Spring and Early Summer at La Petite Academy--Palmdale, CA

As so many of us do, I tend to go through my day to day life without realizing how spectacular and amazing the natural world around us can be.  Thankfully I work with small children and seeing the world through their eyes, makes you stop and pay attention!  

As we are planting our Spring/Summer garden this year, I went through some photos of our gardens last year.  I realized that I had not shared the pictures of our amazing gardens at La Petite Academy in Palmdale, CA for 2015.  The children (with a little help from their amazing teachers) grew an abundant harvest of all kinds.  Enjoy the trip through last year's gardens and look for more to come from our 2016 efforts!

Spring 2015--Strawberry popcorn

Spring 2015--Spinach

Spring 2015--Purple Green Beans

Perennial Strawberry bed--2015

Spring 2015--mixed green bean raised bed (grapes on arbor)

Spring 2015--Raised bed with sunflowers snap peas and tomato

Summer 2015--tomato plants

Summer 2015--Strawberry harvest

Summer 2015--Sugar Snap Pea harvest

Summer 2015--radish harvest

Summer 2015--Strawberry harvest

Summer 2015--Raised bed with beans and Zinnia 

Summer 2015--Sunflowers with beans and grapes climbing

Summer 2015--Beans, Zinnia, grapes

Summer 2015--Green bean harvest!

Summer 2015--Center garden with zucchini, sunflower, tomato

2015--School age kids checking out Northwest Garden Bed

Summer 2015--MORNING GLORIES!!!

Summer 2015--Flax, snap pea, tomato, sunflower, corn, and more

Summer 2015--Tomato, morning glories and giant sunflowers

Summer 2015--Strawberry popcorn

Summer 2015--Raised Garden Beds

Summer 2015--Kids tending the garden

As you can see, we focused mostly on things that kids like.  It seems like we planted sunflowers every week!  As for beans, we planted a rainbow.  The purple and yellow beans are much easier to find than the green variety!

The strawberries, snap peas, blueberries, grapes and radishes are generally snacked on throughout the year and rarely make a large showing.  Kids love growing edibles and I love helping them!

Cheers~
Marti

The Garden Lady

Science in the Garden

I had the delightful opportunity to work with a group of families from a local home school co op.  As part of my lesson plan, we did a bit of science in the garden. 

Mother Nature is amazing.  Each seed is a complete plant, just waiting to become its full sized self.  The best way to see this is with Lima beans.  Soak the beans for 24-48 hours.  At first they become very wrinkly, but after 24 hours, they smooth out and are ready to look at.

Each student received a bean.  We then carefully split the bean in half (super easy one it's been soaked) and looked inside.  It is pretty easy to see the parts of the plant.  

 We had a guide sheet to see what we were looking for.  We also used magnifying glasses to see the parts of the plant with greater detail.  The students observed the stem, leaves, roots, food and seed coat of the lima bean plant.

Lastly, we feed the beans to the chickens, so as not to waste anything!  This is super easy way to bring science into the garden.  You should try this at home!

Cheers for now~
Marti Lindsey--The Garden Lady