The Orca K-8 School Garden Blog!

We got down, down, down on some tasty mojitos- fresh mint, lime, seltzer water, and just a bit of simple sugar syrup- VOILA! A delicious and refreshing drink to help celebrate the end of the school year. There’s lots to celebrate- hundreds of pounds of fresh food donated to the food bank, thousands of dollars donated to them also, over 5,000 pounds of lunch waste composted, and SO MUCH MORE. Drink up!

A great thing about garden education is that the garden allows you the opportunity to set students loose on fun activities- the scavenger hunt is perfect. They get to explore some amazing plants, feeling, smelling, tasting- then use their creative powers to draw and write their reactions/experiences. I had them search for some great plants from Seattle Tilth that I picked up- pineapple sage, berries & cream mint, tangerine sage, Vietnamese cilantro, & more. the sun broke out of the clouds and the 3rd grade had a great time.

I love this activity! I set out many different piles of seeds and students cycle through the greenhouse selecting seeds to plant in the garden- anywhere they want. It’s a lot like a giant canvas being painted blindly by students. They are gonna have to wait till September to really see it colored up! We had a bunch of flower seed packs donated to us- so we were excited to diversify our garden flower production.

We just made two big plant donations to two great projects. First we hooked up our buddy Maren Neldam of Seattle Tilth with plants for the Rainier Beach Learning Garden. They do some amazing work with gardening and kids. Next we gave many flats of tomatoes & greens to the JustGarden Project. They have been working to create gardens for low-income aspiring gardeners. Yes!

We got our tomatoes in the ground, ready to go fight a tooth and nail battle against this coldest spring ever in Seattle. It’s June 1st today and chilly/rainy- so we gotta cover those tomatoes. We had students pick the biggest tomato they could find in the greenhouse.

Then we built our hoophouse to keep these little fellas warm and cozy. My secret to growing giant, delicious tomatoes, is to keep them covered through June. Tomatoes love the heat and these mock-greenhouses’ really do the trick. Stay tuned for Cherry, Yellow Pear, San Marzano, Roma, and many more varieties!