end, the students made their own butterflies out of coffee filters, clothes pins, and pipe cleans.  I am sorry to say I did not think to get a picture of the beautiful creations.  

With our two classes out for as long as they are, we do not have a whole lot of time for garden maintenance but we were able to water our very thirsty garden.  The newly-planted sunflowers and recently transplanted basil are coming in very nicely!

That's all for now!

Sincerely,

Elena

 

Friday Fun

It was another beautiful day at the Lakewood garden. My fellow colleagues and I were in deep discussion about how thankful we are to have the Edible Peace Patch Project in our lives.

There are many beautiful species in the garden such as this monarch caterpillar and flower.

We mainly focused on pulling grass sedges and mulching. We really enjoy our kindergarten class, who are always enthusiastic to be in the garden. Today our lesson was on dirt. We began by talking about the sandy soil we have in Florida. Then we went over other various types of soil.  The kids definitely enjoyed the dirt pile in the garden and loved holding the rolly polly bugs.  I think it is good to have an educational component with the lesson, but more importantly that the kids are having fun.

Julia Melton

“The soil is the great connector of our lives, the source and destination of all." -Wendell Berry

Today we got our hands in the dirt and learned about soil. We looked at the different components of soil, the creates that help make soil, and the reasons plants need soil. Of course the kids were most interested in the things that make soil, The rolly pollies as usual stole the show. We played some games and used magnifying glasses to explore the soil. We looked at the separate components and the full conglomeration of soil, and I think the kids got a good introduction to the world of soil. Soil is one of my favorite things to look at and study, it is a living system, and i'm glad I could share a bit of that world with these kids.

-Noah Schlager

The Edible Peace Patch Fest!

Despite the wind and the chill, yesterday's first annual Edible Peace Patch fest was a great success and a ton of fun. Volunteers and local community memebers came together with local art vendors and musicians for a day of great food, games, and friendship. As Prof. Kip Curtis, director and founder of the project, stressed in his speech last night, this project is centered around building a strong community bond through sustainable food systems. Being as food is our most intimate connection with the land, this festival celebrated our 'growing' together in both the schoolyard gardens and as the St. Petersburg community. From a bounce house and rousing game of volleyball to dancing and great conversation, the atmosphere was exciting and comfortable. Bringing everyone together in order to cheer on a project that is changing lives and moving forward with leaps and bounds was an incredible experiance. This event really brought to my attention the dedication of everyone involved in the project and the hope for its future as we continue forward.

I'd like to give a special thanks to Kip Curtis as well as the Edible Peace Patch board for making this all possible, along with our dedicated volunteers from both of the gardens, the event volunteers, and YOU! Without positive community members spreading the word and getting involved, this dream would not be turning into the reality that it is.

Peace,
Katherine Schaefer
Edible Peace Patch Volunteer Coordinator

P-L-A-N-T-S

 It feels good to be back in the Edible Peace Patch Garden! I missed the Lakewood Elementary students over break! I'm excited that my Tuesday 10 to 12 shift has both a kindergarten class and a first grade class. I'm lucky enough to have my favorite class that I worked with last semester again this semester. Being able to work with them all year has definitely helped me grow closer to the students, and made them more comfortable with me as well. It is going to be tough to leave them at the end of the semester.

   

Today we reviewed the plant parts as a group and then split up into our smaller groups. Every time they come to the garden they beg for some new vegetable that they can try. My first grade class decided that they had a new found fear of bees and the only way that they would be "safe" would be to hold my hand. Which resulted in 5 kids all trying to hold my hand at the same time. After convincing them that were all okay, we settled under the shade of a tree where they could draw the parts of the plants and anything else they had observed during our walk through the garden.

                                            



After our classes we were left with just enough time to water the plants and weed.

"There are two lasting bequests we can give our children: one is roots.  The other is wings." -Hodding Carter, Jr.


-Alina

Plant Parts

This week we're going over plant parts in order to teach the kids what each function of the parts do to contribute to the whole.  I drew a picture of a flower with a stem, leaves and roots to demonstrate the plant parts we were discussing and to really drive the introduction home, we pretended we were plants with our pretty faces as flowers, our bodies as stems, our arms were leaves and our feet were roots.  We followed this introduction with a garden tour and each kid was tasked with the objective of finding a plant of their own to draw.  This point of this exercise is to get the kids to notice that each plant has these same characteristics as we just went over.  I think the kids enjoyed themselves, they all really like to color and they love being in the garden and getting a chance to observe the growth that's taken place over the week. 

Thriving Thursday

Hello all!

Sydney here.  I'm excited to be working on this project again after taking a semester break.  Last semester I was working with the non-profit, Friends of Strays Animal Shelter, and found that working with animals is a lot like working with children-- they desire a lot of attention and are smelly.  Only kidding! :) But, seriously, I really did miss working in the garden and with humans again.

Today at the garden was calm.  The Peace Patch is in desperate need of a hair-cut, so, Randi and I spent the majority of our time pulling up pesky sedge.  Mrs. K's class came out today and we continued Julia's excellent seed lesson plan.  Mrs. K has first gardeners (graders) who are eager to be outside and interested in what is happening in the garden!  Educating is the part I love about working in an Edible Schoolyard because I feel like I am in my element.  I love when kids ask questions and I love how excited they get when you change the pitch of your voice to make even the most boring of words sound much more intriguing.

My time at the garden is reflective.  I find educating difficult at times because I myself might not know how to answer a question from a first gardener.  But, at other times I find it exhilarating to share my knowledge.  Children have very distinct faces when they are thinking and beginning to understand new information and it's a face that I hope to see throughout my career path.  As I mentioned before, I am excited to be back on this project because it has helped me to understand my true passion in life, education. Have a great weekened everyone!

