Lettuce becomes Salad!

The apple tree is blossoming beautifully. We hope to see more apples this summer. The barrel containing the tree was also planted with lettuce. The lettuce was ready to be harvested, so we decided to make a salad for the students.

We harvested, washed, and chopped up the lettuce. Tomatoes, cucumbers, and salad dressing were purchased from the store. Each child selected ingredients to make themselves a salad.

Yummy salad!

 Radishes from the garden are delicious too.

Planting seeds

 JYC students love to plant seeds.

They hold out their hands and Mr. Hobbs gives each child several seeds.

They sprinkle their seeds across the soil, cover them with additional soil, then water them well.

Check back in a few months to see what will grow.

Spring is coming

Around the country it is still snowing in many places. But the JYC Garden benefits from Northern California's mild winters. We are already enjoying beautiful flowers, and looking forward to more blossoms in the spring.

Pink Jasmine

Daffodils

Fuschia

Certain vegetables can grow year-round in our garden. Lettuces and other greens grow particularly well.

Chard

Chinese Broccoli

Redwood Trees and more

JYC parent Hwee-See Teng donated three redwood tree saplings to the JYC Garden. Remembering how tall the redwood trees are in Muir Woods, students were interested to see how small they are at the beginning.

They enjoyed spreading mulch over the soil.

We'll never see these trees grow to hundreds of feet tall, but we can enjoy caring for them while they get their start.

The Garden Club has expanded this year. Now first and second graders also visit the garden every other Thursday during their lunch recess. The younger children have been very enthusiastic and helpful. Here they are learning about snap peas, one of our favorite vegetables in the garden. 

What else is growing in the garden?

Bougainvillea

Squash

Passionflower

More flowers

Mint and strawberries

Gardening in September

The Fuji apples that grew over the summer were ready to be harvested once we returned to school. At JYC, harvesting means eating! The students all enjoyed the apple slices. They were slightly tart, but delicious.

We also ate lettuce leaves, straight from the garden!

Then we showed the students how to thin the recently planted sprouts. It can be hard to convince them to reduce the number of plants, but it's a good lesson in what plants need to grow well.

Summer 2013

The nature of gardens is that some of the best growth occurs during the summer. Unfortunately, that means that some of our students don't get to see the best of the JYC garden. Here are some photos captured in the summer of 2013.

We are particularly grateful to Matt Hobbs, our extraordinary garden volunteer, who purchased and planted many of the vegetables that grew this summer. 

Many thanks also go out to the student volunteers in the YMCA Summer Program who watered the garden throughout the summer break.

Education Outside

The Education Outside organization (formerly known as the San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance) has been a great support to our garden and our garden volunteers. People who have been involved with other school gardens in our district have offered support, advice, and information which has been invaluable in the process of creating and maintaining the JYC garden.

There is a new program which places Education Outside Corps Members into schools to further support and grow the garden programs. Maybe we'll be able to participate in the program in the future and take our garden to the next level.

Watch this video for more information or check out their website.

First Graders thank Peaceful Valley

All of our students are grateful for the seeds we received from Peaceful Valley. Ms. Mac's first grade class made thank you cards that will be sent to Peaceful Valley. Here are a few of the cards they made.

Nancy wrote: "Thank you for giving us seeds. We like all the seeds from you. My favorite seed is the strawberry. We will plant them in our garden, I like planting because I don't need to buy things."

Jonathan C. wrote: "Thanks for the seeds. I like strawberry seeds the most. We will plant them in the garden. I like planting because I like to see them grow."










Jessica F. wrote: "Thanks for the seeds. My favorite kind of seed is blueberry. We will plant them in the soil. I like planting because I don't need to buy food."







Here are some additional comments from the first graders.

Lori: "We will put the seeds in the the school garden because I can eat different things."

Jennifer: "I like growing fruits because they are sweet."

Norman: "You are nice to us. I like your seeds."

Kenny: "I like planting because when I grow plants I can eat the food and I will grow bigger."

Allen: "I like growing things because I like to see them grow."

And many of the students wrote: "I like planting because it is fun."

We look forward to the planting, growing, and eating that the gift from Peaceful Valley will allow our students to enjoy!

Thank you, Peaceful Valley!

Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply donated a large box of seeds to the school gardens in our district. We are very grateful for the more than 210 packets of organic seeds that were given to John Yehall Chin Elementary School's garden.

This is approximately half of the seeds we received. They included multiple kinds of tomatoes, peppers, carrots, beets, lettuce and other greens, peas, beans, onions, herbs, melons, and flowers.

Peaceful Valley also gave us some calendars with pictures of fruits and vegetables. We look forward to seeing these growing in our garden.

For every ten packets of seeds that Peaceful Valley sells, they donate one packet to a school garden. Please support Peaceful Valley and help us thank them for their generosity. You can visit them at http://www.groworganic.com/.

Gardeners in Room 205

Ms. Mac's first grade class has adopted a barrel in our garden. They planted seeds last week. They will be watering the barrel and monitoring its progress. We look forward to seeing their corner of the garden flourish!

Room 205 planted carrot, lettuce, and marigold seeds.