Rain Barrel gets some color

The colorful garden space became even more colorful last week thanks to Ms. Crystal Gill, the art student-teacher at LINCS. Ms. Gill painted the rain barrel, with the help of some curious on lookers.

 

The artist creating. 

Tomatoes everywhere!

Reaching in for garden goodness. 

 Tomato season is here! Red tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, big and small are bountiful in the garden. Students have enjoyed snacking on them during recess, as a class after watering the garden and inside for their snack. The garden experience has been taken inside to a classroom or two...what foods come from tomatoes?

Harvest

Harvesting and enjoying. 

Having a taste gardenside. 

A treat left for a favorite teacher. 

Tomatoes for snack. 

Tomatoes for snack. 

Bringing the garden into the inside classroom. 

Reading what students are seeing, touching, smelling and tasting in the garden. 

First Days Back in the Garden

Many visitors on the first day of school. 

The first days of school have found many visitors- with two legs and six legs- to the LINCS Growing and Learning Garden. Students were amazed to discover how "big" the garden grew since they last saw it in early June.

Students were excited to find many tomatoes, green beans and green peppers to try. The kale and chives continue to be favorites.

Discovering late-summer insects is certainly a highlight. Grasshoppers, caterpillars and bees  provide the opportunity to learn about pollination, being respectful of all living creatures and everyone who depends on our gardens to live in. Japanese beetles demonstrate what a pest can do in a garden.

Hunting for  green beans. 

A fresh, local, healthy snack. 

Garden resident, a grasshopper. 

All eyes on the grasshopper. 

Kale all around! 

A fuzzy friend with gentle hands. 

A handful of green beans. 

A popular spot to spend recess. 

Swiss Chard!

The swiss chard we planted on Earth Day in the Spring continues to grow and grow. LINCS Music teacher Mrs. Hayes has made great use of the swiss chard the past week. She made a vegetarian lasagna and has enjoyed the swiss chard with her eggs just about every morning!

Veggie lasagna featuring swiss chard. 

Hands on Learning!

 Experiential and hands-on learning at its finest. The same gardening friend planted a pepper plant in early June, harvested a pepper in late August from that same plant and cut the pepper to make salsa. The salsa was enjoyed with fellow gardening friends.

Our own salsa!

Lots of tomatoes. 

The LINCS Growing and Learning garden continues to provide many with learning and yummy, healthy food.  

Monday we harvested lots of tomatoes, our first green pepper and the first of the onions. Just the right ingredients to make our own salsa! 

Everyone helped to cut, dice and chop. Everyone was also very eager to enjoy the salsa with corn chips. A great treat for all who have helped tend to the garden over the summer. Thank you! 

The main Garden crew with the produce. 

Cutting and chopping

LINCS Garden Salsa! 

Healthy appetite for this gardener. 

CNN Story about School Gardens

Here's a great example of what school gardens can accomplish: 

http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/14/health/healthy-school-gardens/index.html