Garden Update

The vegetable beds are mostly planted, and will sprout within the next two weeks. This year, thanks to generous donations from community partners Teena’s Pride and Tacology, we have over five different varieties of heirloom tomatoes and heirloom squash. Did you know that touching a tomato plant releases a hormone that stimulates growth? Plus, it just smells good. Come by with the kids to see for yourself.

Garden Clubbers have already tasted fruit from the Jamaican Papaya trees. First report: yum! The banana trees are recovering from a bout of whitefly. The new invasive hurt our first crop, but the trees have all been adopted by SPE families and receive weekly TLC. (THANK YOU SPE FAMILIES!) Since then, four more trees have sprouted banana bunches (a.k.a. hands).

Have you ever dreamed of owning a banana tree? This is your lucky year! Our bananas have been so prolific, we’ve run out of space for the baby trees (a.k.a. pups). We’re holding our first ever “holiday banana tree sale” between Thanksgiving and Winter Break. Stay tuned for details.

We’re always asked by families how they can get involved in the gardens. Here’s a short list of big and small ways to help the garden:

-Donate twist ties, twine, bamboo and toilet paper rolls. We use twist ties and twine to demarcate planting areas and to create trellises. Bamboo has a thousand uses in the garden – from delineating planting zones to creating elaborate trellises. Toilet paper rolls are a handy, economical and a green solution for starting seedlings. Please leave any donations by the garden shed.

-Donate time. Ah, harder to come by, we know. But if there are always opportunities to dig and weed. To get on our email distribution list, please email southpointepta@gmail.com!

-Donate money. A little goes a long way, and is always appreciated!

This Weekend - the Edible Garden Festival @ Fairchild - Fun for the Whole Family!

Click here for the event schedule:

http://www.fairchildgarden.org/Events/?date=2010-09&eventID=455

Tree-lemma Dilemma and More

As part of our plan to eradicate whitefly, the gumbo limbo and palm trees around the playground will be treated today, and the banana trees sprayed with a saltwater solution. Then we will take over their treatment using neem oil. Special thanks to Adrian Hunsberger for diagnosing the type of whitefly and to Katie Manhire for coordinating treatment, and to the ten families who agreed to adopt a banana tree! We'll meet today, Friday, at 3:15 pm.

In other garden news, Jaquelina has been planting with many classes - and many of those seeds have grown into seedlings. This week the second after-school garden class welcomed three more students and the first class is at capacity. The children are busy in the garden and the curricula will evolve as the garden evolves. Now that they have prepared the beds and started seedlings, students will transplant, weed, tend to the plants and explore the garden with Jaqui as their guide. This year we plan to teach more about seed saving, through which children will come to understand the lifecycle and reproduction cycle of plants.

In yet more news, we were happy to welcome Roger Horne back to the garden last week. He brought heirloom squash for the kids to plant, and tended to the mulberry, cherry and guava trees his organization donated to the school last year. The kids loved working with Roger again. Thanks, Roger!

Please visit the garden for a sneak peek of what's to bloom. Good things are happening in the garden.

Calling All Families!

The Smoothie Garden needs YOUR help. We’ve met our opponent and its name is whitefly. We’ve sprayed the trees and cut them back, but they need more attention than we and our gardener can give. Since we’re using an organic solution, it will take diligence to rid the garden of this pest. We’re asking you and your family to ADOPT a banana tree. Taking care of your tree will involve watering and spraying the leaves and trunk each week. We’ll provide the sprayers and soap. Four of the trees have new flowers and fruit, but it will take some effort to save them. Please let us know if you have room in your family for a tree! Thank you!

In the news!

The new garden beds are installed, making our garden look more established than experimental. Thank you to the Garden Club, and many parents and students in our community who put them together and filled them with soil. Students will start planting this week; so, in the next few weeks, look for green shoots :)

The banana trees have been sprayed with an organic soap solution, so we hope that the trees recover completely. We lost some bananas, but the new growth is stronger and healthier.

In the news, we had a great showing at the beach clean up this past weekend! A small group of us ran into local weatherman, Jeff Berardelli, south of Fifth Street. See us at http://cbs4.com/video/?id=101389@wfor.dayport.com Thank you Channel 4 for the shout out! Our kids are making a difference!

What's Up, What's Down

We’re so grateful to have an exceptional group at the school working on environmental issues - so fantastic, dedicated and visionary, we’ve changed our name from the Green Committee to the Environmental Action Team (EAT). Here are some upcoming events:

Raising the Beds

Tuesday, 9/21, 2:00-4:00pm @ South Pointe Elementary

Roll up your sleeves to build garden beds! The Garden Club will lead the activity, but all kids and parents are welcome to come...the more hands, the better!

Weekly Weeders

Every Wednesday, 1:00-4:00pm – Smoothie Garden

Our garden needs a little TLC. Please stop by with the kids to pick up a weed or two. It’s still hot out there, so wear covered shoes, bring a hat and something to drink. Thank you!

Miami Coastal Clean Up Day

Saturday, 9/25, 9:00am – all over

The clean up is up and down Miami Dade County; the site in our neighborhood is the South Pointe Jetty Park, sponsored by ECOMB. Please register you and your child today! In the organization slot, fill in South Pointe Elementary.

Visit: http://www.miamidadecoastalcleanup.org to register

If you’ve stopped by the Smoothie Garden you’ve noticed a few downed trees. We hope to resuscitate them. Also , it seems we have an infestation of some sort of pest that leaves white circles all over the trees. Dumbfounded, we have calls into our banana experts, but if you know a banana guru please let us know!

Welcome Back!

Welcome back to another school year, and the gardens' 2nd year! Thank you to our garden supporters and volunteers who established the gardens last year! The gardens wouldn’t be here without you! And thank you to our volunteers who tended the gardens over the hot summer months, especially the Elliot, Prescott and Weaver families.

This year SPE is a Fairchild Challenge School. This means the gardens will have comprehensive support from Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden! More information on this collaboration will be forthcoming.

The Smoothie Garden blossomed this summer, literally. Two banana trees sprung forth gorgeous, monstrous red and purple flowers and two ripening groups of bananas. Two papaya trees are flowering, growing and ripening papayas. The short tree is a Jamaican variety, and the taller tree is from store seeds, which we believe were cultivated in Belize. The milkweed plant along the wall ballooned and played host to a family of monarch chrysalises and butterflies.

The trees are towering and so are the weeds. To that end, we're starting a Weekly Weeder program every Wednesday from 1:00-4:00 pm. We'll gather in the Smoothie Garden to weed, whack dead leaves and water. Stay for 3 minutes or 3 hours, come one week or every week: whatever help you can give is very much appreciated by us and the plants! Of course, working in the garden is not limited to Wednesdays; you're welcome to pull up weeds any day of the week and bring a friend because company makes it all the more fun!

Regarding the Organic Edible Garden in front of the school, we’ve hired a fantastic gardening teacher, Jaquelina, who will engage teachers and students in the gardens, tend to them and run the after-school garden club on Tuesdays. In September, we will have ONE volunteer day to get the beds in order, and that will be all!

We look forward to another great green year at South Pointe Elementary!