Summer Break; Garden Awake!

The school year may be coming to an end, but Longfellow's Learning Garden is just getting started--and even flourishing.

Many of the Kindergarten plantings are already bearing vegetables. For instance, full-fledged spicy radishes have arrived...

... and the potato seeds and three sisters beds--corn, squash and beans--are already bearing leaves.

And what's this strange, spiky purple-flowering plant? In the herb garden, looking over the lower playground, it's a bush of allium schoenoprasum, or as they're called when we mix them in our potato chips, "chives."

While teachers, parents and children enjoy the summer break, take note: the vegetables, herbs, flowers and trees in the back of the school won't be going on vacation. In fact, they'll need our help. All summer long, members of the Longfellow community will be tending to their needs--such as watering and weeding--to make sure they stay healthy.

Would be garden volunteers, green thumbs or not, are encouraged to contact the school, or better yet, head out to the garden at 6pm on June 17th (access is through the back gate off the parking lot) as we discuss the summer maintenance schedule.

Spring Fever! Farming, Flowers and Festivities

Spring is back--with forecast temperatures for the upcoming Longfellow Spring Fair this Saturday predicted to crack 80 degrees. Put on your sunscreen, get ready for fun in the sun, outdoor games and grilling, and a bevy of plants and seedlings for sale from our very own garden.

corn seedlings

squash seedlings

There is also a lot to be learned in the Longfellow Learning Garden, and plenty of Longfellow students have been helping out, preparing our future crops and learning about sustainable agriculture in the process.

While the Fourth Grade classes planted four beds of potatoes last Friday, they sang the ’16 Counties’ of Maine song, because Maine's Aroostook County produces more potatoes than any other county in the United States!

When you're tired of bending over to tend to our seedlings, take a rest in the garden's new picnic tables, which were made just down the street at Davis Woodworking on Brighton.

In other news, next year's Kindergarten students will be planting sunflowers in the Garden, which they will get to enjoy when they return in the fall, while third grade classes will be planting carrot seeds this week--which should also grow into edible treats during harvest season. But if you can't wait that long, take a look at this year's Kindergarten classes' cold-weather green beds, which are already beginning to sprout. Salad, anyone?