BES Garden Club

The summer is a little more than half over, so this week at garden camp we spent the morning taking stock of all that we've learned so far - gathering up and accounting for all the knowledge and experiences we've shared in the garden.  Broccoli going to seed Mrs. L led us on a garden scavenger hunt, calling out different plant names, processes, and properties for us all to identify and find in turn. This week, the sunflowers are in full bloom and attracting a parade of pollinators through the day. Our broccoli plants, which had long ago started flowering, had gone to seed, and we noticed just how many seed pods each plant produces. Our green beans are popping up to replace the dying alliums, and our greenhouse cucumber vines are growing up towards the rafters!  We returned to the outdoor classroom to brainstorm just some of what we've learned from garden camp so far, about soil, worms, pollinators, medicinal plants, and plant parts. We filled up one w

Long before we had hospitals or the kinds of doctors many of us visit today, humans relied on plants, and a keen understanding of their properties, to treat many of our maladies and discomforts. This week we explored some of the plants that we grow and that grow wild around our town that have healing properties - in other words, plants that we can use as medicine! We looked at plants that don't grow wild, but that we can grow in gardens, such as chamomile, calendula, oats, and lavender, as well as plants that grow wild in Maine (even though none of these are native to our state): St. John's wort, mullein, mint, plantain, and stinging nettles. The wild card of the day was cinnamon: did you know that it comes from the bark of a tree that grows in Sri Lanka, India, Myanmar, and Bangladesh? And it's not only for flavoring apple pie; it's also said to help lower blood sugar.  Once we got to know the medicinal plants laid out on the table, we started processing t

Hello from the garden! We've been busy bees at garden camp, and with wild & cultivated flowers blooming all around us, it seemed like the perfect time to turn our attention to our dear friends and garden teammates: pollinators!  Humans have been farming for about 10,000 years, but pollinators have been co-evolving with flowering plants for about 100 million years. The friendship between animals and plants who produce flowers & fruit is truly ancient, and the pollinating animals we studied today are still carrying out this time-honored practice of trading their ability to pollinate for flowers' tasty nectar and pollen. And we rely on this partnership for so much of what we eat!  We began the day by studying a collection of flowering and fruiting plants from gardens and roadsides alike, talking about how the different traits of flowers (size, color, scent, shape, when they bloom) match up with the type of animal that pollinates them. We learned that polli

 What do collecting seaweed for mulch, picking up and tossing rolly pollies out of your greenhouse, and feeding your leftover salad to worms have in common? These activities are all part of the food cycle, the endlessly repeating cycle of nutrients through soil, plants, and our bodies. Today at Garden Camp we got to enact pretty much every important stage of that cycle: sowing seeds, preparing soil with compost, transplanting seedlings, weeding and otherwise tending to our crops' wellbeing, harvesting, eating, and composting our food waste, which will become new soil for the seeds we sowed! Sowing We began the day by sorting seeds into two groups: those that are best sown directly, and those we want to start in soil blocks! We sowed lettuce, swiss chard, scallions, and kale in soil blocks, and set carrots and beets aside for seeding directly into beds. Midmorning we had a special guest! Bec Poole, our friend and local historian/art teacher, came to tell us all about M

We all know that Maine is famous for its blueberries and lobster. But did you know that our state is also famous for its worms? In fact, these wonder worms (red wigglers, a species of worm known for fertilizing soil with their mineral-rich castings!) were raised and sold right around the corner from Brooksville Elementary at what is now David's Folly Farm. This week at garden camp, after preparing a bin with layers of soil and newspaper strips to house our wriggly friends, we walked over to the farm to unearth this history and the wonder worms themselves!  At David's Folly we learned about Minerva Cutler, who raised these worms, and how people ordered worms from her by the pound for both gardening and fishing. After learning about where red wigglers thrive - not in fresh manure, but in manure that has aged some - we dug through some of the farm's compost and found over 100 worms to take home to our worm bin!  Back at the school garden and ready for

What part of a plant is best suited to breakfast? Turns out our gardeners eat mostly seeds and fruits first thing in the morning!  This week at Garden Camp we explored the parts of plants that we grow and harvest for our meals - what purpose each part serves for the plant, and how that purpose contributes to the nutrition found in our food. After making a list of what plant parts our breakfasts could be traced back to, Anna led us into the garden to see what plant parts we could make into a snack. Throughout the morning, we harvested leaves (lettuce), stems and flowers (broccoli), modified stems & leaves (garlic), and roots (radishes) from the garden to make into a nutrient-packed salad. Anna brought along some more roots (carrots), seeds (from pumpkins and sunflowers), and fruit (cucumbers) to make our salad represent the full spectrum of what plants can offer us in taste, texture, color, and nutrition. Our picnic tables became chef's counters