Harvest/Update

Thanks to a grant from Slow Food Miami, our garden will continue to grow! This weekend at Fairchild's Edible Garden Festival, SPE's Organic Edible Garden was given a garden bed and a check for supplies on behalf of Slow Food Miami! We are grateful to Slow Food Miami for supporting the garden. The third garden bed will be installed in November!

We are also grateful for a grant from Les Dames D'Escoffier International, which will enable us to buy a much-needed shed and other supplies for the garden!

A little over 6 weeks after the garden was seeded and planted, we now have Genovese basil, lime basil, chard, mesclun, collards, yellow squash and cucumbers! Ms. Brisuela's 2nd grade class harvested basil and made pesto (which 28 out of 30 children ate happily!), and Chef Cindy Hill will incorporate some of our bounty into her cooking class this week. To spread the love, organic veggie style, some produce will be bagged and sold on the cheap at the PTA's Pumpkin Patch this week.

While the garden is prospering, it hasn't been all roses: we lost one papaya tree to the school groundskeeper's lawnmower, and a few sunflower seedlings to the same lawnmower, and a caterpillar infestation ate most of the beans. But, we're learning quickly from our mistakes: The caterpillars we found eating the beans were relocated into habitats, which were distributed among teachers. And the Smoothie Garden and Sunflower garden will undergo changes in November, which will eradicate the need for lawnmowers to graze nearby.

Our garden signs are also a work in progress. They were re-varnished last week and will be slowly incorporated back into the beds.

On the compost side of things, Ms. Brisuela’s class has begun adding lunch scraps to our outdoor composters and Ms. Arsenault’s class is hosting a 5-tier worm hut. Lanette Sobel, from Fertile Earth, donated some worm tea to the garden, which has kept our plants (if not our volunteers) very happy.

Students continue to circle the garden before and after school and at recess. After witnessing the cucumbers this morning, my first grader said, “I can’t believe we’re actually growing things!”

Coming up next: Save the Date for more digging on 11/12, sheds r us, fence/don't fence it in.

Bamboo

Bamboo guru and artist, Brad Hallock, came to the garden today to install cool bamboo teepees and temple-entrance-like trellises for our vines to climb and heavier plants to grow against. Where art meets function, please stop by the garden to see this latest installation. (See slideshow for more pics.) Also, if you look under some leaves, you’ll find baby squash and baby cucs – just as cute as anything. Watch the stems though, they’re prickly – and we’re reminded that Mother Nature is at once a fierce protector and provider.

Signs and Worms!

Please stop by the garden to see the signs created by SPE students. They add color, life and the children's touch to our growing garden! Mr. Balzano's class also began a sunflower garden by the school store this week. Please stop by to wish it well.

Also, please join us for a WORM WORKSHOP, presented by the SPE PTA and the Save the Planet Club: this THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8TH AT 3PM AT SPE MEDIA CENTER: Led by Lannete Sobel from the Fertile Earth Foundation, SPE children will learn about the importance of worms and worm composting in the garden. In the hands‐on workshop, Ms. Sobel will help the children build a worm box for the SPE Organic Edible Garden. Children will be able to ask all their questions about these incredible forgotten little creatures that are so important for us all! FREE! ALL GRADES AND AGES WELCOME!