Welcome to Eagle’s Outlook Garden!

1. Welcome to Eagle’s Outlook Garden! Did you know SEES has lemon trees, tomatoes, and a butterfly garden? Eagle’s Outlook is our school garden behind the library. Your class will spend a week in the garden: planting harvesting maintaining (weeding, etc.) composting Your class will work in 4 groups. Each group will do one of these tasks each day.

2. Garden Zones Butterfly Zone You will work in different zones in the garden Vegetable Zone Pumpkin Zone Eagle Zone LIBRARY Path Fruit Tree Zone Compost Zone Gate

3. Eagle’s Outlook Garden Rules • All students must be accompanied by an adult. • Ask before picking any fruits or vegetables. • Respect plants and animals in the garden. • When done, put away all tools and materials and clean up trash. • Wash your hands after gardening. • Have FUN!

4. A special note: Snakes in the Garden • Sometimes snakes visit our school garden • Some snakes, like rattlesnakes, can be dangerous. • If you see a snake: STOP, BACK AWAY, and TELL the nearest ADULT immediately!

5. What are we doing in the garden? • Composting • Recycles vegetables/fruit, paper, and leaves. Scraps “cook” in the composter and break down, so they become usable nutrients • Student Role: Gather dead plants, salad bar waste and paper; put items in compost bin • Planting _ Starts new life in garden _ Students Role: Dig a hole, plant seeds, water • Maintaining _ Plants grow with air, water, sunlight; and nutrients from the soil, help improve these _ Student Role: Weeding, watering, fertilizing, or preparing for planting • Harvesting • Garden to table to mouth! • Student Role: Pick!

6. Backup • Backup- The following are detailed slides but aren’t necessary for the garden overview in the class

7. What are we doing in the garden? • Composting • Recycles old vegetable/fruit food scraps, paper, and leaves to return the nutrients to the garden. Food scraps “cook” in the composter and break down, so they become usable nutrients for plants • Student role: Gather dead plants from garden, get cafeteria salad bar waste, collect class paper, put items in compost bin • Planting • Starts new life in the garden to enable continued growth and future harvesting • Student role: Dig a hole, plant seeds, water • Maintaining • Cares for a garden after planting for a healthy garden and successful harvest. Plants need water, air, nutrients, and sunlight to grow; different garden activities help plants best get these. Also, weeds take nutrients away from our plants so we need to remove them • Student Role: Weeding, watering, fertilizing, or preparing for planting • Harvesting • Results of taking care of a garden. How produce gets from the garden to our table • Student Role: Pick a fruit/vegetable from the garden, taste it

8. Planting,Harvesting, Maintaining, Composting (Tools: gloves, seeds, spray bottle, plastic spoon, ruler) • Find Lettuce seeds in a container in the shed. • Each student will dig a ¼ inch deep hole and spaced 1 inch apart from the next student’s hole, in each hole sprinkle in ~10 seeds, and cover with soil. • Spray with 3 sprays from water bottle. • Return your supplies to the shed and wash hands.

9. Planting, Harvesting,Maintaining, Composting • Your teacher/garden docent will tell you what to pick. Each student may pick one tomato or other produce from the garden. • Pull the tomato gently from the vine so the branch doesn’t break. • Your teacher will let you know if you should eat it, save it for a class recipe, or take it home!

10. Planting, Harvesting, Maintaining, Composting Maintaining the garden involves pulling weeds, fertilizing, watering, and preparing the soil for planting. Weeding (Tools: gloves and shovels, yard waste bags) • Study pictures of weeds and go to proper zone to weed. • Pull weeds at spot closest to ground. You want to try to get the whole root so the weed doesn’t grow back. • Pull at least 10 weeds and throw them away in the paper yard waste bags. • When done put supplies away and wash hands.

11. Planting, Harvesting, Maintaining, Composting Watering (Tools: watering cans and hose) • Your teacher or garden docent will tell you in what zone to water. • Each student should fill a watering can once with water from the hose. • Each student should water the plants in the zone gently. • Put away watering cans, turn off hose and wash hands.

12. Planting, Harvesting, Maintaining, Composting Fertilizing (Tools: gloves, fertilizer, paper cups, spray bottles) • Bring supplies to proper zone. • Each student takes a ½ cupful of fertilizer and sprinkles it around the plants labeled with your group’s popsicle sticks. • Spray the area 10 times with water. • Wash hands and put supplies away.

13. Planting, Harvesting, Maintaining, Composting Preparing for Planting (Tools: gloves, shovels, pitch forks, bag of compost, ruler) • Your teacher or garden docent will tell you what plants to remove. • Each student should remove at least one plant, making sure to pull out roots too (use shovels and pitch forks as needed). • Students should bring their plants to the compost pile for breaking up. • Spread enough compost from bag to cover area 4 in high and mix in with shovels and pitch forks. • Put supplies away and wash hands.

14. Planting, Harvesting, Maintaining, Composting • Composting is a way to recycle old vegetable/fruit food scraps and leaves to return nutrients to the garden. The food scraps need to “cook” in the composter so they will break down and be usable by the plants when we spread the “compost” in the garden. • Your group will find the empty orange compost bucket and lid in the shed and take it to the cafeteria. • See the compost spot against the cafeteria wall between and the peanut-free picnic tables. Leave the empty bucket and take the full orange bucket with salad bar food scraps back to the school garden. • Empty the bucket into the composter. • You should also add dried plants and leaves from the “brown stuff” compost pile and shredded paper and paper towels from class. You want to add equal parts salad bar waste “green stuff” and dried dead plants “brown stuff”. • Do not add weeds, meat, dairy, or other food products, plastic, or other trash. • Each student should turn the composter three times • Bring the now empty bucket to the shed. • Wash hands.