Della Terra is a Children's House initiative encouraging kids to grow great food. We will be planting, harvesting, propagating, composting, and more with your children this school year. They will not only learn the art and science of horticulture, but learn the importance of fresh food as a healthy alternative to packaged and fast foods. Kristina, our school lunch director, will work with us to serve lunches and snacks created from our backyard gardens. We will also record the cycles of the garden with our garden journals and attempt some hands on experiments in the greenhouse to illustrate the big lessons in gardening. I will also have a list of recommended books and links on the web page. Some titles will be available in the library at school for the students to peruse.
If you would enjoy reading about gardening with your children, try
this link. The Junior Master Gardener Program and the American Horticultural Society honor engaging, inspiring works of plant, garden and ecology-themed children's literature through the "Growing Good Kids - Excellence in Children's Literature Awards" Program. This award recognizes a select group of children's books that are especially effective at promoting an understanding of and appreciation for gardening and the environment.
I look forward to a wonderful year with your children. You can reach me at wordenwood@msn.com.
Michelle Worden
Della Terra Projects Fall 2009
Listed in order of desired completion date.
1. Compost Pile to Heat Greenhouse
Purpose: Replicate compost pile used by Growing Power in Milwaukie to heat their greenhouses in the winter to 50 F to grow lettuces. Compost pile is 6 ft x 10 ft and composed of ½ green wood chips, ¼ brewery waste, ¼ coffee grounds. Wood chip covering of 1-2 ft to absorb ammonia. In addition to heating greenhouse, this will be a Della Terra science project. We will use a 27" compost thermometer to record temperature profiles all winter to monitor rate of decomposition.
Tasks
- Pickup coffee grounds weekly from Morsels and transport to greenhouse.
- Pickup 1-2 cu yds of wood chips from my house and stage at school next to dumpster.
- Pick up 32 gal barrels (very heavy) of brewery waste from North Peak sometime during week of Oct 26 (she will call).
- Deliver barrels to greenhouse and empty on floor.
- Wash barrels and return to North Peak.
- Work bee to assemble compost pile. Try to involve kids as much as possible.
- Cover pile with 1-2 ft layer of wood chips.
Desired completion date: Nov 6
2. Fibonacci Spiral Herb Bed
Purpose: Use the Fibonnaci number sequence (found everywhere in nature) to create a raised herb bed. This will provide a source of herbs near the kitchen, teach kids about herbs and also about math found in nature. Bed will be a raised and rising spiral. Top will be about 2.5-3 ft high.
Tasks
- Relocate arborvitae in barn raised bed area to new location TBD.
- Pick out and pick up broken "waste" concrete pieces (about 6-8") to make raised bed. The Concrete Services says we can take what we need from their waste pile. Can also ask Elmer's. Need about a pallet's worth (1 cu yd?)
- Get soil for bed from old compost pile on site by the Rose Garden. (Need to clear off weeds from pile to access.)
- Stage materials near barn beds for assembly by kids.
- Get donated perennial herbs (and some annuals) in spring to plant.
Desired completion date: Nov 30
3. Water Supply to Greenhouse
Purpose: Make the greenhouse a viable year round classroom by providing water for plants in winter. Need a frost free connection from well pump to hose station inside greenhouse. Should have 60 psi water pressure available for supply in greenhouse.
Tasks
- Need help to design piping and frost free hose connection (heat tape?, insulation?)
- Get estimate on cost.
- If approved, install.
Desired completion date: Nov 30
Della Terra Wishlist
If you would like to purchase a gift for your child's class, please take a look at the list and call or stop by the front desk at 929-9325 or e-mail Liz at Liz@traversechildrenshouse.org with your selection. We will keep this list as up-to-date as possible as items are purchased in order to avoid duplicates.
- Yellow indicates items that the school will order
- Green indicates items that parents may purchase (please let us know so we can keep the list up-to-date and so we can thank you)
- Pink indicates items that have already been purchased for the classroom
As always, we are grateful and appreciative of the many ways you give to the school during the year.
- 6 pair child size garden gloves $7
4 new child size shovels (Ace Hardware) $7
Water pump for greenhouse $90 (Tractor Supply)
Any contribution towards 200 gallon water tank for greenhouse (total cost ~$300)
Any contribution towards supplemental heating cost of the greenhouse (to keep 50 F)
Week of Oct 26
We took a walk in the garden and observed the sprouting of the annual rye (our cover crop and green manure) and the lettuce we planted the first week in October.
We began building the compost pile that we hope will heat the greenhouse this winter. We have a recipe of 1/2 parts green wood chips to 1/4 parts brewers waste and 1/4 parts coffee grounds. An organization called Growing Power in Milwaukee uses this mix in a 6 ft x 10 ft compost pile to heat their greenhouses; we are trying it as a science experiment!
Many thanks to parent Andy Gale for hauling wood chips and brewers waste; Misha and Jeff Neidorfler for saving coffee for us and North Peak Brew Master Kim Schneider for saving some brewers waste for us. (Folks in the Grand Traverse region line up for these in-demand compost items.)
