Please Welcome New School Garden Coordinator, Kathy Garris

Dear Friends and Gardeners,

Please help us welcome our new school garden coordinator Kathy Garris. Kathy's children attend Vestal and she has been very proactive about volunteering in classrooms and with the Garden class this summer. She has many great ideas about uniting the community gardeners with school gardeners, and environmental stewardship.

We will truly miss our Americorps Garden coordinator Ms. Laura Benjamin, but we wish her well in her new endeavors.

Our next School Garden Committee Meeting will be October 17th, at 2:30-3:30 in room 110 of Vestal.

We welcome all parents and vestal community gardeners to this meeting. The primary focus of the meeting will be related to school gardening and outreach.

Thank you,

Mrs. Rowland

A Perfect Day for Pumpkin Planting

This past Wednesday Vestal Summer School students planted pumpkins. It takes 100 days for pumpkin seeds to grow into mature pumpkin plants, so we are hoping to have a bumper crop of wonderfully orange pumpkins just in time for Halloween.
We also have a batch of pumpkins that we planted earlier in the summer that should be ready for harvest at the beginning of the school year in September.
Keep an eye out for vines in the garden pathways and the bright blossoms and pumpkins to follow!

Summer Gardening: Week 4

For our fourth and final week of summer gardening, students enjoyed art in the garden. Students were busy painting stepping stones and bird houses to help give the garden some unique Vestal personality. The bird houses also help to encourage more birds, insects and other critters to utilize the garden as their home. We were able to use plants from the garden as art supplies. Students learned about how plants can be used to make natural dyes. We collected brightly colored flowers and leaves and pounded them onto white cloth. The pigments from the plants stained the cloth, creating beautifully colored wash clothes.

During our snack time with OSU Nutrition Extension, students prepared an Asian Chicken Salad, using fresh lettuce from the garden and a variety of other vegetables including green onions, carrots, and cilantro.

Thanks to all who participated in summer gardening! Summer gardening at the Vestal Community Garden was a huge success and we are sad that the four weeks are up. Students learned about gardening, soil and compost, worms and insects, and art in the garden. They also harvested and tasted many new fresh vegetables and were able to take home bags of fresh veggies to share with family and friends. Now we are looking forward to the start of the school year in September, when all Vestal students will be back in the garden.

Summer Gardening: Week 3

For our third week of summer gardening, students learned about worms and insects. We went on a "bug hunt", looking for worms, insects and other critters that live in the garden. A few students found 15 different types of critters living in our garden. It's amazing to know that our bountiful garden that supports a variety of insects including beneficial pollinators, was once just asphalt. Students also learned about insect body parts and made their own insects out of construction paper.

For snack with OSU Nutrition Extension, students made Dragon Flies and Butterflies using celery sticks, peanut butter, pretzels and raisins.
In preparation for an art project next week, students collected and pressed flowers.

Summer Gardening: Week 2

For our second week of summer gardening, we focused on soil and compost. Students made their own "compost pile" in a cup, learning about decomposition and what ingredients are needed to make compost for the garden. We also learned about the different components of soil and how different plants grow best in different types of soil. With the warm weather, students helped to water the school garden beds everyday. It is quite a task to water 22 garden beds! While we were watering, students discovered they can create small rainbows if they lightly spray water toward the bright sun.
During our snack time with OSU Nutrition Extension, students prepared Personalized Pasta Salad, using broccoli and snap peas fresh from the garden. On the last day of Week 2, students took home a big bag of lettuce to share with their families.

Summer Gardening: Week 1

This past week the Vestal Community Garden held its first week of summer gardening camp. Students learned and reviewed gardening basics ranging from how to plant seeds to how to harvest and properly wash garden produce. Each student planned and planted his or her own garden plot and we look forward to a late fall harvest from the newly planted beds. Over the course of the week, students tasted varieties of lettuce, snap peas, radishes, onions, strawberries, and broccoli. It is so exciting to see kids eager to eat fresh fruits and vegetables. With the help of the OSU Nutrition Extension Program, we were also able to make "Popeye Power Smoothies" using spinach and kale from the garden.


Not only are students learning and growing in the garden, they are also helping with maintenance over the summer- weeding, watering and harvesting from the school garden beds. We look forward to the next week of camp which will focus on soil and compost.

Super Salad Eaters

Vestal students have been enjoying garden fresh salads to celebrate the end of the school year. It was a unique experience for students and teachers to eat fresh lettuce that they grew and prepared themselves. Many of our students are super salad eaters, asking for second and third helpings of fresh healthy veggies.



Our salads included all six parts of the plant: seeds, roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruit. Take a look at the recipe below:

Six Plant Part Salad (courtesy of OSU Nutrition Extension)
Serves 4

Salad:
1 Head of Romaine Lettuce
1 Bunch of Broccoli
1 Apple
1 Carrot
2 Ribs of Celery
1/4 cup Sunflower Seeds

Dressing:
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons honey
1 Tablespoon dijon mustard

Direcitons: Wash and chop all vegetables into bite size pieces. Mix dressing in a small jar or container. Toss all vegetables and dressing in a large bowl. Sprinkle with sunflower seeds. Enjoy!