garden news-kids in the garden

GARDEN NEWS-KIDS IN THE GARDEN

thanks to sm for photo

thats me touring a group of kindergartners through our orchard through the banana grove
i love having kids come through our community garden
so many seemed mesmerized at what they see

if asked what it the best thing in the garden most kids would say the chickens and some would say the monkey 
what we have a monkey
well sort of 
i put a stuffed monkey i named george about 10 feet high so the kids cant take him down
he is wired in place
as i tour the kids through the banana grove
it is quiet and dark and shady with tall banana trees growing up about 30 ft tall
there is a path where you can walk through the middle of the grove

when you go there by yourself you can feel alone and all to yourself
i would think it would be a quiet place to meditate
unless
of course 
george starts jumping through the trees

as the kids go through the banana grove tunnel way up high like 20 ft are racks of different bananas growing with their long big ole flower
the kids enjoy trying to locate them
a little wary about the monkey being in the banana grove somewhere

as they leave the banana grove we walk up 16 steps to get back to the level of our garden
i get them to count the steps as they climb them
they never get the same number 

along the path they also throw out california poppy seeds out onto the hillside which they have been holding in their pinched fingers 
some will sprout into the beautiful orange poppies in the spring

before we head to the banana grove they look up at our owl house that sits up about 10 ft high
they are asked what it is
occasionally someone will know the answer
i usually hoot like an owl to give them a hint

after they finish climbing the steps they move onto the next session

this fall we will have around 500 kids that are mostly kindergartners come through our Fall Program
they do four 20 minute sessions and get to harvest a small pumpkin to take back to school with them
usually we have 40-50 kids a day come through

one session is the pumpkin and squash session
they learn about how the squash and pumpkins grows from seed and get to see if a big pumpkin floats in the water
answer it does
at the end they get to harvest their pumpkin and put their name on it
then
on the way to the next session they get to see the chickens and feed them chicken scratch
this part the chickens love

the next session is called rainbow foods
its about nutrition and eating fruits and vegetables from the garden
red purple orange green yellow white blue or something like that
they get to see veggies or fruit from each color
eg purple may be an eggplant or passionfruit or a grape

they get to taste a snack where they eat the food of each color
they like this session because they get to eat and its mid morning

the next session is nature appreciation 
they tour through the orchard with its many citrus plants see the beehives at a distance 
then 
get to sit under the big ole giant grandfather pepper tree with its flowing narrow leaves

under the pepper tree its shady cool and quiet
the kids like to sit under there and look up at its wispy leaves

here they learn about bees the soil or dirt and get to have a book read to them

from there i walk them through the journey through the banana grove for a banana sighting or a george sighting

the last session is the seed session
they get to see and handle various seeds see the baby plants growing in the green house and get to plant their own sugar snap peas in one of our garden beds

some of these peas will be transplanted to our garden rows and some will be left in place to harvest later

the kids enjoy this field trip
for many its the only one they get to do for the year
sadly we cant accommodate all the students since the demand for our Fall Program is limited to 500
we have had to do a first come first serve sign up list

we are limited since we are all volunteers

those kids that do get to come through the program love it and want to return

maybe next year we will be able to make more room

my impression is they dont pay teachers enough

the organicgreen doctor