Exploring Potatoes

The kids are on spring break this week, but before they left I got a chance to plant some flowers and chard at some of the centers. I also brought in some potatoes that Carla donated, which had been sprouting at her house for a while- many had sprouts about a foot long already. This was great activity for the kids, I explained that the potato itself can be a seed, and that if you bury all but the top 2 or 4 leaves that roots will grow out of the stem, helping the plant drink more water and become stronger. The kids loved being able to touch and look at the sprouts growing out of potatoes. I brought in photos of what the plant looks like above and under the ground as well as some that were harvested and cleaned, which most of the kids recognized. The children are all really excited about growing flowers, I really hope some will bloom before the end of the Oregon PreKindegarten program in May. Here are some pictures of the kids at Settlemeier:

Container gardening & journals at Silverton

Container gardening at Settlemeier

While its still rainy and cold outside we have been doing planting indoors of some hardy plants and then bringing them outside to the garden. The kids get more and more excited about planting, the more familiar they get with it. If there is any doubt about how to get kids to eat healthy, I am convinced that the answer is to have them grow the food themselves. These kids are completely ecstatic about things like garlic, radishes, spinach and cilantro. More than anything, the kids love to water the plants. Its a good thing the containers drain well!

Soil at Jose Pedro!

Thank you to Tim Iba and John Vuylsteke for getting soil into our Washington county garden beds! The bed at Jose Pedro is filled and almost ready to be planted in just in time for spring. Next week I will amend the soil and we'll be ready to go!