It's time to get back into the gardens with the children!
We had so many kids interested in the garden club this year, we are having two clubs!
Each club meets twice a month in the fall, once a month in the winter, and then back to twice a month in the spring.
Here is a peek at one of our school's gardens. Check out those cabbages. I don't even think that very hungry caterpillar could eat those big cabbages.
We are hoping to try a garden journal this year. Since we have so many kids, Sra. Melara thought to have our composition books cut in half. What a great idea! Such a perfect size for small hands.
We started off the year with our sunflower snack of grapes, celery and cheese. It disappeared quickly.
This year, we also thought to include some garden rules at our first meeting.
Of course, the children thought the scavenger hunt was a great introduction to the gardens. There was so much to explore in each garden.
Some beds are growing vegetables, some weeds, and there was even one hidden carrot that looked like a weed.
The dead sunflowers in the fourth grade garden held lots of surprises.
So cool!
There was so much to touch and smell. Some herbs smelled good and some not so good.
But the highlight for one of our clubs was this poor tomato horn worm. It was covered with the eggs of the braconid wasp. An amazing example of a parasite. The tomato horn worm is not a friend to the gardener...it eats those beautiful tomatoes that took so long to grow! But these wasp larvae are a beneficial insect because they are eating this worm! It's gross, but it's an amazing lesson. Even VCU has a bug lab that studies this very thing!
We're looking forward to an amazing year!
