October Garden News

Look outside in the children’s garden and you can see the work the gardening committee has just done. On October 7^th four families worked together to reorient the planting boxes so that they receive more sun, and to allow for larger gatherings in the garden (so we can better share planting, playing, singing, stories with the children in the garden space…). We’ve also planted seeds, as well as seedling plants that children started during the past few weeks.

A successful summer harvest of tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes and eggplant, and a few carrots and beans provided fresh delicious veggies for snacktime several times per week this summer. Now we are eagerly looking forward to our winter garden. We still have sweet pepper plants growing, and we’ve planted strawberries, two kinds of peas, two kinds of carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, beets, kohlrabi and radishes. We hope some of them grow well and allow the children many more opportunities to experience the excitement—and delicious taste—of home-grown food. We will continue to plant seeds in seedling trays with the children every 1-2 weeks, providing more plants for the garden, as well as a very visible experiment in what happens when you plant seeds in soil and add water and sun.

If you coop—please compost! We moved the composter so that it is very convenient—just outside the garden door. Composting is like magic—all non-animal food waste (and dried leaves, woodchips, and other plant waste) is transformed into dark black crumbly earth with which we can replenish the soil. If you don’t know how to compost—just check out the “how to” signs in the kitchen. Take a couple of kids with you to dump the scraps. Slide open the door at the bottom and look at what is going on in there. Children can certainly learn to set aside the compostable scraps from their own food, particularly if adults model it for them.

When you are at the school—ask your kids to show you the garden. In addition to plants, you may find some interesting insects out there too. Also, check out the concrete slabs with children’s handprints—they were students of ICNS in the 1970s!

-Emma Johnson