This just in – the CSG 2012 Fedco Seed Sale order form is now available!

For the third year in a row, the Central School Gardeners will be running our Fedco Seed Sale! Half of all sales will directly benefit the planting and maintenance of the 2012 CSG school garden. New this year: all of the seeds offered are organic!

Please click here for a direct link to a printable pdf of our order form.

Completed forms and payments can be sent to: Central Elementary School, attention: Petra Reitz, 107 Central Street, East Bridgewater MA 02333. Checks can be made payable to the Central School Gardeners. Order forms and payment must be received by the school no later than Friday, February 17th, 2012. The seed orders will be available in early to mid-March…just in time to start your spring garden!

If you have any questions about the CSG 2012 Fedco Seed Sale, please contact Petra Reitz at petra_r_@hotmail.com. For more information about our seed sales, visit our 2012 Seed Sales page.

Not sure how to go about starting seeds or planting a garden? The CSG will be hosting a gardening workshop in March to answer all of your questions! The exact date, time and location will be posted here shortly.

Next meeting of the CSG Garden Club is Wednesday, January 11th 2012

Happy New Year to all!

The next CSG garden club meeting will be on Wednesday, January 11th 2012 right after school in the art room. Please remember to send a permission note to your child’s teacher allowing him/her to stay after school for the meeting. Dismissal will be at 4:30 from the art room – please park at the back of the school near the playground and enter through the door next to the first grade classrooms (please do not go through the cafeteria). If your child will be unable to attend the meeting, please let Kate Strassel know at k.m.strassel@gmail.com.

In the case of forecasted inclement weather, please be sure to check your email and the blog the evening before the meeting. A decision will be made by 7pm on Tuesday, January 10th on whether the meeting will be held. If the meeting is postponed due to the weather, the meeting will be held the following Wednesday (January 18th).

Our project for the January meeting will be forcing paperwhites! Please have your child bring in a clean glass jar (with the label removed) for this project. The opening of the jar needs to be at least 2 1/2 inches in diameter in order to accommodate the bulbs. Please let Kate know if you have any questions.

Lastly, we are always in need of volunteers to help our meetings run smoothly, especially when we are indoors for the entire meeting. If you are able to help out with January’s meeting, please contact Kate at k.m.strassel@gmail.com.

See you next week!

Next CSG garden club meeting is 11/9/11

The next meeting of the Central School Gardeners will be held on Wednesday, November 9th, 2011 right after school. Please remember to send in a permission note with your child on the day of the meeting. If inclement weather is predicted and a rain date (to be the following Wednesday) is necessary, an announcement will be posted on the blog by 7pm the night before. Please be sure to check the blog on Tuesday evening to confirm that the meeting will be held the next day.

There are still a few opening for garden club members! If you know of someone who would like to join, please have them contact Kate Strassel at k.m.strassel@gmail.com.

See you on the 9th!

Still a few openings left for the 2011-12 CSG Garden Club!

It’s not too late to join the CSG Garden Club! There are still some openings left, and we’d love to have you join us! If you would like to join the garden club or would like more information, please contact Kate Strassel at k.m.strassel@gmail.com.

Deadline to register for 2011-12 CSG garden club is October 5th!

Our first CSG garden club meeting of the 2011-12 school year is fast approaching on Wednesday, October 12th! The deadline to register for the garden club is this Wednesday, October 5th. All registration forms and payments must be received by this date to secure a spot in the club. There are still a few openings, so be sure to send your registrations in soon! Completed forms and payments (checks made payable to Central School Gardeners) should be sent in with your child’s teacher in an envelope marked “Central School Gardeners, Attn: Kate Strassel”.

Our first field trip of the year will be to pick pumpkins at Beaver Brook Farm right here on Summer Street in East Bridgewater! We will also be visiting the Jenney Grist Mill in Plymouth in November and Matfield Maple Farm in West Bridgewater next March. We have lots of great gardening fun planned for the upcoming year – we hope you’ll join us!

If you have any questions, please contact Kate Strassel at k.m.strassel@gmail.com.

2011-12 Registration for CSG Garden Club begins Sept. 19th!

Open registration for the Central School Gardeners 2011-12 garden club will begin on Monday, September 19th! The cost for the year is $10 and is open to students in grades K-3. Meetings will take place on the 2nd Wednesday of each month beginning on October 12th, 2011. Space is limited to 30 members and will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis; last year’s garden club members will be given first priority. Please click on the “2011-12 Registration” tab above for more details and to download a registration form. Contact Kate Strassel at k.m.strassel@gmail.com with questions or concerns.

Last Tuesday evening at the CSG garden and 2011-12 Garden Club

Tonight will be the last CSG Tuesday evening at the garden for the summer! Susan will be at the garden from 6-7pm to fill the rain barrels (we have two now, as well as a spiffy new hose reel and hoses) and to check out what’s growing. Stop by if you can to give her a hand!

