Enrichment Garden Science Class

A group of 5^th and 6^th graders from across the school has been working with Andrew the Gardener, Mrs. Gigliotti and Mrs. Milks to understand our school garden, management of this and all gardens,  and how the vegetation around the garden has developed over time.  As part of the class, students completed research for and produced the following blog entries.  Service was also a major component of the course and the students participated in service sessions in which they put the school gardens to bed, turned, spread and stacked the compost, and assisted 3rd and 4th grade art classes in a soap making project.

Plants vs. Weeds    

Angela Tarracciano, Shayla Lawrence, and Nick Petrunich       

              

Plant	Weed
A plant is something that you plant!                 Some plants that you would find in the garden here at school are mint, broccoli, kale, and Brussel sprouts.	Weeds are plants that naturally grow on their own.  Some weeds you would find in our garden is dandelion and grass.

 

 

The WCS Medicinal Plant Bed

Sierra Polley

The following plants can be found in our WCS Garden medicinal plant bed.  Please see the table for potential uses.

Information taken from: Bremness, Lesley. Herbs. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 2002. Print.

Plant		Medicinal Uses
Echinacea		Stimulates the body’s defenses against disease.  It is antibiotic, antiviral and restores inflamed connective tissue, treats fevers and may reduce allergies.
Mint		Stimulate digestion and reduce flatulence.  Helps get rid of colds and can relieve headaches and other pain.  If you inhale the essential oil, you can treat nausea.
Sage		The volatile oils in sage kill bacteria, making the herb useful for all types of bacterial infections.
Sunflower		The seeds can be used to treat coughs and kidney inflammation.  The root is a laxative and treats stomach pain.
Wild Strawberry		Used to relieve kidney and liver issues.  Can be made into juice that may relieve fevers.  Soothes sunburn and lightens freckles.  Makes a common herbal tea and can be used as an oily skin tone

 

Enrichment Garden Class Looks at Succession

Succession

The Enrichment Garden Class learned about succession and the development of the WCS property over time.

The Concept of Succession

Nathan VanBuren and Abby Rosenthal

In our garden class we talked about what happens when there is disaster that brings plant life in that area to ground zero. This is the beginning of the process called succession. The stages of succession are annual plants, perennial plants and grasses; shrubs; young forest; mature forest and finally, climax forest . You’re probably thinking, “What do these words mean”! Well this handy table should help.

Name of stage	Years in that stage	Plants in that stage	What’s Happening
Annual plants.	First 5 years	Grasses, wild flowers	Pioneer plants like grasses and wild flowers flourish
Perennial plants and grasses.	6 to 25 years	Tree seedlings, Large shrubs	Tree seedlings and shrubs take root.
Young forest	26 to 50 years	Deciduous trees, Evergreens	Deciduous trees develop and shade the forest
Mature forest	51 to 150 years	Evergreen trees	Evergreen trees take over the forest which opens holes in the canopy for annual plants
Climax forest	150 to 300 years	Oak or maple, or fewer larger evergreens	Larger trees dominate the forest

 

Succession in Williston

Nate Cuttitta and Zach Hark

 Williston Central School in 2007 (taken by Jessie Fleischer), and below in 1970

 For many years this area was forested.  In the 1700s, signs of industry started to appear.  The forest was chopped down for agriculture, especially in the northern part of town because it is close to the Winooski River.  In the early to mid-1800s, farmers grew a variety of crops and kept sheep.  The railroad was built along the Winooski River at this time.  Development, including a gristmill, train station and other important businesses along the railroad tracks in North Williston happened at this time.  The development of the railroad and farm land development in the mid-west led to the growth of dairy farming in North Eastern towns like Williston.  In the 1900s, dairy farming continued, but fluid milk replaced butter and cheese as dairy product that were produced.  During the time from Williston’s settlement until the 1940’s, several one room school houses were scattered around Williston.  Before Williston Central School was built, several buildings and farmland were where the School now stands.

Some information taken from Allen, Richard H, (1987) Our Town: Williston, Vermont, Williston Central School.  Photographs and maps supplied by Richard Allen.

For more information, see http://www.uvm.edu/place/towns/williston/cultural.php

 

Williston Village in the days of early settlement (left).  Topographic map from 1948 that shows vegitation in yellow (below).

Enrichment Garden Class works to Put The WCS Garden To Bed

How to Put a Garden to Bed

Evan Turner and Nick Durieux

It’s the end of the season and you have all this good and nutritious stuff going to waste. All these useful ideas could be used to make sure you are making the most of your garden this year and preparing it for a great growing season next year.

