Make your own vegetable sprinkler from PVC

Make your own vegetable sprinkler from PVC

I got to this link after hitting this link http://networkedblogs.com/JOCEo after finding Mike the Gardener’s post on a FB page Vegetable Gardening. I like this because it can be customized to any garden, and for situations like mine where the likelihood of adding a permanent hookup to the only faucet available is not likely. You could arrange this however you need it, set the water, and set a timer in class so that a student goes out to shut it off (don’t think I’ll be able to add a timer at this location because of other uses for the spigot, which uses a key to turn it off and on). 

Using TP rolls and salad containers to sprout seedlings

Got a bunch of TP rolls and plastic containers you’re not sure what to do with? Here’s a great posting from a fellow blogger complete with wonderful pictures. I couldn’t do any better myself, so take a look. The main thing is you’ll need a place to put those plugs once they sprout because they won’t last as long as if they were in a coconut fiber pot or peat pot. http://tinyurl.com/98xe387 Caught it on the FB page for Bloem Living, which usually sends just fabulous photos but today had a bonus!

Introduce neighbors to your school garden

We are using a hose and mini-ditches to channel water to our plants.

Today I met neighbors across the street from our garden. From their kitchen they can see just about anything going on at the front of the school. I needed a couple of plastic bags to corral the rotting tomatoes, the ones touching the ground, so mischievous urchins or naughty teens didn’t see an opportunity to play a different kind of baseball. Robert was out in his garage, eyeing a little maintenance of his door. I had good tomatoes in my bag and figured, I’d introduce myself and swap some tomatoes for bags.  He had nectarines to share from his backyard tree, and had no tomatoes so was very interested in ours! Why didn’t I do that earlier? Pretty soon, his “bride” Charlotte, came out and joined the conversation. As we talked, I learned a lot about the history of our school, which was built on a former fig orchard with a few grapevines near the street in the early ’80s. I heard about the many crazy things drivers have tried to do on our congested street. I made friends who know our custodian already and have met our principal. Most importantly, I hooked up with more eyes keeping watch on our garden and school.

What a great idea for a rake that’s fallen apart

Thanks to https://www.facebook.com/greenrenaissance  Here’s a creative way to repurpose an old rake. I could even see planting the wood end into the ground for a standing pole to hold the tools if you don’t have a wall to pound into, like on the side of our school garden portable.

Great visuals for school gardens

Great visuals for school gardens

I like the idea of using pallets to make raised beds. Here are a couple of photos that show how, with a bunch of other cool UpCycled garden things.

Gardening Elective Coming to Starr!

Next week I start teaching a gardening elective two mornings a week at Starr Elementary in Fresno. I’m so excited to be able to bring my hobby into the classroom, and to bring my classroom outside some of the time. If you have thoughts on what activities will work in my narrow 30 minute time frame, please share. I also will be teaching a journalism/blogging elective two days a week, so posting will be more regular. It’s been tough taking on this class mid-September, but I’m loving it. Starting gardening when we’re in fall and almost winter will be interesting.

Fresno gardening conference coming up

An organizer for The Giving Garden at Fresno’s Rata High School will be one of the guest speakers at the upcoming Community Garden Conference. The event on Sept. 10 will be held at Sunnyside High School in Fresno, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunnyside High is at 1019 S. Peach, south of Kings Canyon Road. Best of all, admission is free! How many educational opportunities are free anymore?

Hope to see you there Sept. 10!

I checked out some youtube video from the first garden conference, hosted by the Fresno Community Garden Coalition, a project of Fresno Metro Ministry. Looked like a promising beginning. Attendance appeared to be a little light in the video. Maybe this year it will catch on. I hope to be there and hook up with some inspired school gardening connections for my future job (thinking positive!).

As I cruise the web looking at school gardens elsewhere, we here in Fresno have some catching up to do! Rata High’s garden shows just how beautiful a school garden can be — beyond rows of raised beds. I’m looking forward to learning more new about other community gardening efforts in Fresno at this community gardening conference.

One stylish school garden in Fresno

Vegetables are coming in and The Giving Garden at Rata High in Fresno is just getting greener. Makes me smile every time I pass it. Take a look at their latest photos if you want to see what a stylish school garden can look like.  Not sure what I’ll be doing by August because like so many other teachers, I’ve been laid off. Several irons in the fire. Meanwhile, I stop and smell the …. vegetables.  http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=164297690303919&set=a.131040936962928.24443.124163527650669&type=1&theater

Garden designed for disabled students

Excited parents can get a lot done working together. They are the impetus behind the new Giving Garden at Rata High School in Fresno, just down the street from me. Check out this Fresno Bee story, http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/05/30/2408326/rata-high-garden-designed-for.html Once the garden grows in a little more, I hope to post a few pix of features that would work for any school garden. They had an architect design theirs, and some parents do the pitching to sponsors for the project. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=157247467675608&set=a.157247244342297.39923.124163527650669&type=1

The parents did a great job, and you can talk to them on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/TheGivingGardenatRata It’s one of the most lovely designs I have seen, and I have toured several school gardens in Santa Cruz, Sacramento, Riverside and now Fresno. Who knows, maybe you’ll find something inspiring in this story like I do.  🙂

Garden in a CD case

That’s right! A CD with a small lima bean inside can be immersed in water, compared with seeds with no water, and for older grades, compared with different solution strengths of added Miracle Gro. Simple two-page directions with opportunities to chart for math skills. Now I have a use for all those CD cases from some band that I got for a song at a garage sale. Source: the National Ag Science Center in Modesto, and originally from the Resource Area for Teachers in San Jose. Check out the link: http://www.agsciencecenter.org/images/stories/germination_station.pdf

I want to take the tour!