Mr. Lantos' Class Starts the Jeffersonian Garden Unit

Today Mr. Lantos' class started their study of Thomas Jefferson the horticulturist. We reviewed some basic facts first: Jefferson was the 3rd president of the United States, his plantation was at Monticello, VA and he sent Lewis and Clark to explore Louisiana. The garden facts included: definition of horticulture-study of science of ornamental plants, vegetables, fruit and grains; definition of heirloom-something that has been passed down and saved, e.g. furniture and in our case, seeds;size of his vegetable garden-1,000 feet; favorite vegetable-English pea; and that Lewis and Clark brought seeds back from their travels.  After discussing the importance of healthy soil (we had amended the soil before with worm castings), the kids planted tennis ball lettuce seeds. The lettuce seeds are heirloom seeds purchased from Monticello. This was one of his favorite varieties of lettuce.