Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Greenhouse excitement

If you have walked passed the school recently then you will see that we have a new sign and an area staked off for our greenhouse.  Construction on the greenhouse will start in early June, by some wonderful local contributors, Falt Builders and BCM construction.  This greenhouse has been a dream for many dedicated parents and staff members, and with a lot of generous donations and fundraising it will soon be a reality!  The structure will be an 18 x 32ft gothic arch greenhouse with tables for starting seedlings and also a few raised beds for extending the growing season with our students. Please stay posted and check back in early June for some progress on the project!



Thursday, May 14, 2015

Busy bees!

We are very proud to say that we now have an observation hive at Mount Desert Elementary!  Thanks to the wonderful efforts of one of our garden coordinators, Julie Taylor, we now have an observation hive in our middle school science room, and all the students are welcome to observe.  The bees were set up today, and so far the students are loving it!  They are having a blast just observing the hive, trying to find the queen, and putting their hands up against the glass to feel the vibrations of the worker bees.  There is a small tube that is connected to the window, and the bees will come and go to the hive from the window, entering and exiting the hive through the tube.  There were even many teachers checking out the hive at the end of the day!
Keep checking in to see what the bees are up to!


Monday, May 11, 2015

Cucumbers, kale and tomatoes!

Last week we had the wonderful opportunity to plant seeds with all our students.  Each class planted one tray of seeds and they will get to watch the seeds sprout on their windowsills over the next couple of weeks.  We discussed with each class how the results would be different for each classroom based on the amount of sunlight each room receives, and also which direction the classroom is facing, noting that the south facing seedlings would most likely do the best.  To our surprise this morning, we already have cucumbers, kale and tomatoes sprouting!  The enthusiasm and excitement amongst those students who noticed we had some seeds which had sprouted over the weekend was great to see!


Tuesday, May 5, 2015

First spinach harvest

 Today we had the the opportunity to harvest our first crop of spinach from the garden.  We have had great weather the past few days, and we were excited to see the spinach really growing a lot the past week!  This is our first spinach harvest, and we should be able to harvest at least once more.  The spinach will be incorporated into our school lunch salad bar this week!