Drop-In Activities, 5/20/08

Greetings Peabody Gardeners!

Mother's Day Paper-Making was a huge success!! Hopefully the flowers are beginning to germinate because butterfly season is around the corner.

-This Week's Activities-
We have a long list of garden tasks for drop-in this week. Come for one, come for all, or come for something else entirely! Drop-in runs from 3:00-4:30 every Tuesday after school.

Planting:
Potatoes
Beans
Flowers
Native plants
Weed refuge

Transplanting:
Shade garden by lower-grade entrance--hostas, violets
Empty wooden barrels

Weeding:
Yes please!
Finish removing cover crop

Harvesting:
Perennial herbs if you want them

Special Notes:
**We have extra vegetable seedlings (and some seeds) if you'd like to take some for your own garden at home
**5th-8th graders: Are you applying to be a summer garden intern? Applications are due May 30, please talk to me if you have any questions.


See you in the garden,
Daniel

Spring 2008 Greetings!

Welcome to the Spring 2008 season in the Peabody Garden! My name is Daniel MacPhee and I am excited to be starting as the new CitySprouts garden coordinator at the Peabody School. Even though we are still wearing sweaters, spring has arrived in the garden... trees are budding, bulbs are blooming, and bees are buzzing. It seems like the perfect time to renew the open invitation to the garden and to encourage everyone to make use of this wonderful resource in a way that fits your needs, interests, and class schedules. Official weekly afterschool drop-ins begin the Tuesday after spring vacation, but the garden is always here for your use, and I am also happy to work with your students any time I am around. I will try to give regular email updates on special happenings and seasonal activity ideas--but please do not hesitate to contact me at any point to arrange or suggest a particular activity for your students. The Peabody School Garden blog is also a good place to check in for ideas and updates. Between the Peabody and Haggerty gardens, I work Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.

-Daniel
dmacphee@citysprouts.org

Spring Greetings Continued...

This week's garden star is:
--- RHUBARB! ---
Take a peek underneath the picture frames hanging in the cherry tree and you will see one of the most amazing signs that spring has arrived... It is a wonderful time for students to observe the growth stages of this strange perennial vegetable. Some stalks are bright red and nearly mature, while others are just beginning to come up from the ground. They look like white leathery turtle eggs coming out of the ground. Eventually each one splits open, revealing a large crinkled leaf that unfolds and begins to grow upwards. Come by to observe this strange vegetable emerge from its winter rest, and make room in your bellies for strawberry-rhubarb crisp in June! (Remember, Rhubarb stalks are edible but leaves are not)


------ Some key dates ------
Peabody Garden Drop-In: Tuesdays 3:00-4:30, starting April 29.

Garden Coordinator Availability: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday


------ Some spring activity ideas ------

Art:
*Decorate wind-damaged larch tree: make birdhouses, bird feeders, or other art to hang from our garden "gallery"
*Observe/sketch signs of spring

Science/Math:
*Analyze the garden soil (sand/silt/clay content)
*Check out the stages of compost... and identify compost critters
*Observe/discuss signs of spring and effects of winter
*Observe/hypothesize garden microclimates and habitats
*Chart soil, air, and greenhouse temperature throughout a day, week, season etc
*Calculate germination rate for seeds in the greenhouse
*Measure garden beds, map the garden
*Conduct an outdoor experiment

Language Arts/History/Social Science:
*Journaling activity
*Plan a historically-themed garden

Garden maintenance activities:
*Spread compost
*Rake mulch
*Clear beds
*Trim downed branches
*Sow seeds in the greenhouse or garden beds
*Divide/transplant perennials

Indoor activities:
*Make a set of sprouting jars, taste test a variety of sprouts
*Sow seeds, observe germination
*Dissect bean seeds
*Start a worm bin for compost

I look forward to meeting all of you this spring. If you would like help or support with any of the ideas above (or any other garden activities) please email me or find me in the garden.

-Daniel
dmacphee@citysprouts.org