The big fall clean up has begun! Students are raking leaves, cleaning out beds of old plants and dead heading the last few cycles of our beautiful marigolds. Our Pingry scarecrow has done its work and has been put away. Soon our garden will be a cold, still, quiet place as it goes to sleep for the winter.
K-3 Garden Spring 2012
A cleaned out garden bed.
Proud Pingry Farmers! August 18, 2012
Can the Short Hills Garden Beat the Heat?! July 31, 2012
As July turns into the dog days of August, our community garden is mostly flourishing (with a few exceptions) in spite of the weird weather cycles of crushing heat and thunderstorms. The red onions are bulging out of the ground and have been pronounced "extremely sweet and tender" by Mrs. Gibson, who cooked them with chicken breasts. All the staff members rattling around the empty school building have enjoyed the bountiful harvest of tomatoes. We have had to pick them when they are green and ripen them off the vine to foil the chipmunks who love to dive into the red ones. Even the addition of strong plastic netting and a scarecrow could not keep the determined critturs out! We wonder what is catching the attention of the fox visitors.
It is interesting to see the short term effects of the drought on farmers in New Jersey and America and to learn about the ripple effect on crops and food prices in the future. While our tomatoes, zucchini, eggplants, basil, and sunflowers are thriving, our corn ears are stunted and shriveled. Corn is used to feed livestock, make corn syrup, and even as a substitute fuel for cars, so a bad crop has many long term effects.
Click on the link below to learn more about this problem:
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| Is Mr. Fox heading for our garden? |
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| Dried out ears of corn |
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| Maybe our Pingry scarecrow looks too friendly! |
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| Luscious tomato eaten by a chipmunk |
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| Busted by the Ms. Collins roving camera eye... |
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At least Mr. Corvino beat the chipmunks to the zucchini squashes... |
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| Sweet red onions |
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| Eggplants are thriving... |
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| Mr. Buckley reaps his reward after working hours in the heat1 |
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| Our first potato out of the ground... |
Pingry's Newest Little Gardeners-SH Summer Enrichment Camp-June 2012
Ms. Smith-Willis was thrilled to see the eagerness of the incoming kindergarten students as they were introduced to the summer garden. They learned to work in teams, observe details, move carefully around the beds, use the trowels to plant flowers, properly fill and carry the watering cans, and harvest mature crops with care. Ms. Smith Willis's son, Lloyd Willis, Pingry class of 2016, was her able assistant, and the little ones loved the interaction with an older Pingry student. At the end of each camp day, the students went home with plastic bags of basil, mint, baby carrots, and anything else that was ready to harvest.
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| Learning about George Washington Carver from the Smart board |
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| Girl campers share scrubbed and cut baby carrots |
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Planting a sweet potato |
HAPPY SPRING HARVEST DAY-May 17, 2012
(To watch a movie of us in action, please click the picture below. Please be patient; it takes a moment to load).
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| Ms. Collins shows first graders how to gently twist off lettuce leaves. |
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| Garden tags with plant names identify the crops. |
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| First graders put lettuce leaves in the collecting basket. |
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| A kindergartener shows her first harvested leaf! |
Radishes were popular at lunch! |
| The fruits of our labors-a fresh mixture of garden lettuce at the salad table. |
Many Hands Lighten the Load
One of the wonderful things about the garden is the number of people both old and young who join in the various tasks to reach our sustainability goals. Not all of the work is outdoors in the sunshine.The Fifth Grade Green Team consists of volunteers who help collect the kitchen waste, weigh it, and flatten cardboard for recycling. The composting step is messy but vital to enrich the soil for the garden.When we harvest and enjoy the additions to the salad bar that we produced, everyone can share in the pride!
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| Two first graders pair up the washed garden gloves. Notice the environmentally friendly bag! |
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| Mrs. Biffen does some heavy lifting along with Mr. Corvino. |
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| Spreading "Chickity DooDoo" to fertilize the soil was not the most pleasant task! The nose knows... |
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| A second grader organizes the brooms. |
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| A team of kindergartners throws away garden trash. |
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| Don't even think about "helping,"Bunny Rabbit! |
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| Did you know that ladybugs help by getting rid of aphids? |
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| Cleaning the shed is an important job. |
The New Crops Are "Springing Up" Fast!
When we look back on our list of April chores, we feel a great sense of accomplishment. Through the hard work of students and teachers, crops were put in the ground, border stones were put in place, and box frames for new beds were resituated. Mr. Corvino is very proud of his new pizza garden. With the warmer weather and some welcome April showers, the new crops are thriving and look spectacular with the splashes of color from our trusty marigold guardian flowers.
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| Lettuce that is almost ready to harvest |
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| Plants protected from a freezing night. |
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| The outside border begins to shape up! |
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| Beautiful benchwarmers for the pizza garden |
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Dedicated faculty gardeners are used to nurturing
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| Can you spy the strawberries before they turn red? |
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| Notice the white flower that will drop off as the strawberries develop. |
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| Look at the red radishes popping out of the ground! |
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Ms.Collins checks out the racket! What's going on out there?
Reading the chore list...
Checking out the chores before heading out to the garden to get a few things done.
Hard at work!
Filling the wheel barrow
Wonderful, nutritious soil!
Aerating soil
Deep, dark, rich soil!
Checking out the veggie flats
What are we growing here?
Watering the veggie flats
The woodchips finally arrived!
Spreading out the wood chips!
1SW has one last FROZEN work day in the garden!
Brrrrr! It was cold, but we managed to get a little more raking, digging and fertilizing done.
Our teacher finally put down the camera for one minute... Smile!
Lots of teamwork by garden groups!
Rocks to cover an unsightly drain... soon to be the home of our beautiful bird feeder from a special elf!
There's lots of raking to do and we had fun doing it!
We all worked together and a lot got done!
2 and 3rd graders working together!
This is how you do it!
Mrs. Euwer demonstrates her garden technique in her snazzy garden boots!
More composting!
Shoveling is harder than you think!