Ms. Gardner's Class plants in the Native American Garden

Today Ms. Gardner's 4th graders planted 12 plants in the Native American Garden.  1/2 of the class came at a time. They planted coffeeberry, purple sage, deer grass, hummingbird sage and yarrow. We reviewed the uses of the plants by the Chumash. Yarrow was used to clot blood, deer grass to make baskets, coffeeberry for medicinal purposes, hummingbird sage for tea, and purple sage attracts butterflies.  Coffeeberry also attracts birds.

To prepare the soil for planting natives, holes had been dug and then filled with water prior to the students coming to plant. The kids then dug the holes deeper, wet the plants and gently removed them from the pots before planting at soil level. Several kids discovered that we have very hard clay soil in that area!

A member in each group functioned as a scribe and wrote down information about the plants and what the kids did. Another member was the group photographer. The kids did a great job, helping to get the plants in the ground before the rain.

Thanks to Bob at Matilija Nursery in Moorpark for selling the plants to us at a generous discount!

Planting coffeeberry

Teamwork!

Yarrow

Planting deer grass