.Sydney. 

PS: This bird was sitting on a tree right next to me at dinner the other night.  He was very chill. 

What shall I learn of beans or beans of me?

I came to love my rows, my beans, though so many more than I wanted. They attached me to the earth, and so I got strength like Antæus. But why should I raise them? Only Heaven knows... What shall I learn of beans or beans of me? -Henry David Thoreau 

Today was a wonderful day in the Garden. I spent a good time weeding and fixing up the tomatoes before the kids came out, and I got some lovely views of all the little insects and arthropods that have made a home amongst the bramble of tomato vines. We have a vast array of decomposers and herbivorous feasting on fallen currant tomatoes, as well as carnivores who came to feast upon them. I captured a photo of a little assassin bug nymph hunting on a tomato.

Todays lesson was on seeds! I'm a 20 year old college student who has studied quite a bit of botany and biology and I am still convinced that seeds are magical. I mean, the fact that the whole potential of a plant, of life, exists in a tiny little round pebble looking thing is perhaps the most poetic thing has ever created. It is an excitement I have never lost, and hope these kids never do. The kids are very familiar with seeds from last term, so we brought out some seeds, and let them observe and hold a variety of seeds. A lot of them wanted to eat the more familiar ones, so I had to keep an eye on where the seeds were going. Once they knew a few of them, we played a game where they would close there eyes and identify what kind of seed was in their hand by touch, and then run to a part of the field that was associated with that seed, kind of like the game four corners. Then we let them plant one of the beans, filling a cup with dirt and soil and water, so we can see it grow over the coming weeks. 

After our main lesson we spent time exploring the garden a bit more, A lot of kids wanted their pictures taken, as well as pointing out what I should photograph, and I let a few of them try taking pictures themselves. We tried some of the little tomatoes, lettuce, and some cauliflower. A couple of the kids discovered some awesome arthropods like roly-polies and this gorgeous monarch butterfly caterpillar. 

Overall it was a pretty spectacular day, and I was fortunate to get to show these kids some pretty awesome things in our garden, as well as hear their thoughts and opinions on the garden and on a variety of funny topics they brought up. After working with these kids since last fall, I am really attached to so many of them as individuals. These kids are intelligent and each has a unique and important view of the world that they are very willing to share, they are an example to my belief that we are all philosophers, and these kids are some of the best I know. I hope that is garden continues to be a place for them to cultivate that thoughtfulness and curiosity, to keep growing the seed within themselves into something spectacular. So before I get to corny (pun intended!), I shall add a brief seed of wisdom from Michael Pollan. 

Seeds have the power to preserve species, to enhance cultural as well as genetic diversity, to counter economic monopoly and to check the advance of conformity on all its many fronts.

-Michael Pollan

Post by Noah Schlager

Let's Start at the Very Beginning... with Seeds, of Course!

Elena, Alina, and I began this beautiful Tuesday morning with our first kindergarten class of the day in the garden. It was a bit of a crazy start because our students arrive at the beginning of our volunteer shift, but we got everyone together to review the garden basics and talk about seeds. Both the kindergarteners and first graders knew right away everything that seeds need to grow! They eagerly gathered around our outstretched hands to observe and touch some mystery seeds. "That one looks like a butt!" one student exclaimed, upon seeing the dried garbanzo bean. They knew the squash seed right away as well. We certainly have some pumpkin carvers in the bunch! After describing the physical characteristics of different types of seeds, we planted bean seeds in our small groups and took turns very carefully adding a touch of water from the can. One of the girls tried to stop the water from dripping through the hole in the bottom of the cup, but I explained why we should be careful not to drown them in too much water.

After we planted the seeds, the first graders had an excellent time frolicking through the garden. They tasted some little tomatoes and giggled with delight as the rollie pollies tickled their hands. Some even helped us water the beds, eagerly making multiple trips to the bathroom to fill their mini watering cans. After the kids left, we continued with the usual tasks of watering and weeding the beds. The produce looks quite healthy so far! We have huge bunches of lettuce, and the cauliflowers are plumping up nicely. Unfortunately the banana tree doesn't look too great, but with some extra TLC we can hopefully revive it back to health.

Our remaining job was to turn the compost pile, which seems to be transforming into some rich soil. We had some trouble since there were lots of tomato vines on top, but after removing the bigger items we succeeded with the pitch fork and some solid female muscle power. As is always the case with nature, time will bring about change. We can expect some excellent new soil from the process and undoubtedly some delicious fresh produce in the coming weeks!

With love,
Carly Chaapel

Second Week of Teaching at Lakewood!!

Today the vegetables in the garden looked awesome!

The lettuce is about ready to harvest!

Olivia and I planted some raddishes.

We also planted beets!

The Cherry Tomato's were ready to harvest!

Last week Olivia and I planted some bean seeds and they were already sprouting!! So Exciting!

A close up of the bean seeds!

Edible flowers that are pretty tasty!

The students had a lesson on seeds today! First, we looked at three different types of seeds and observed some similarities and differences. We used our senses of sight, smell, and touch to observe the seeds. And we looked at their texture, shape, weight, and color. They absolutely loved planting their own seeds! We used some plastic cups and each student got to plant one seed. Then the teacher took the planted seeds back to their classroom.

The students tasted the edible flower! They thought it was so cool that they could eat a flower!

We also tasted the cherry tomatoes! They were very yummy!

The students left very happy! 

By: Kate Farley
Eckerd College Senior