First crops are ready before school is out!

With just one full day left at school, I am happy that some of the early crops that we planted with the students just 5 weeks ago are already ready!  

Today, I harvested all the radishes (thanks to some of the Grade 5 and 6's for your help in planting them!) and cut the first batch of kale (thanks to Mrs. Smith's Grade 1 students for your help in planting them!).  All the crops (three big bags!) were left in the teacher staff room and hopefully some students will get to take a taste test in their classes before leaving for the summer.  

Radishes are harvested!  Many of them are huge!

First crop of kale harvested!

Kale plants cut down and ready for new growth

We again planted potatoes this year.  Since I am not too experienced with how these grow, I decided to do a little experiment.  I had been told that covering up the greens of the potato plants with additional soil allows potatoes to continue to grow on top of each other.  So today, using just one corner of the potato garden, I mounded up soil over 9 potato plants.  We'll see if that little corner yields more potatoes compared to the potatoes that are not covered.   

Carrots, onions, lettuce and beets are all growing well.  All the rest of the crops will be ready for the students when they are back in the fall.  

Carrots

Onions

Happy summer break to everyone! Check back here throughout the summer to see how the garden is growing while you are away!

TLC for the Garden

Thanks to the amazing volunteers that have been coming out so far to help get our garden on a great path!

We have crops growing and kids actively involved in helping that to happen.



 

 

A New Garden Season Has Begun!

St. Cecilia's School Gardens are up and running for hopefully another fruitful season! 

A huge thanks to all those that came out on Saturday May 13th on a cold morning to help prepare the garden beds and clean up the school yard.  It took a lot of helping hands to add new soil, pull up weeds, rake up rocks on the grass left from old snow piles and  pick up garbage and old debris from the gardens surrounding the school.  It is amazing how quickly just a bit of work can start to transform the outdoor landscape.

This year, we organized the vegetable garden planting into 2 separate days so that classes could rotate through and help get the seeds and bulbs into the ground.  We had a majority of the children plant at least 1-2 seeds each which is pretty impressive given how many children are at St. Cecilia!  Thank you to the parents that came out to volunteer and help coordinate the children and classes.  Thank you to the teachers for be willing to participate in this experience for the kids.

Now, the garden is already growing! We have radishes, onions, kale and carrots all starting to come up.  We have planted potatoes, lettuce, beets and pumpkins as well.  The radishes will be ready for harvest before the children leave for summer break and the hope is that the remaining crops will be ready and available when the children come back to school in September.   We will likely be donating some of the lettuce and kale again throughout the summer to local food banks as they are a crop that keeps on giving throughout the season.  

Radishes

Onions

Carrots

Managing the gardens could not be possible without the help of volunteers over the summer months who have committed to weeding, cutting grass, watering and managing the crops as they grow. Thank you so much for your participation in this project - it is so valuable for our children to see how food grows!  















Stay tuned for further updates on this blog as the garden continues to grow.  If you have any pictures or comments that would like to be shared with the St Cecilia school community, I am happy to receive your them at StCeciliaSchoolGardens@gmail.com