Ms. Bradley

Snapdragon, petunias, marigolds, and celosia.

Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Garden Project Day 5
Whew, did it get warm fast!  Luckily we got started right away this morning at 8:20.  However, the sun was quick to heat things up and we got tired and sweaty before we were done!  We started the morning by planting an array of annuals in the front landscape of the school.  While many of our flowers are small in height, students still tried their best to create different interesting arrangements of flower color, size, and type.  Our goal was to not only improve the landscaping in the front of the building, but also make our school more pleasing to people walking and driving by, and for parents when they pick up and drop off their students each day.  Purple and white petunias, yellow and red French marigolds, snapdragons, and red celosias were in our flower beds.  We used areas that had previously been landscaped with rocks with hopes of limiting the number of weeds and increasing soil retention (during the sporadic Colorado summer downpours).  The trick will now be to keep the plants watered enough so they take hold to their new surroundings!  With enough time, we will start working on planting our veggies and sunflower mix this afternoon in our small garden plot we dug at the edge of the playground yesterday.

Hoping our new flowers will take hold!

Watering our flowers!

Watering some more!

Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Garden Project Day 4

Our Gardening Tools, Supplies, and Plants

The day to start prepping the soil is finally here!  We brought in an assortment of shovels, trowels, spades, and hand rakes.  I also made sure to have 7 pairs of work gloves, which each student was sure they would need!  However, about 5 minutes into our work, 6 pairs of gloves were already strewn across the grass.  We had a little trouble getting plants donated from local organizations on short notice, so I picked up a variety of annuals, zucchini, and squash plants from Home Depot this morning to add to our plethora of seeds!  


Yesterday, we agreed on the location of our garden and chose a location we thought would be accessible for kids, but a little less accessible for the active deer, rabbits, and bears in the neighborhood.  Using yard sticks, students measured a garden space that was 32 square feet, which some thought was still too small.  After I edged the perimeter of the measured space, the tough work began.  Using just our hands and the tools we brought in, we worked to dig up the soil and remove the grass and roots.  This proved to be much more challenging than we expected as we encountered tough ground, clay, rocks, plastic, and were often distracted by the critters crawling in the dirt!  Realizing how large of a task we had in front of us (with so little time left in summer school), our 4x8ft garden quickly became 4x4!  Before blogging at the end of the day, we mixed half a bag of nutrient rich organic soil into the existing ground soil and washed our hands.  A good day's work of prepping our garden!  We have so much to do tomorrow!  Our 16 sq ft garden won't be big enough for all our flowers and veggies, so keep your eyes peeled for where some of these plants may find a home elsewhere on the school grounds!

Monday, June 22, 2015
Garden Project Day 3

This morning, our class finished up their garden presentations.  Each presentation had to include the student's garden design, budget and cost information, and flower images or descriptions.  Once the basics were complete, students needed to work on animating their slides, adding justification and reasoning for their choices, and supporting their project with graphs.  Most students chose to include at least one pie chart in their presentation, which they have been waiting to do for a while now!  After the presentations were complete, each member of the class (myself included) had to present their project to the class.  While presenting, their public speaking skills were assessed using our class public speaking rubric.  It was amazing to see how much each student's presentation and public speaking skills have grown just over the last few weeks!  We finished the day with making a plan for tomorrow and discussed the tools we would need to start our garden, as well as how to prep the soil.  We are anxiously awaiting tomorrow morning, and hoping the day will be a little cooler than the last two!

Thursday, June 18, 2015
Garden Project Day 2

Today, we worked on completing the design for our potential flower gardens.  Using grid paper, I planned the layout of the flowers I chose.  The most difficult part was that each flower requires a certain amount of space before you should plant another flower.  Otherwise, your flower might not grow to its mature size, for it might have to compete with other flowers for sunlight, water, or space in the soil for roots.  I created a key that shows what each type of flower is, and I used colors to show the color choices.  The yellow marigolds give my garden a "pop" of bright color, and the Blue Angel hosta adds great, nonflowering, leaves to my garden that are a bluish-green.  Next, I completed the cost sheet for my flowers, for we were given a budget of $70.  While I was planning my garden, I estimated the cost of each flower by rounding to the nearest 50 cents, so I would not exceed my budget.  The total cost for the seven flowers in my garden is $69.43, which means that I have $0.57 left in my budget.  This afternoon I will start creating my Google presentation, so I can present the garden I designed to the rest of the class.  I am most excited for next week, for that is when we will start planning, and planting, our outdoor garden for Oak Creek!  I can't wait to get my hands dirty!

Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Garden Project Day 1

Today we started working on our garden project!  This morning, we took a nature walk through the neighborhood and looked at a variety of beautiful local flower gardens.  When we saw a garden that caught our eye, for it looked unique or interesting, we halted on the sidewalk and opened our spiral work journals.  In my journal, I sketched a diagram of each garden and the flowers blooming in it.  We saw flowers of all shapes, colors, and sizes, and gardens that were circular, rectangular, and irregular shapes.  My absolute favorite, was the last garden we viewed, for it contained a vast amount of flowers that created a spectacular palette of changing hues!  Once back at school, we used the gardens we observed in the neighborhood as inspiration to begin designing our very own!