We were visited by a guest speaker, Brad Morgan of Morgan Composting on Wednesday Oct 28th. Brad spoke to the kids about how Healthy Food Requires Healthy Soil. The students learned that composting is a form of recycling and laughed at the video with the trademark dancing cow of Dairy Doo. It was an impressive and thought provoking presentation and we are thinking of ways to bring him back again.
We also began to plant our garlic. We planted our first heirloom variety, Georgia Crystal, which was donated by local gardener and garlic lover, Dean Bull of Bull Clock Repair. Click here for an informative blog article written by Dean about his beloved garlic.
Week of Oct 19
The week began with beautiful sunny weather. The children had fun just being out in it! On Monday, we prepared the bed by the rose garden for fall planting by clearing out old plants and turning over the soil. We opportunistically harvested forgotten potatoes as we found them.
The remainder of the week was too rainy, so we worked in the Greenhouse on the soil experiments. The student were fascinated by the old analog stop watch we used to time the water filtration rates through various kinds of soil. We also observed that the dahlia's we had planted in pots were growing. Now if only we can get them to bloom!
Week of Oct 12
We began Della Terra with an observation of the weather. We looked out the window and recorded readings from the weather station and talked about how cold it was! We discussed why farmers need to always be aware of and watch the weather to know when to plant and harvest crops.
The kids had fun shoveling out the finished compost and spreading it in the raised beds by the barn. We also distributed a compost/worm casting blend (Container Mix 201) over the beds to replenish the soil. Thanks to Morgan Composting (www.dairydoo.com) for donating several yards of yummy material it to the school.
Despite the cold weather, we optimistically scattered seed for a Green Manure of annual rye seed in the triangular bed. This is a nitrogen fixer and acts as a soil amendment. We also planted lettuce outside - a cold weather crop. Now we only need some warmer weather to germinate - or cover them with plastic.
Potato harvesting (and a few cabbage and radishes) continued in the far east production bed by the soccer field. The students dug with a zest since the top of the plants were long dead and the potatoes were buried treasure without a map! Each child took some home with them and snacked on kale and chives while we worked.
Week of October 4, 2009
Work continued on clearing out the garden beds to prepare for next planting. We discovered a giant radish growing in the raspberry beds and found a patch of spearmint behind the weeds. We had fun tasting the fresh/sharp minty taste and feeling the square stems common to all plants in the mint family.
The children also had the opportunity to draw/diagram some vegetables that I liberated from a friend's garden. They examined the peculiar root structure of a corn plant, examined the runners of a strawberry plant that still had strawberries on it, and wondered that Swiss Chard not only had red stems but red roots. Only a few could recognize a sugar beet; we discussed how it is a major crop in the Thumb region of Michigan and the sugar they had a home could be made from it. Serveral kids wanted to break off the broccoli florets and eat them but we decided to save them to show other children.
Week of September 29, 2009
The children added two large bags of worm castings to the raised bed in the Greenhouse for our fall lettuce production. Many thanks to Eden Hill Greenhouses for donating this wonderful soil amendment and organic fertilizer.
We had more fun experimenting with the soil laboratory set-up in the greenhouse and took the last soil samples. A few children volunteered to take soil samples at home and bring them in to the school. We are planning to compare the analysis from school and home with a county soil map.
We experience our first frost, so we began pulling out frost sensitive plants and preparing the beds for their next planting. We discussed why the basil and tomatoes turned black. In the process, we harvest more carrots, and tomatoes and clipped some kale for school lunches.
Della Terra Donations/Supporters
Worm Castings from Eden Hill Greenhouses (www.edenhillgreenhouse.com)
27" Compost Thermometer from Tel-Tru Manufuacturing (www.teltru.com)
Dairy Doo compost and Container mix from Morgan Composting (www.DairyDoo.com)
Weeks of Sept 15 & Sept 21
Della Terra officially kicked off with soil sampling with a soil probe borrowed from MSU Extension Services. Samples from the school gardens will be sent to MSU Soil Lab for testing. All elementary classes were introduced to a series of soil labs in the greenhouses and we discussed the main components of soil and its physical structure. Some Dahlia's were donated to the school and we opportunistically started potting them up to see if they would grow in the wrong season in the greenhouse. We discussed how in a learning investigation a "No" answer conveys as much information as a "Yes" answer.
Upper Elementary has fun harvesting cucumbers, purple green beans, and potatoes. They commented on the dry and dead appearance of the potato plants on top of the ground and the rich harvest under it the mounded dirt of small golden potatoes.
Week of Sept 8
Della Terra was not yet officially kicked off for the year but the garden waits for no man. Volunteers from Lower Elementary had had fun harvesting in the raised bed production gardens for the lunch menu. We picked a variety of produce: yellow pear tomatoes, Sun Gold cherry tomatoes, luscious purple and yellow heirloom tomatoes. We also dug up orange and white carrots, and purple eggplants.
Each child snacked as they ate (we washed them off) and asked if they could take some home. My favorite moment was when one boy raised a large clump of carrots over his head in victory, with a wide grin on his face.
);)