Licorice Pesto by Nichole

Introducing…Licorice Pesto!!! Lests See, oh! You want to make some, eh? Well, we’re experimenting with fennel seeds. Pesto, so…it’s gonna taste pretty strong. First, you need 1 cup of clean basil. Then you need ½ cup of parmesan cheese (real deal). You also need 1 cup of olive oil, 6 cloves of garlic, and tons of fennel seeds! Oh and you’re gonna need a blender, a cup and a half cup to measure. Okay you got what you need so lets get to experimenting! Plug the blender into the wall (don’t turn on!) Then measure 1 cup of Basil and pour it into the blender. Then measure ½ cup of parmesan cheese and pour it into the blender too. Next put 6 cloves of garlic in. Almost there, just measure 1 cup of olive oil and pour it in there. Finally, dump your fennel seeds right in there. Now, turn on the blender! Well, hope it tastes good!

We made an experiment! By Ms. Stacy's second grade class

We made an experiment. We put seeds in the pots. Some seeds were on the very top of the soil, and some were on the very bottom. We also put some seeds in the middle. Then, we put the pots near the window so they can get sun. Some seeds were one inch from the top and one inch from the bottom.
We are trying to find out if they will grow. We took votes on which ones would grow.
Here is our hypothesis:
Beans on top of the soil: 2 people think they will grow
Beans one inch from the top: 8 people think they will grow
Beans in the middle of the soil: 9 people think they will grow
Beans one inch from the bottom: 5 people think they will grow
Beans at the bottom of the pot: 8 people think they will grow
Stay tuned!!!

Ms. Lenard's class discovery

Hello, this is Ms. Lenard's fourth grade class. We grew a passion vine in our garden. A butterfly visited our passion vine and layed some eggs. The eggs hatched and we have some caterpillars on our vine. One of the caterpillars was very big the first time we saw it, and the next time we saw it again it was in Nicole and Ali's garden and it had made a chrysalis. A chrysalis is something a caterpillar makes so it can turn into a butterfly. Can you believe it? It is true. We are the only class who has caterpillars in our garden. A couple of our students went to the garden and dug up a small passion vine. There were two caterpillars and one egg on it, and we brought it into our class. That day we put it in an aquarium so we can watch it grow and change. The butterfly laid her eggs on the passion vine because she wanted her babies to eat the leaves of the passion vine, because they need passion vine to live. Our class has been working in the garden, last year Ms. Lenard's fourth grade class planted the passion vine. Come by our classroom or garden and see the wonderful thing that is happening with the fourth grade class!!

Global Gardens featured in Living with Art in the Garden tour 07

Maranda's Garden

I'm the very first one in the whole world in Global Gardens to get my garden done by hands. Everybody in Global Gardens says that their's was made by a tractor. I'm very Proud of myself and I love Global Gardens, IT ROCKS!
I, Maranda, am a genius. My garden is going to be very, very, very, very good. I'm going to love it!!!!!
To my good readers,
Maranda
P.S. My mom and brother helped! THANKS!!

Last day of summer program, by Tamara, 5th grade (going into)

Today is the last day of Global Gardens summer program and here are some things I loved:
Ms. Golden Shannon with photography. I learned a lot that I needed and wanted to know like about light.
I loved pesto making.
My favorite thing was to cut the the basil and grate the cheese. I loved to do the sale it was awesomeness!
The Philbrooke Museum was beautiful. I felt very smart when I found out that it used to be a house! And that the air was through the trees!
Making the birdbaths was great, it was really fun when I got to put it out.
I loved watching the video clip. I learned about the anther and the ovary.
One of my favorite day's was today. I went to my garden and found out that I had a giant cantaloupe. I felt great! The day was kind of windy. i felt like a dandelion getting softly blown.

