Garden Club Fall 2017- Crafts and Crafting Stewardship

This fall, our after school garden club was populated with young, eager minds and hands. Right away they let us know they were makers! One of our students brought a garden crafts book to the first meeting by the cob oven, and it ignited them! In the weeks that followed we opened garden club with a check in, snack, and a craft. We collected seeds and decorated the envelopes, made sculptures from our veggies and herbs, painted terra cotta pots and pumpkins,
made salt dough decorations with foraged materials, and more!

How rewarding it is to observe the natural learning process of small hands separating seeds from chaff, or identifying lemon balm, or celebrating with whoops and dancing at small kale plants growing at last! We spent time each Monday walking through our garden plots and greenhouse making observations, learning the proper way to harvest many different herbs and vegetables, and how to care for the soil that sustains their cherished plants. The first foray was a chorus of “oh my!” “Can I pick this for my mom?” as they realized what can lie innocuous in a green leafy landscape. They especially loved pinching off kale and chard leaves, and gathering our unofficial official school herb, tulsi. They loved eating right off the plants, though a few didn’t get the note that eggplant isn’t so good raw, and we learned a little about composting!

We are winding down from the activities of the fall garden, wintering garden plots and nurturing the seeds of stewardship within.

As always, there are many garden projects needing volunteers, please contact Carrie carriejacksonchisholm@gmail.com Chelsea irisnchelsea@gmail.com if you have the hands and heart to help our gardens grow!