Ms. Palo's and Ms. Gardner's Students Plant in the Native American Garden

Ms. Palo's students and Ms. Gardner's students planted in the Native American Garden today. They planted black sage and penstemon. The Chumash made tea from black sage and would soak their feet in it. The  Chumash used the local penstemon to heal their wounds. They made a poultice of the leaves and flowers and put it on wounds and insect bites.  We planted margarita bop penstemon which is adapted to our clay soil.

The students read the plant labels from Theodore Payne that give information on eventual size of the plant and amount of sun it takes. Some of the plants in the garden will do well in shade and others need sun.  These plants prefer sun. The students worked in teams to plant. They found out that clay soil is very hard. Native plants should be planted either level with the soil or a slight bit higher than the soil level. The roots will rot if planted too deep.

Each native plant that's planted will need two watering cans of water weekly for the first year. We are placing wooden markers by the plants so the watering teams can water them.

Planting penstemon