Daniel's report of today and yesterday

Today the storm was bad and windy. I think the garden is going to flood today. I think there will be a big pond. We looked at the street and it looked like a big flood. Then we looked in the sky and it was black as heck. Yesterday I worked hard in the garden. I cut some deadheads. Deadheads are flowers that are dead, on healthy plants. The plant is giving energy to the dead flowers to make seeds and that takes up too much energy from the plants, so we cut the off so that they plant will make more flowers. I got to paint the picnic table that I have been painting. Quanah was not there to help. Yesterday we got to see our pictures that we made, not colored or glued, we used a camera!
Thank you Global Garden,
Daniel

Quanah's experiment notes

The weather today is thunder stormy. Today is July 12th, 2007, Thursday. Today we finished our tomato project. Last Thursday we took votes to see which tomato would ripen first. There were choices of: the window, the window in a brown bag, open on the table, clear bag by the window, covered in a black container on the bookshelf, in a cup of water in the bathroom, in the dark closet open in a box, inside a clear bag which was inside a paper bag in the dark closet. Those were the choices we voted on. I am not going to tell you what the voes were because it will take up all the room on the blog. But the one on the bookshelf that no one voted for ripened first. Our hypothesis was that it ripened first because it was in a black container and black attracts heat. I think a lot of heat got in and not a lot of heat could get out. Stay tuned for more experiments with ripening tomatoes!
Sincerely,
Quanah

Diana's Update

From the starting of the summer program, some squirrels have been eating our tomatoes. We found out how to stop them from eating our tomatoes, using netting. I think the squirrels will stop eating our tomatoes. If it doesn't work then we will have to go with plan C. Plan C is to get a cage and if they come after the tomatoes the cage will trap them and we will put them back into the tree and they will warn all the other squirrels not to come near. We can put more shiny things to keep the birds away. The sun beats down on the shiny things and the birds won't be able to see where the tomatoes are because of the shiny things. The birds and the squirrels will not come back. If plan C does not work we will go with plan D, but we don't have one yet! We will figure out what plan D is going to be.
Thanks for reading!
Diana

Summer Garden by Alexus

We started a summer program for all Global Garden kids to join in on projects and to take care of the garden. One thing we discovered is squirrels and birds have been eating our tomatoes. Today we made birdbaths out of flowerpots! We are making mosaics on the birdbaths. Yesterday, a photographer came to our classroom and told us about all different kinds of cameras and she told us how to work them and how to take pictures and to use light. Its all about light! We each got a disposable camera and we can take 27 pictures and we are going to make a calendar or a photobook. Tomorrow we are going on a fieldtrip to the Linneaus garden to look at their beautiful garden.
We hope it stops raining so much!

Reflecting on the last 6 months

Today is the second day of the Global Gardens summer program and I have just been reflecting a bit on the year and all that has happened since I began working with the Eugene Field students back in January. The students have been incredible and inspiring with their commitment, creativity, and motivation, both in the classroom and in the garden. Just 6 months ago, they started with pages full of ideas, drawings, and dreams, and they now have a beautiful garden space filled with color and life! It has been so inspiring to watch these students believe in themselves and their community as they work together to create something that they have become so proud of. Please enjoy our blog, your virtual tour of the garden... and if you live nearby, come on out for a visit! And if you have a minute, please leave a comment for the gardeners, as the communication about the garden is another big piece in the children's learning process.
Thank you!
Ms. Oakley

Ms. Warnke's berry garden

Here are some of the berries that are growing in the berry garden!

Ms. Newman's Class's Literary Garden Update

Our plants are growing! Our beans are growing. Our sunflowers started from seeds and now they are about eight inches tall. One pepper is ready to pick because it is shiny and red. Our strawberries are growing bigger, and some have greenish yellow strawberries. They are not ripe yet. Our turnip seeds have germinated and have grown! Our watermelon is growing, too. We have two watermelon plants, one was a plant and one was a seed. Both are growing. Our garden is no longer a rectangle of dirt! We planted a pumpkin seed and now it is larger! Our carrot seeds have sprouted. One green pepper was ready and we took it inside and everybody got a little taste of it. We voted and 13 people liked it and 11 did not like it. Now that everything is growing in the garden, we will soon be able to eat it and our garden will look beautiful! Thank you for reading this, we hope you come and see our garden and have a nice day!
Ms. Newman's third grade class

