Theme: Helping in the smallest way

Without kids, the school garden is super lonely and I miss all of you!

Here's a quick "hi" from our garden and some information about where our produce is going: https://youtu.be/t67O-uDMUkw 

I've been visiting the garden weekly and feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work that needs to be done - so we don't get overrun by weeds, thorns, and the Bold Gopher, who has unfortunately moved in and claimed our garden as his new home.

You might be asking yourself, "what's going on at school while I'm not there?" 

Mostly, the classrooms sit quiet and dark and occasionally people walk through the campus, keeping a safe distance from each other.

The garden is a living classroom, so, even though we don't have hundreds of kids working every day to keep it looking beautiful and producing tons of food, the upkeep of it still need to be done. 

Yesterday I planted baby turnips, cosmos, lettuce, and beans.

This is also the busiest time of year for a garden. 

Check out this handy guide for gardens (and gardeners!) in Alameda county: You Garden Month-by-Month!

So when the reality came that we would no longer have school AT school, I asked myself, "what should we do with all of the garden produce?"

A garden, no matter what's going on, is a place that provides for us...

Sometimes we learn science in our garden and sometimes we just need a quiet place to sit and read. Our garden is that place where kids visit at recess, eat a healthy snack, or talk to plants about something they can't talk to anyone else about. It's a safe place.

Our garden is special and takes very good care of us.

It's also a habitat for pollinators, birds, and other animals who thrive amongst the urban jungle. The plants in our garden help our air stay clean and fresh.

So to continue to help our community, the produce from the garden will be donated to the Berkeley Food Pantry. Here is a photo of last week's harvest, Harvest #1:

In this week's harvest (which I forgot to photograph):

French sorrel

Dinosaur kale

Red Russian kale

Parsley

Lemon balm

Fennel

Cabbage leaves

Turnip greens

Myer lemons

Navel oranges 

It is not a huge amount of food, but, it is something! 

Remember, help doesn't have to be a huge gesture. 

You can help by doing something small and simple, no matter where you are!

How have you helped today?