the 2013 harvest festival

Harvests from our gardens

The Great Potato Harvest

June 18 every class who had planted potatoes came out to harvest.  Organized chaos!  The tubs were dumped out, potatoes gathered, counted and weighed.  The results put on a beautiful chart, created by our UBC Education Practicum Students.

This year yields were low - approximately 25kg, of mainly small potatoes.  There were a number of probably reasons - poor soil, growing conditions, watering issues, weather issues, and timing - a few more weeks and the crop would have been much better.  Catriona Gordon from SPEC often says that one of the greatest challenges for the school garden program is the short growing season of September to June. 

Still the potatoes will taste great roasted up by parent volunteers for the harvest festival on Thursday June 20.

Garlic Harvest

On June 5, Green School, and the UBC Practicum Students harvested most of the garlic.  The crop was great, big juicy bulbs, which were headed for the kitchen to be made into delicious garlic bread by Claudio and his team, for the upcoming harvest fest.

Liberty Red Apples

The Liberty Red Apples are doing particularly well right now.

Unwanted visitors to the orchard

The apple trees in the QE Orchard Garden attracted some unwanted visitors recently - Western Tent Caterpillars.  This fascinating little creatures overwinter as eggs, then hatch when the trees are coming into full leaf.  Unfortunately, they eat the leaves, and flower buds, and leave the trees looking pretty sad.  They were easily removed with gloved hands, then disposed of in the compost bins.  We will probably spray the trees in the winter with an organic oil, to kill any overwintering eggs. 

salad, the ultimate afternoon snack

The recent warm, then wet, weather produced an abundance of greens in the garden boxes, so students have been feasting on salads.  Chef Claudio made several batches of his fabulous green salad dressing, and the classes just couldn't get enough.  Secret ingredients in the dressing?  arugula, herbs, chickpeas and yogurt.

Photographs from the Bog

Last Wednesday at lunch, Green School went on a lovely walk through nature. Here are some of the beautiful sights we have right in our backyard. 

Make sure to spend some time outdoors in this beautiful sunshine!

DIY: The Recycled Garden Journal

Exploring nature is all about using your different senses to discover something new and to connect with the world in which we are living. There is usually a way to touch, hear, see, smell, and taste (make sure to check if it is edible though!) everything around us. Since these observations are so important, we thought it might be helpful to create a special place for these notes, thoughts, and reflections to be recorded.

The Recycled Garden Journal

Due to the fact that we are always trying to preserve the beauty of the trees and plants around us, we have tried to make this project with as much recycled material as possible. What do you need to get started?

-       - 1 cereal box (or another cardboard box similar in size and thickness of the paper, whatever you have in your recycling box)

-       - A whole puncher

-       - A small stack of normal printer paper, 8.5” by 11” cut in half (amount can vary depending of how thick you want your journal to be)

-       - A piece of thread or yarn that is about 24” long

-       - Scissors

-       - Pencil

-       - Any decorating materials you want to use

STEP 1: At one corner of your cereal box, you will notice that the cardboard is glued together. If you run your fingers along this side of the box, you will be able to pull it apart so that you can lay the box out flat. Taking one of the pieces of paper you have cut in half, trace the size of the journal onto the cereal box TWICE. Then using your scissors, cut out the rectangles you have just drawn. You should have a piece of cardboard for both the front and the back of your journal. 

STEP 2: Now, place the cereal box cutouts on either side of a stack of paper (about 15 pieces of paper is a nice size for a starter journal). It is also helpful to put the brown sides of the cereal boxes on the outside so that you have a blank canvas to decorate on. Also, the cereal box designs make really good inside designs for the journal. 

Once you have your journal insides together, it is time to move on to the hole punch. If you have used the size noted above, the easiest way is to put your journal in a 3-hole punch on one side. You will only get 2 holes punched. Then, flip your journal upside down (on the same side of the journal, just backwards) and do the same thing. This time, you will get another 2 holes, making 4 total. 

As long as you have at least 3 holes and your paper and cardboard line up, it doesn't really matter where your holes are, or if they are symmetrical! :) 

STEP 3: At last, it is time to start weaving your journal together! Everyone does this a little bit differently, so try not to worry about making it perfect. Start by tying a normal, double knot through one of the holes (either the top or the bottom). 

Then, pull your string down through the next hole, giving you a vertical line down the side of your journal. Then loop back through that same hole, giving you a small line horizontally between the edge of your booklet and the hole. Repeat this process going up and down the side of your journal until you run out of string. 

When you are just about out of string, make another double knot (or a couple) to stop the journal from falling apart. 

It might look something like this, or another variation, when the weaving is finished! And finally, you have a beautiful journal to work with! Inside you can write all about the garden (or garden related things) including observations, feelings, poetry, questions, etc! It is your very own space to be creative. 

Oh, and don't forget STEP 4: DECORATE the front AND the back in any way that pleases you. You can use photos, pictures from magazines, drawings, anything. Have fun with it! And enjoy your recycled cereal box journal. 

Hello!

This year, UBC’s Bachelor of Education degree has a new component called the Enhanced Practicum. D’Arcy and I (Ellis) have been training to be secondary school teachers this past year, but now, we are lucky enough to have been placed at Queen Elizabeth for three weeks to work with the beautiful garden initiatives you have here at the school. It doesn’t seem like we have been here for that long, but we are already amazed with the lovely work being done at Queen E. All the planting, watering, and growing going on has made us so excited to be here!

So far, we have spent some time learning about the different garden boxes, watering to keep the plants hydrated with all this beautiful sunshine we have been having, helping students to move mulch around through the fruit garden, and painting up a storm so that all the QE tools are labeled- but most importantly, we have had the opportunity to meet all you wonderful people that make this school community so amazing.

So, thank you so much for welcoming us into your school and we look forward to exploring nature will all of you folks! If you see us around, come say hello!

- Ellis & D'Arcy