Ms. Lenards Fourth Grade Class Garden

Some of our plants are blooming! Some of the plants are getting bigger. The class voted to see if we wanted OK or OU written in plants, and we voted for OU. Then Ms. Lenard asked us what color we wanted to plant and most of the students wanted red and white. We ended up planting the O in red begonia's and the U white begonia's. Then we had 4 students who painted our garden sign, its in the shape of Oklahoma. We planted a lot of plants since we started the garden. Ameristar Fence Company donated a fence for our Global Garden. Lately, we planted a golden rod, indigo bush, passion vine, and blazing star. We put some stepping stones in our garden so that we have a place step when we deadhead. We wrote a letter to Ms. Lenard's fourth grade class for the fall and we told them about the garden. We want to thank Ms. Brady, who brought us some mulch, the stepping stones, and the wood for the signs. Thank you for helping our Global Garden!!
And thank you Ameristar for helping us building the fence!!Thank you for reading this note that we wrote for you, have a good day.
Yours truly,
Ms. Lenard's class.

Alexus's Saturday Community Day report

This last Saturday, the first thing I did was I saw how much my morning glory has grown. Then I asked Daniel what he was doing and I asked him if I could help him paint his picnic table. He said yes so I was doing that for a while and I looked at my garden and I talked to Dr. Rippy and watch him help make the stepping stone. I was surprised about the fence and Ms. Oakley told me that they dug holes 3 feet deep into the ground. We will have towo gates in the fence and we want to put a ramp for people in wheelchairs. I enjoyed being in the garden on Saturday and I felt happy and surprised that my morning glory had grown so much!

Tamara's Update, 4th grade

Recentally Global Gardens has been plainting and making signs. First Mrs. Brady brought wood and stakes plus nails, then they drew what shape they wanted their sign to be shaped like. After they traced it it out they in sharpie then Mrs. Brady cut it out and put the stake on it. Also, on Saturday they stared to make the fence, which was donated by Mr. Gibbs and Ameristar Fence, it would have cost a lot of money. They kids will be sending him a thank you card for his generousity.

Garden Signs

We have been painting garden signs for each garden. We hope you enjoy our signs! Come and see them in our garden...

Jasmine's report, 5th grade

We have noticed big changes in the garden. Our plants are growing big and strong. We have also noticed that our tomato plants have little tomatoes on it too. Most of the other plants have started growing flowers on them. I think all of the other gardens are growing beautifully.

Sasha's Report, 5th grade

What I like about the banana trees and garden is it is pretty to me. I think that I did a good job on it. I do my best because I believe it is good for our heart. I love being in the garden cause it makes me feel good.

Honest Germinators Update by Jazzmine & Alexis

We are the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders of Eugene Field Elementary School. We are planting all kinds of plants. The day we started was January 29th of 2007. We are learning about all things that we do in gardens and, there are a lot of things that we are doing to help the plants grow. We needed to fix the garden so we could plant some more plants. We had already got the garden ready for some plants. It is important for people to be able to see the garden and the wonders we have worked on there. When we started out our gardens were entirely covered with grass. Then we met a man named Farmer Joe who plowed our garden. There was still a lot of grass because he only flipped it over. We picked up some of the grass and fixed it up with our tools.

Salsa Garden Observations by Kurtis, fifth grade

I like the garden. I liked digging the grass up and raking it up out of the dirt. I like the feel of the dirt it is soft, it had a little of clay in it. I think the garden would look like a jungle next year. We can work together and get it done if we work hard. I see all the plots they are cool. The plants are growing fast. The weather is sunny. It is hot and a cool wind. I like the days when we work on the garden.

Ms. Lenard's class is OK interview

This is Ms. Lenard's class interview, Ms. Warke's class asked us questions...
Q: What kind of flowers did you plant?
A: We planted indian blanket, coreopsis, blazing star, sage, salvia, and coneflower.
Q: Is your garden actually coming along with working together?
A: Yes, it is really coming along, and we are working together really good.
Q: What kind of garden do you have and what does it represent?
A: We are making an Oklahoma garden.
Q: What does an Oklahoma garden represent?
A: It represents Oklahoma and the plants that are in Oklahoma. They are naturally in Oklahoma, another word for that is native.
Q: Why did you guys pick Oklahoma?
A: Because when Ms. Oakley came we were thinking of different states and countries and we voted and everybody picked Oklahoma.
Q: Is you garden really the shape of Oklahoma?
A: Yes.
Q: How hard was it to make your garden?
A: It wasn't that hard because we put rocks around to make the shape of Oklahoma and we were working together.
Q: Did you put new soil in yet?
A: Yes. We put the new dirt on top ot the old dirt and then we mixed it up.
Q: Are you planning to do something else with your garden?
A: Yes, we want to make OK in the empty space. We want to use plants but we haven't decided yet. We could put some chairs or something. And we are going to plant an indigo bush outside of our garden because it needs a lot of space. It can grow 9 to 12 feet tall. It attracts butterflies. The butterflies lay eggs on it, its a host plant. Some of our plants are perennial.

