First day back in the Marquez Edible Garden

Today we weeded and otherwise cleaned up the garden. The highlight of the morning was the visit to the butterfly garden of two monarch butterflies! They loved the purple flowers of the butterfly bush.

The two beds that were planted with tomatoes, basil and peppers are doing well. The basil is ready to be made into pesto and the tomato and pepper plants are still growing. Thanks to Kurt for "squirrel-proofing" the beds this summer.

The butterfly garden is amazing! Lots of herbs and flowers! The butterfly bushes and milkweed are especially colorful. What a nice "legacy garden" from last year's second graders to this year's class.

We are looking forward to planting some cool season vegetables with the second graders as soon as we can.

A monarch butterfly, ladybugs and some salad

Today was an exciting day in the garden for Ms. Fein's class. At the beginning of the period, Ms. Conner's class and the rest of Ms. Fein's class came to the garden for the release of the monarch butterfly that had emerged yesterday. Ms. Fein helped Ms. Conner who gently helped the butterfly out of the net butterfly house where it had lived for the last day. It was quiet at the beginning but by the end of the morning it was moving its wings. Appropriately, it was set free in the middle of the butterfly garden near some plants that it will hopefully like!

Later, some kids added greens to the compost bin while others looked at the many ladybugs that are still in the garden. The ladybugs liked to land on the kids' hands!

Our two parent volunteers assembled the salad of lettuce, radishes, broccoli, tomatoes, carrots and celery which the kids ate while observing the animals in the garden.

Milkweed and a monarch chrysalis for Marquez

Today I bought a milkweed plant in bloom for our garden. Then I visited a friend who showed me two monarch caterpillars and two chrysalis. She gave me one for Marquez which the kids can see next week. They'll hopefully see the butterfly emerge!

Kindergarteners learn about monarchs and milkweed

This week the kindergarteners learned about the relationship between monarch butterflies and milkweed when they listened to the story, "Monarchs and Milkweed" by Helen Frost. They'll be getting their own milkweed plant soon. In another example of how gardening class reinforces regular classroom studies, they happen to be raising caterpillars this month!