Planting Herbs and Writing Tunes at Scotland Rec
We collaborated with a group of young gardeners to start our first plants at our new inspiration garden at Scotland Recreation Center. We are really excited about our new inspiration garden there, and we are off to a great start building a partnership with the staff and children at the recreation center. I want to thank Whole Foods and their Whole Kids Foundation for generously supporting this project with their Extend Learning Garden Grant.
We kicked off the season by planting six herb plants in two large containers. It was fun to provide a hands-on activity to start the growing season with the children.
Our first step was to get to know the herb plants by smelling them and touching them. I chose cold-hardy herbs that the deer avoid, including spearmint, peppermint, dill, lemon balm, lavender and oregano.
Next I had them fill the bottoms of the containers with rocks to help with drainage and to conserve soil.
The children worked in groups of two to lift up bags of potting soil and pour them on top of the rocks.
We added water before filling the pot to the top in order to create more evenly moist soil. We topped off the pots, and it was time to plant. Each pot received three different variety of herb seedlings.
They suggested we plant the seedlings in a triangle shape, and dug holes first where they thought each plant should live.
We finished our gardening by watering of course, but before we watered we added the extra rocks to the top of the soil for aesthetics and as a mulch. Rocks also hold heat, so they will help keep the soil warm during the cool month of April.
But the fun wasn’t over yet. We had a nice jam session and made up a few songs about gardening. The children took turns playing my dulcitar, which is my favorite instrument to bring to the garden because of its light weight and its twangy sound. One of our Scotland gardeners wrote a short song about planting and pest management. Listen here:
The pots looked great and we moved them out to the garden, where they received a nice serenade.
Our next steps together will be to fill the beds and plan the layout of our summer vegetable garden.
Here’s to a spring full of growing together.
Best wishes,
Jake
