2nd graders Learn about Companion Plants for Tomatoes

This week Ms. Fein's and Ms. Connor's 2nd graders learned about companion plants as they planted tomato seedlings and seeds of companion plants in what will become a Salsa Garden. Ms. Connor's students also planted sugar snap pea seeds in another bed.

Companion plants are "friends" that grow well together. We planted seeds of onions, carrots, basil and marigolds as well as garlic cloves in the bed with the tomato seedlings. Nasturtiums are also companions and we already have some in the bed.

To plant the tomatoes we took off all but the top three stems of leaves and planted the seedling deep in a hole up to the leaves. All of the short hairs on the tomato plant will become roots and the plant will thus become stronger.

The kids wrote about companion planting in their garden journals.

We also reintroduced some worms to our worm bin and fed them veggie scraps. Some kids also weeded in the butterfly garden and one girl caught a lizard (which she later released)!

After planting and writing, the kids enjoyed a rainbow salad with lettuce, yellow peppers, red tomatoes, green broccoli and green peas and purple blueberries. It's important to our bodies to eat these colorful fruits and vegetables! The kids enjoyed an olive oil, lemon juice salad dressing.

Thanks to Carolyn Hasselkorn for assisting and also Ms. Yoshida and Ms. Connor. Ms. Connor took some arugula seed pods back to her class to dry the seeds for future planting.

Salad ingredients

Planting a tomato seedling