 How to put a garden to bed:

1. Play “Dead or Alive”.  We pulled out lots of dead plants from the garden clean out service session.
2. Dead goes to compost.
3. Choose what you want to eat and eat it.  We ate cale and broccoli.
4. See if we can harvest seeds from anything.  In our medicinal plant garden we kept the big aster, strawberries, and Echinacea plant.  We also kept the sage and some mint.  We cut and dried echinacea flowers and sunflowers so that we can plant the seeds later.
5. Turn the soil and add compost.

 

Tools that will help you put a garden to bed:

• snippers-make sure to secure the lock when you are not using these
• spading fork- get weeds out by roots
• rake- for raking and smoothing
• forked hoe- to rip open the ground (loosens soil in long line, and then you can take out the weeds
• Grabby fork- like rake, only grabber
• Wheelbarrow- for carting stuff

 NO More wasted plants and a happy garden for the future!

 

Enrichment Garden Class Participates in Science-Art Collaboration

Having Fun AND Learning at The Same Time!

Danielle Urban & Shannon Loiseau

Equinox house third and fourth grade students worked with Andrew (The gardener), Ms. Baker, Ms. Amanda from Equinox, Ms. Milks, and the Garden Class student helpers  to use their math, science, art and team work skills to make a soap. They made a variety of different soaps using herbs, plants and oils.

One recipe that they developed contained yarrow, birch, lavender, ylang ylang, a bit of oatmeal, a drop of sage and a Shea butter soap base. Another recipe included birch, clove, wintergreen, oatmeal and an olive oil base. Although the classes developed different recipes, they were similar.

Some of the ingredients the students had to choose from were:

Herbs	Oils
Birch- Pain Relief Yarrow- Skin astringent (cleanser) Calendula- Skin astringent (cleanser) Oatmeal- Skin calming Rose Buds- Relieves stress Mint- Energizing Lavender- Calming scent Anise Hyssop- Scent Beet Root- Pink Color Ailonet- Red/Brown Color	Clover- Comfort and Pain Relief Rosemary- Awakening Eucalyptus- Cleansing Patchouli- Relaxing Ylang Ylang – Relaxing Vetiver- Grounding Wintergreen- Awakening

The students could choose one oil and a variety of different herbs and plants. If you want to make soap we would recommend to pick plants, herbs and oils that go well with each other.

We hope you have fun making your sensational soap!  Soap you later!

Enrichment Garden Class Composts

Composting

Jessica Gagne

Compost is a nutrient rich soil that you get when you mix kitchen scraps and yard waste. When these things decompose, compost is created.

 WHAT YOU NEED

• Brown stuff- for example, dried grass, leaves and shredded newspaper (carbon rich)
• Green stuff-for example, vegetable peels and fruit rinds (nitrogen rich)
• Dirt, water, compost turning tool like a pitchfork
• Compost bin (or spot for a compost pile)

HOW TO MAKE THE COMPOST

1. First you need a compost bin.  You can buy or make your own bin.  See the links below for how to build your own bin.
2. Layer your brown and green materials.  You need a mix of brown and green stuff.  See http://www.compostinstructions.com/about/for more information.
3. Water it.  Compost needs to be damp like a squeezed out sponge.  It should be able to drain easily.
4. Turn your compost to increase air flow.  To increase air flow, you can turn your compost with a shovel or pitchfork every few days or once a week.

 

 

Learn More About Composting

Shorya Malhotra, Tommy Zych, Skyler Blow, MattYakubik

The following links could help you with composting.  As part of our garden class, we learned about how to compost.  A few of us reviewed a bunch of websites for composting as a smaller group project.  We think these might be most helpful links.

VIDEOS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq3yfKCC9ok

WEBSITES FOR HOW TO COMPOST

http://www.composting101.com/what-to-use.html

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/composting-for-dummies-cheat-sheet.html

 

Garden Design for Enrichment Garden Class

Garden Design

Alexa Pudlo and Taylor Antonioli

In our garden class we learned about how to design a garden.  Things to keep in mind when starting a garden:

• What size garden bed do you need for spacing of the plants? We learned that different plants need different amounts of space.  For example, summer and winter squash need a lot of space, but carrots don’t need a lot of space.  Sometimes plants can be put closer together than Gardening books say.  One way to use space well is to put plants at the edge of the garden and let them flow out onto the grass. 
• Soil quality and depth needed for plants. Some plant need different types and depths of soil.  If you plant a carrot and you don’t know what kind of soil you’re planting it in, it might not be very good.
• How will you (and the school) use what you are planting?  We had two beds to plan for (see bottom photo below).   In one bed, we planned to grow cucumbers, melon, and squash because that’s what the kids in our group like to eat (first photo).  Another group planned an herb garden with thyme, parsley, cilantro, basil and chives, because that’s what the kitchen here at school uses most (second photo).
• It’s better to plan out your garden on paper first.  See our plans below.