GARDEN JOURNAL

Visit our Beach School Garden and see students getting their hands dirty or finding a quiet space to spot pollinators. Come by and meet Rhiannon Leonard the (interim) garden school coordinator this year. Rhiannon is maintaining the vegetable garden, supporting teachers during the day, & leading the garden club after school. Join Rhiannon in the garden on Wednesdays from 1-3.

Thank you Ali Lucas for your superpowers of coordinating volunteers and to the families helping weed and tend to the vegetable garden. Special thanks to Jude Hawley for your plant donations, patience, and expertise. Seeds have been donated by the resourceful Mulysa Melco at www.resiliencedesign.com. Thank you for your continued contribution to our community!

Miss Whitt's first grade class is sewing in fava beans* to act as a winter blanket and cover crop. Maestra Gusman's class will be hardening off** their radishes in milk jugs (a type of cloche). Come take a look! Kindergarteners in Miss Hara's class will be seeding winter peas and daikon radishes this week. After planting, students will draw mature plants from photos to forecast the pea's and radish's future growth.

• Plant starts that will weather well in our garden this winter are: red cabbage, kale, lettuce, brussel sprouts, garlic and onions.
• Seeds we are getting in the ground are: fava beans, winter vetch, austrian winter peas, crimson clover, & daikon.

*The fava beans and winter peas are great plants to grow in the fall in our PNW region because they act as a nitrogen fixer and help the nutrients in the soil for future spring planting (resource: The Maritime Northwest Garden Guide)

**Hardening off is taking an indoor plant start and gradually exposing it to the outdoor elements so that it can be left outside overnight. This can take up to 3 weeks or 1 week if you use a cloche (a structure to protect plants from cold temperatures).

To volunteer, donate materials, or get a tour of the vegetable garden, contact rhiannon.leonard@gmail.com or the SUN (afterschool) program director aniseh@selfenhancement.org

Beach SUN School's Garden Club will be meeting after school on Wednesdays and Thursdays! Look for fun garden activities and photos in the next Garden Journal.