LCH Garden Newsletter

Welcome to the November 2018 La Costa Heights Elementary Garden Newsletter!

The weather is finally cooling, which means its time to get our cool season crops into the ground. The plants in the greenhouse are looking great as are the seedlings that were planted in the raised beds before break. In last month's newsletter we shared ideas and resources about what to plant now. If you haven't started planting yet, it's not too late -- go ahead and get those fingernails dirty! If you're a little nervous about what to do, come to our Seed Starting Workshop on November 13th. In line with planting, we are focusing this month's lesson ideas on seeds and germination. Read on to find out more.

General Garden Updates

  • Cover crop seedlings - Several of the plots have little seedlings growing that are likely from this summer’s buckwheat cover crop. The good news is that they are really easy to pull out and could be a way for you to demonstrate to your students how to weed (pull the entire plant including the roots).
  • Everything You Need to Know at a Glance: As the garden program has grown, so have the tools we use to organize it. The downside is that it gets difficult to keep track of where to go for what. To help solve this, we have put it all together on a single sheet. Check it out here! It'll also be the pinned announcement on the La Costa Heights Elementary Garden Facebook Group if you misplace it.
  • Seed potatoes have arrived: You can make potato towers or plant them directly into your raised beds. Check out this helpful PDF to learn how to plant and grow them.
  • Composting. We are still building the compost pile for the garden. Please encourage your classes to bring in kitchen scraps and go through the process of adding brown material and water to it after. (More information on what is in a compost pile here).
  • Irrigation. Along with our plots, our irrigation is ready for use. If you feel like your plot is getting too much or not enough water, let us know at garden@lacostaheightspta.org. Please do not try to change the timers yourself.
  • Volunteer to a 3rd Grade classroom? You may interested in taking part in Bonnie Plant's Cabbage Program. Find out more information here.
  • Don't forget to spread the word to buy your seeds for your gardens at home from Renee's Garden! They are a high quality source of seeds for vegetables, flowers, culinary herbs, and special seed collections, and will be returning 25% of your order value back to our school when you enter the code FR898G in the coupon box upon checkout.

LCH Garden Workshop Series: Seed Starting

November 13th at 8:00am in the LCH Main Garden Area

To help build expertise and confidence in the garden among our garden parent volunteers, we are starting a series of hands-on workshops. For our first workshop on starting seeds in the garden, we will focus on what to plant now and the steps to starting seeds in pots. Each participant will start their own seeds and can leave them in the school greenhouse or take them home for their own garden. Come join us and let us know your suggestions for future workshop topics at garden@lacostaheightspta.org.

Lesson Ideas - Seeds and Germination

Seed Dissection: We know that a seed turns into a plant, but do we know why? What's inside that seed? In this lesson, you will reveal the answers! This lesson was adapted from Life Lab's lesson Seed Soaks.

  1. Each student receives a dry lima bean and are asked to draw what they think is inside. (The worksheet at right offers a useful template). Challenge them to really think about it, and don't be surprised if your younger kids draw their interpretation of magic.
  2. Each student then receives a lima bean seed that has been soaked for a few hours. Lima beans are easy to use because of their size. Ask them to compare the two seeds using all their senses (not taste). They can record their observations in a field journal or present them to the class. Now the real fun part happens.
  3. Demonstrate how to gently separate the two halves of the soaked seed so they know how. It's important that they don't apply too much force as they can damage the fragile plant parts inside. Invite them to draw what they see now (using their scientific eyes and not their artistic ones). What do they think each of the parts will turn into? The diagram at right is a good cheat sheet for us and could be modified for them to complete. While younger students will see the food source (cotyledon) and the small plant, older students can look for other seed structures as show in this diagram (free with registration) and discuss why they are each important (for example, the food source is needed by the plant before it breaks the soil and begins photosynthesis). Older students can also compare lima bean (dicot) to corn (or monocot) seeds. Here's a little cheatsheet on some of their differences.
  4. As a wrap up, encourage students to share their thoughts on what happens to those plant parts throughout the germination process. Just collect ideas - there are no right or wrong answers. Finally, you can end the class with this time lapse video of a germinating seed where they can compare their thoughts to what happens in the video.

Sprouting seeds: So much of what happens in germination happens below the soil, nearly invisible to us. This lesson is a nice follow up to the lesson above and offers a glimpse into a what a germinated seed looks like and a little snack at the end.

  1. This lesson requires some advance legwork. A week prior, take 1/4 cup of seeds designed for sprouting (we have sunflower and green peas available in our supplies) and soak them overnight in a sanitized wide mouth quart size mason jar covered in cheesecloth. The initial step of soaking the seeds can be done at the end of class so that the kids can see the seeds before their transformation. You can even take a picture of the seeds each day to show how they have changed over the week. Drain the water the next day and rinse the seeds several times each day over the next week, making sure to turn the jar upside down to allow the water to drain through the cheesecloth. You can prop up the jar on one side. Legos work great for this! Detailed instructions on how to sprout seeds can also be found here.
  2. Bring in the jar full of sprouted seeds. The visual alone of how the seeds have changed should easily bring kids into the lesson. Explain that the seeds have germinated and are in the process of becoming a plant. Pass out a sprout to each student and ask them to carefully draw it.
  3. Direct them to refer back to their seed diagrams the prior week and challenge them to find the plant parts they found in the seed in their sprout and label it on their drawings. Older students will be able to label more parts (use the diagram at right as a resource).
  4. Invite the kids to eat their sprout and ask them what they thought.
bean seed disection.pdf

Art lessons with seeds

On the less academic side, seeds can be used as materials in various art projects. Here are some ideas:

If you ever have any questions, please ask away at garden@lacostaheightspta.org and don't forget to join and post to our Facebook group. We like to hear from you!