Planting and sprouting bean seeds-a summer activity

To speed up your planting, you can sprout the bean seeds one of two ways:
1) Soak seeds in warm water for 8-12 hours and plant immediately.
2) Pre-sprout the seeds before planting.  Soak seeds overnight, drain, and place on damp paper towel which you fold over it. Keep seed in warm place eg. top of refrigerator til sprouted, plant as soon as sprouted with root down. In this case, don't water again until you see the seedling.

In either case, plant seed one inch deep in moist soil and then water.

Thanks to the "Garden Team"

Last fall the Marquez Edible Garden was just six empty raised beds and a circle area, all with poor soil. Thanks to help of the Garden Team (and of course the students) it became a productive and attractive teaching area. Special thanks to my "co", Sara Houghton, the Garden Co-ordinator, for asking me to volunteer at Marquez and for her invaluable assistance and hard work! Thanks also to fellow Master Gardener, Jack Sanders, and to fellow gardener Gretchen Arnold, aka "Gigi" for their patience and their willingness to share the love of gardening with the children at Marquez.

Gardening certificates, smoothie recipes and photos

On Tuesday I passed out gardening achievement certificates and the smoothie and salad recipes to all of the second graders.  Thanks to Ms. Yoshida for helping with the design of the certificate. Yesterday numerous children and some parents said that they'd already made the smoothie-some made several variations! I'd bet that a smoothie day at school would have a lot of fans....

This week I'll be giving the teachers a DVD of the Marquez Edible Garden to share with their classes. The children love seeing themselves!

I'm posting more photos from our banquets. If you're a parent and wish some of your child, please email me at info@palisadescares.org.