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!

Preparing for Summer: Some Thanks

Thank you to Liz, Steve, Kim, Lisa (and Max) for working in the garden today! Stubborn weeds in the Smoothie Garden were coerced by shovel, hoe and brute strength, but we can now see the trees from the weeds - and it's looking good! One Jamaican papaya tree flowered and fruited, while another boasts tiny buds. The banana trees are gaining inches in height and have sprouted one to four pups each. Surrounded by dry, sandy soil, the banana trees enjoyed a deep watering this morning only to be topped off by afternoon storms.

While parents worked in the Smoothie Garden, SPE students minded the Organic Edible Garden beds. Thank you to our energetic students and their enthusiastic (and very patient) teachers! Ms. Brisuela and Mr. Londono's classes tilled the vegetable beds, pulled many weeds and turned the soil countless times, while Ms. Hendrickson's class finished the job and checked the almost-ready compost. The compost will be used to fertilize the Smoothie Garden before school breaks for summer (next week!).

Last, but not least, thank you to the hose-and-nozzle-fairy family, the Weavers. It was a great surprise yesterday morning to find two extra-long hoses and two brand-new nozzles by the garden shed! Thank you!

Last Work Day

Please join us this Wednesday, May 26 at 8:45am for a work day! There will be coffee, sweet things to nosh on and lots of laughs.

On our roster: weeding and mulching the smoothie garden; weeding and covering the sunflower bed; building another vege bed; and, turning the soil and planting cover crops in the vege beds.

We may finish some of the smaller jobs between now and then with the help of our garden teacher, Roger, but for the rest we'll need your help! This is the LAST time this year we will ask for your brains and brawn. Please, please, please come! We love you!

May

May is here and the heat is rising. This marks the end of our main growing season in South Florida. This month, we’ll add a few more beds - so more classes can be involved in the garden next year - mulch what’s left and sow a cover crop. Cover crops are mulched right back into the soil, adding vital nutrients which will make the soil more fertile for the next growing season. The cover crop is like a blanket, which we’ll lay down as we put our beds to sleep for summer.

As for the Smoothie Garden, we’ve planted some pineapple heads, a guava tree and Bermuda cherry and some small mulberry trees. (You’ll notice a few mulberries around the vegetable beds as well.) Although all of our trees are native to warm climates, we plan to add some irrigation to the Smoothie Garden soon so our trees survive the summer - and we’ll have a crop of bananas to look forward to in the fall!

Thank you to SPE’s administration, the PTA, Geane Brito, our teachers, students and volunteers for making the gardens’ first year a great one!