Ms. Warnke's class berry best interview

Ms. Warke's and Ms. Lenard's class wrote an interview...
Q: What kind of fruits do you have in your garden?
A: We have strawberries in our garden. And Ms. Oakley ordered golden raspberries, regular raspberries, blackberries, and black raspberries over the internet.
Q: Are they growing yet?
A: The strawberries are growing, and the other berries are on thieir way. We will plant them when they arrive.
Q: Have you eaten any of your fruits yet?
A: Yes, we ate some strawberries. And we ate blueberries, grapes, and blackberries when we had a little tasting party in the garden.
Q: When did you plant the strawberries?
A: We planted them a couple of weeks ago. We did not plant the blackberries yet.
Q: Why are you making a berry garden?
A: Because we are going to be the only class stearing towards a berry garden. Most of the people in our class voted on berries. And we wanted to have a garden that no other class had.
Q: Are you going to plant anything else besides berries?
A: We planted a few sunflowers.
Q: How many different berries did you plant?
A: We have only plnated strawberries.
Q: Were the berries good when you ate them?
A: Yes, they were yummy. They were berry good!

Angel's Report

Our global garden is a success. Our class is doing a berry garden. So far we planted strawberries. After that we did a tast test. We tasted raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries.

Mrs.Warnkes Class Berry Garden goes Flowers!

Some of Mrs.Warnkes students(names unavailable)planted a sunflower seed in their garden to give their garden a little dazzle and their strawberry plants have produced some flowers!Lets hope it doesn't clash!As reporter Tamara said, our neighbors lent us their hose again.Mrs.Oakley is so happy and amazed about how fast our garden is getting on!

Mrs.Warnkes Class Berry Garden,
NIchole

Sharing, by Tamara N. Y., 4th grade

Global Gardens had been talking about how dry the ground was because they don't have a sprinkeler yet. They were so sad that the ground was very dry but then a car shop next to the garden shared their water with them. The teacher, Ms. Oakley was so happy that she asked the kids of they wanted to make thank you cards. We borrowed the water again the next day for Friday community day. The kids were happy to plant.Then a teacher named Mrs. Stacy made a fundraiser to sell suckers for 50 cents on Tuesday and Thursday, and some people gave money with no suckers at all like Diana with a ten dollar bill and Quanah with two dollars. Then some stores like Lowe's shared thingslike picnic tables at a discount, and other stores shared their new soil. Ms. Oakley even invited kids to Global Gardens on Saturday when there was no school. Everyone was grateful for the hoes, shovels, and the wheelbarels. The kids have been planting things like bell peppers, tomatoes, lemon balm, flowers, herbs, peppermint, Mr. Stripey tomatoes, and other various plants. They have already raised close to $40 to buy supplies and other things. The kids will get to paint their picnic tables.
By Global Gardens reporter Tamara N. Y.

Ms. Holt's Class's garden stones

Ms. Holt's class decided to paint border stones for their garden... Each student painted four stones. Look closely and you will see the words play... grow ... learn... and then they painted a flower. They did such a great job!

Clean up

Today we went outside and we weeded our garden a little bit. It is still really muddy, but we still worked. After being outside, we kind felt like we hadn't been out there in a really long time because its been rainning so much. It started thundering so we went back inside. When we got inside Gage, Enrique, Emely, and I cleaned the tools and organized the tools into the wagon. The tools were so muddy, it was a little bit hard to clean them, but we worked as a team and got it done. We took the wagon outside and cleaned it too as good as we could, then we put everything back in it. It looks so much better!
Written by Izelle the Honest Germinator