Summer Gardening Class Course Description 2012-2019 (mostly 9-10 graders, older kids had jobs)
This course will meet for 129 hrs or 16.1 eight hour days to earn one science credit based on current schedule. The hours would be broken down to something like 6 full days in June, 5 days in July, and 5 days in August to meet the required hours for one credit. The class will decide the meeting times to meet the students schedule as a group and the plants’ need. The summer months will allow us to see the plants grow from seeds and seedlings to maturity when we harvest the fruits or vegetables grown. This class will involve a lot of hands on learning. Students will learn how to prepare the soil which includes composting, setting up planting areas, planting plants, taking care of the plants to meet their needs with nutrients and water, and getting rid of weeds and pests. Students will take home their share of vegetables at the end of each class meetings or week when possible, for their family to consume or donate their share to the food pantry. Students will visit other gardens from local farmers, as well as distant gardens like UW Extensions, State Nurseries, Prairie Nurseries and other academia. The goal is to see the different techniques in gardening and the different scales of gardening. Students will learn how to harvest and preserve the food through techniques such as root cellar storage, fermenting, canning, drying.
Note: The classes below worked because of hired middle schooler (4student) helped planting and maintaining with some processing in the months of June-August)
Gardening Class (11-12 grade) Year Long (September-May) 2021-22 to present
Gardening Class topics/outline
Note: This outline is based on the timing of the seasons, fall when we harvest and put the garden to rest, winter when the garden is dormant, but our brain is not and the beginning of the new year to spring when we are growing plants in our heated glass greenhouse and planting in the school garden.
The Vegetable Gardener’s BIBLE book by Edward C. Smith is given to each student compliments from the Greenhouse Fund. Students will also receive 2 trays or 64 plants for free to start in their own garden if they choose to.
1st Semester (September - 3rd week in January)
- digging up potatoes, potato scab; storing potato for eating and for seed,
- how to harvest certain vegetables
- pruning raspberry and cutting back dead canes in the fall
- extension office: source of information and for soil sample bag,
- type of manure; cow, horse, pig, sheep, chicken, and weeds in with manure
- preparing all garden beds for winter
- how to use the gardening book
- Chapter 6: Nurturing Vegetable-Friendly Soil
- ecology, soil lab (NPK and texture), macro and micronutrients fertility, pH, soil sampling technique,
soil test, broad forking versus rototilling, when to rototill, rototilling troubles, soil life/microbiome.
- Chapter 7: Compost
- function of compost for the soil, making and maintaining compost, bins, using organic matter,
mulching/ground cover, green manure, cover crop, resting the soil.
- Chapter 1: Wide, Deep, Raised Beds
- more space, more plants, size and placement of a garden, garden tools, laying out and preparing a
brand new garden bed, ways to get deeper soil, raised beds, mounded, flat, handicap accessible, width and length, and water retention, tools talk: material construction, comfort, balance, maintenance.
- Chapter 2: Planning Your Garden
- ordering seeds, seed catalogs, what to plant, crop rotation, successional planting, plant communication,
plant friends (planting companion plants) and foe plants, spacing from seedlings to maturity.
- Chapter 3: Jump-Starting Your Garden
- germinating seeds, growing seedlings, transplanting seedlings, growing young plants, utilizing cold
frames and greenhouse to its full potential, row cover, hardening of plants, trellis.
2nd Semester (4th week in January - June)
- Chapter 4: Growing a Self-Sufficient Garden
- how our watering system works and different watering systems, rain water vs. well/city water, soil
moisture, irrigation systems, weed control with tools, plastic, organic mulch
- Chapter 5: Enjoying the Harvest
- when to harvest based on the vegetables, when it is most tasty and nutritious, storage options,
composting the rest, preparing the soil in the bed for next year
- Chapter 8: Bugs, Slugs, and Things That Go Chomp in the Night
- keeping plants healthy, be patient, timely planting, planting strategies, row cover, provide homes for
predators, know your beneficial insects, solve pest problems without hurting others, natural repellents
- growing fruits; strawberries, raspberries, grapes, apples
- germinating seeds, growing seedlings, transplanting seedlings, growing young plants in the glass greenhouse
- growing native plants for pollinators, predatory bugs, biodiversity, low maintenance
- raising bees; top bar and standard box
- growing raspberry and grapes from cuttings
- pruning apple trees and grape vines
- grafting apple trees?