Also, with school beginning next Wednesday (August 31st), it’s time to start thinking about the 2011-12 CSG Garden Club. There will be 30 openings again this year for the garden club, and we always give first priority to our current members. If you are interested in participating in the garden club again this coming school year, please send Kate an email at k.m.strassel@gmail.com. Space filled up fast last year, so please let us know as soon as possible if you are interested. Enrollment will be opened up to the rest of the Central School on September 19th.

Below are some photos from one of our Tuesday evening gatherings in July – enjoy!

Thank you to everyone who helped out in the garden over the summer – we hope to see you in the fall!

Tuesday evenings at the CSG Garden: photos from our 1st gathering

Even though the weather was stifling, our first Tuesday evening gathering at the CSG garden turned out to be both pleasant and productive. As you’ll see in the photos below, we harvested some giant red and white radishes! There were also plenty of peas and lettuce to be picked, and Mia took home some baby beets and greens. Mia’s mom Laurie satueed the greens for dinner and said they were delicious – even Mia tried them! The kids pulled out the rest of the radish plants to make room for the carrots while the adults gave all of the beds and potato bags a good soaking. The kids loved filling our watering can from the rain barrel, which has been saving us tons of time (as well as our backs) by not having to hook up our six hoses to the faucet next to the cafeteria each time we need to water!

We will be meeting at the garden again next Tuesday, July 19th from 6 to 7pm. We will be removing the pea plants to make room for other crops, so if you would like to pick some peas before then, feel free to stop by the garden anytime. There are also a ton of greens (red and green lettuces, mustard, and arugula) to be harvested that would be wonderful in a salad! To pick loose leaf greens, simply snap off the leaf at the base (down near the soil). If you do stop by the garden, please take a moment to record what you harvested and/or observed in the garden journal (located in the storage bin next to the rain barrel).

Enjoy the pictures below, and we hope to see you at the garden soon!

Field Trip to Soule Homestead

We had a wonderful time on our field trip to the Soule Homestead in Middleboro on May 14th! We plan to make it an annual event, and we hope more friends will join us next year.

Garden club meeting today!

The next CSG garden club meeting is TODAY right after school! Although the ground may be a bit damp, the weather forecast appears to be shower-free for the afternoon. Below is a summary of today’s activities. See you there!

To begin: after the kids sign in and pick up their name tags, we will be starting more seedlings (tomatoes, peppers and more) for the garden.

**Speaking of seedlings, you may have noticed that the seeds your child planted at our last meeting in April are ready to be repotted to a larger container. Repotting the seedlings will allow the plants to establish a healthy root system before being planted outdoors in the ground or a container. Some seedlings may even be ready to be planted outdoors; just be sure to “harden off” all seedlings before planting outside to avoid shocking them! To harden off your seedlings, place the plants outdoors in a shady, protected area for a few hours a day, increasing the amount of time spent outside each day until the seedlings remain outside overnight. Once the plants have been outside overnight for 3 to 5 days (do not leave the seedlings out overnight if the air temperature drops below 45 degrees), they are ready to be transplanted into a garden or container.

Snack: Our snack today will be pretzel sticks and local honey generously donated by Joe Sybertz of Kingston, MA!

Main Activity: Out to the garden! After our singing of the garden song, we will head out to the garden! Each member will have the chance to participate in planting beet, carrot, radish and lettuce seeds; moving and spreading much; and helping committee member Susan Levasseur move her worms to new bins (the kids love the worms!).

**REMINDER: Field Trip to Soule Homestead in Middleboro on Saturday!

Join us at the beautiful Soule Homestead in Middleboro for a “Get to the Root of it” workshop from 1:30 to 3pm on Saturday, May 14^th 2011. Participants will learn to identify different parts of a plant, understand what plants need to grow, and discover how they help people. Play clothes, old, comfortable shoes and a jacket are strongly recommended for all participants. There is no charge for current garden club members! The admission for adults accompanying members is $2; all participants must be accompanied by an adult. For siblings and those students not in the garden club, the cost is $6 per child. If you plan to attend, please contact Korin Zigler at mskzigler@aol.com or (508) 378-4836 with the garden club member’s name and number of people attending. For more information about the Soule Homestead, please visit their website at http://www.soulehomestead.org/ or call (508) 947-6744.

Directions to the Soule Homestead:

1. Take Route 106 East into Halifax.
2. Turn right onto Route 58S/Monponsett Street. Follow Route 58 for 3.5 miles.
3. Turn right onto Parsonage Road and travel 0.8 miles.
4. Take a slight right onto Winnetuxet Road.
5. Travel approximately 495 feet and take a slight left onto Prospect Road.
6. Go 0.9 miles and turn right onto Soule Street.
7. Soule Homestead will be on the right (46 Soule Street, Middleboro MA 02346).

 

Next Meeting: The next meeting of the CSG will be on Wednesday, May 25^th, 2011 (rain date is June 1^st).