The Laureate School - San Luis Obispo California USA

May 2009

Fri, 15 May 2009 06:10:00 -0000

Wow! What a month of planting we have had! Three of the Laureate plots have been planted with a variety of vegetables and herbs and the students have done all the work.

Our school will look forward to harvesting pumpkins, cantalope, honeydew, acorn squash, butternut squash, tomatoes, chives, zuchinni, crooked necked squash, Japanese eggplant, Japanese cucumber, lemon cucumber, artichokes, peppers, rosemary, parsley, lemon grass, chocolate mint, and potatoes. Can you believe it? And, our fruit trees are producing the first year's crop as minimal as it is. We have nectarines, pomagranites, pluots, peaches and apples beginning to show their fruits. Remember the drinking fountain that the Laureate PAC purchased last year? It has been installed and is working. Hooray! The worm bins are still being sold at the Farmer's Market and our school worm bin will be tended to more this summer during the garden

weeks. It is such a pleasure to have a venue such as the Laureate School to promote gardening to our young people.

April 2009

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 06:10:00 -0000

The students are getting excited to plant! The garden plots are in the process of getting prepped for planting and students have been removing rocks, weeds, and turning the soil over and adding compost.

With the warmer weather on its way, it is a perfect time to think about all of the summer crops that can be planted for consumption and sale. After experiencing our incredible harvest from last year, we have a better idea of what to plant and where to plant the many vegetables that are at our disposal. The Home Depot has generously allowed the Laureate School to receive a 15% discount on all vegetable purchases for our garden project. Thank you so much!

March 2009

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 06:00:00 -0000

Spring is right around the corner and you know what that means? Yes, it is almost planting time! The gardens have been producing their winter crops and the students and their families are still enjoying the produce. First and second grade harvested onions, broccoli, cabbage, rosemary, parsley, beans, and other miscellaneous vegetables and will be preparing their plots for spring planting. The fourth grade plot continues to grow their herbs and the upper grades are learning that planting by seed is not as easy as the books say it is. In spite of this, they have been able to harvest a few vegetables from their plots but they look forward to spring planting as well.

On March 4th, the 5-8th grade classes will be learning the art of grafting apple rootstock to apple scion pieces and also learning how to care for a newly grafted plant. They look forward to having the California Rare Fruit Growers group coming out to help them with this learning experience.

The Laureate is ever so grateful for the donated shed that now houses all of our garden supplies. Having these supplies in one central location has not only beautified our gardens but it has also provided for a much safer garden area. Thanks again goes to the Locke family.

January and February 2009- Happy New Year to All!

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 06:50:00 -0000

The Laureate gardens have been worked by many of our students and they have reaped what they have sowed. The first and second grade plots have been harvesting broccoli, green onions, lettuce, beans, red and green cabbage, parsley, and rhubarb. Potatoes have voluntarily sprouted in one plot so the second graders are anxious about planting more when the weather gets warmer. The upper graders have also harvested many different lettuces and had broccoli as well to enjoy with their salads. They are in the process of growing tuber roses and have been diligent about maintaining the gigantic school worm bin. The fourth grade plot has many different varieties of herbs that they have enjoyed throughout the year. The 5-8th graders are looking forward to a grafting lesson that will be conducted by the California Rare Fruit Growers group of San Luis Obispo on Wednesday, March 4, 2009. The students will have the opportunity to learn how to graft an apple scion to an apple rootstock and then they will be responsible for taking care of the 60 one gallon plants until it is time to distribute them to Laureate families at the end of the school year. All of our supplies for gardening are now kept in our new shed that was donated by Kestrel Locke's family from the second grade so many thanks to them for their generous donation. Also, a big thank you to Mark Charbonneau for putting the shed together after creating a wonderful foundation for the structure. The second grade students had fun moving the many supplies from one end of school to the new shed for storage. Lastly, Dr. Joe Sabol was kind enough to come out to our fruit orchard and help prune the 30+ fruit trees that we have on campus. He was VERY impressed at how healthy and hearty they all are so we are proud gardeners here at the Laureate School. Anyone still interested in helping to complete the compost bins that are behind the gardens? Please contact the Laureate School and ask for the garden chair, Terri Monell. Happy gardening to all!

November 2008 and the gardens

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 06:50:00 -0000

Have you seen what has been going on in the gardens? The first and second grade classes have been busy planting their winter crops and their plots look wonderful. There is such a wide variety of vegetables and herbs and the students are anxious to be a part of the next round of harvesting at our school. Mrs. Mason has also been busy with the upper grade students in life lab having planted a variety of vegetable seeds in rows in two of the plots. They are discovering that getting seeds to sprout is no easy task! Mr. Charbonneau has graciously built a huge 3' x 10' worm bin for the upper grade students to monitor. Food scraps from the week are being weighed before being added to the worm bin and the students want to be able to calculate the number of pounds of waste that would have gone to the landfill had we not had our worm program in place. The first food waste contribution during the first week of November amounted to 13 lbs. of scraps! Yum yum chanted our little red wigglers! Compost bins? Yep, they are still in need of being completed if there are a couple of dedicated workers out there who would be interested in completing this project. Please contact Terri Monell at school if this is your calling!

Welcome to The Laureate Garden

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 05:40:00 -0000

The Laureate gardens are getting geared up for round two of planting! During the spring, three of the garden plots were planted and over the summer the students were able to enjoy the development of these gardens. Many summer school students worked in the gardens removing rocks and other debris, and they also enjoyed picking the many vegetables that grew during these weeks. Most of the produce was sold on campus and the remainder of it was enjoyed by the teachers and students. For the second round of planting, winter crops will be the focus. Broccoli, cabbage, lettuces, Brussels sprouts, onions, potatoes and some herbs will be planted as soon as the weather settles down a bit. The Garden Committee is looking for some help too! There is an incomplete compost project that is in dire need of completion. The eight 4x4 poles were set in concrete but now we need some help getting some heavy gauged wire put up to create the walls between the three bins and to create the back walls for each as well. The Laureate School students are doing a terrific job of collecting food scraps for our many worm bins but we have discovered that we have too much and we are now ready to transfer the extra waste to the compost bins. Anyone out there interested in helping to complete this project? Thank you ahead of time.