- square foot, lasagna, strawbale, compost, container and other ways of gardening
- how to cut potatoes for planting, talk about their seeds, and ordering-25lb bags, and how to plant potatoes (spacing, grouping, maintenance)
- growing/planting perennial crops; asparagus, rhubarb
Farm to Table Class (10-12 Grade, Semester only) starting 2023-24
- making juice (rhubarb, strawberry, grape, vegetable) and smoothie
- making pesto, spaghetti sauce, fermented sauerkraut
- cooked vs. alive food (ex. smoothie, juice, fermented)
- cook and experiment eating produce from the garden
- preserve vegetables such as canning, blanching and freezing, fermentation, drying, root cellaring
- most produce that are processes according to food safety standards go to the school lunch program
This course will meet for 129 hrs or 16.1 eight hour days to earn one science credit based on current schedule. The hours would be broken down to something like 6 full days in June, 5 days in July, and 5 days in August to meet the required hours for one credit. The class will decide the meeting times to meet the students schedule as a group and the plants’ need. The summer months will allow us to see the plants grow from seeds and seedlings to maturity when we harvest the fruits or vegetables grown. This class will involve a lot of hands on learning. Students will learn how to prepare the soil which includes composting, setting up planting areas, planting plants, taking care of the plants to meet their needs with nutrients and water, and getting rid of weeds and pests. Students will take home their share of vegetables at the end of each class meetings or week when possible, for their family to consume or donate their share to the food pantry. Students will visit other gardens from local farmers, as well as distant gardens like UW Extensions, State Nurseries, Prairie Nurseries and other academia. The goal is to see the different techniques in gardening and the different scales of gardening. Students will learn how to harvest and preserve the food through techniques such as root cellar storage, fermenting, canning, drying.
Note: The classes below worked because of hired middle schooler (4student) helped planting and maintaining with some processing in the months of June-August)
Gardening Class (11-12 grade) Year Long (September-May) 2021-22 to present
Gardening Class topics/outline
Note: This outline is based on the timing of the seasons, fall when we harvest and put the garden to rest, winter when the garden is dormant, but our brain is not and the beginning of the new year to spring when we are growing plants in our heated glass greenhouse and planting in the school garden.
The Vegetable Gardener’s BIBLE book by Edward C. Smith is given to each student compliments from the Greenhouse Fund. Students will also receive 2 trays or 64 plants for free to start in their own garden if they choose to.
1st Semester (September - 3rd week in January)
- digging up potatoes, potato scab; storing potato for eating and for seed,
- how to harvest certain vegetables
- pruning raspberry and cutting back dead canes in the fall
- extension office: source of information and for soil sample bag,
- type of manure; cow, horse, pig, sheep, chicken, and weeds in with manure
- preparing all garden beds for winter
- how to use the gardening book
- Chapter 6: Nurturing Vegetable-Friendly Soil
- ecology, soil lab (NPK and texture), macro and micronutrients fertility, pH, soil sampling technique,
soil test, broad forking versus rototilling, when to rototill, rototilling troubles, soil life/microbiome.
- Chapter 7: Compost
- function of compost for the soil, making and maintaining compost, bins, using organic matter,
mulching/ground cover, green manure, cover crop, resting the soil.
- Chapter 1: Wide, Deep, Raised Beds
- more space, more plants, size and placement of a garden, garden tools, laying out and preparing a
brand new garden bed, ways to get deeper soil, raised beds, mounded, flat, handicap accessible, width and length, and water retention, tools talk: material construction, comfort, balance, maintenance.
- Chapter 2: Planning Your Garden
- ordering seeds, seed catalogs, what to plant, crop rotation, successional planting, plant communication,
plant friends (planting companion plants) and foe plants, spacing from seedlings to maturity.
- Chapter 3: Jump-Starting Your Garden
- germinating seeds, growing seedlings, transplanting seedlings, growing young plants, utilizing cold
frames and greenhouse to its full potential, row cover, hardening of plants, trellis.
2nd Semester (4th week in January - June)
- Chapter 4: Growing a Self-Sufficient Garden
- how our watering system works and different watering systems, rain water vs. well/city water, soil
moisture, irrigation systems, weed control with tools, plastic, organic mulch
- Chapter 5: Enjoying the Harvest
- when to harvest based on the vegetables, when it is most tasty and nutritious, storage options,
composting the rest, preparing the soil in the bed for next year
- Chapter 8: Bugs, Slugs, and Things That Go Chomp in the Night
- keeping plants healthy, be patient, timely planting, planting strategies, row cover, provide homes for
predators, know your beneficial insects, solve pest problems without hurting others, natural repellents
- growing fruits; strawberries, raspberries, grapes, apples
- germinating seeds, growing seedlings, transplanting seedlings, growing young plants in the glass greenhouse
- growing native plants for pollinators, predatory bugs, biodiversity, low maintenance
- raising bees; top bar and standard box
- growing raspberry and grapes from cuttings
- pruning apple trees and grape vines
- grafting apple trees?
- square foot, lasagna, strawbale, compost, container and other ways of gardening
- how to cut potatoes for planting, talk about their seeds, and ordering-25lb bags, and how to plant potatoes (spacing, grouping, maintenance)
- growing/planting perennial crops; asparagus, rhubarb
Farm to Table Class (10-12 Grade, Semester only) starting 2023-24
- making juice (rhubarb, strawberry, grape, vegetable) and smoothie
- making pesto, spaghetti sauce, fermented sauerkraut
- cooked vs. alive food (ex. smoothie, juice, fermented)
- cook and experiment eating produce from the garden
- preserve vegetables such as canning, blanching and freezing, fermentation, drying, root cellaring
- most produce that are processes according to food safety standards go to the school lunch program