A New School Year in the Garden

It is a new school year and we have so many new things happening in Cove's Children's Garden. We are slowly turning the tiered beds into edible gardens with the hope to donate to Beverly Bootstraps Food Pantry. The green onions we planted last Spring exploded and we have so many to deliver this week. Fifth Grade Student Council will be working hard this Thursday to prep our first delivery to Bootstraps and we are just thrilled. 

In the past, we held a weekly after school Garden Club but with schedules, it became very hard to keep our momentum as a viable club. Rather than do the after school club, we will be holding a biweekly exploration, a way to help maintain the garden, meet new Cove families, and have fun in our special place. It is my goal to hold one in the afternooon during the week and one on the weekend, to encourage families that may not be able to make the weekday explorations to come visit the garden. Any and all help is greatly appreciated and if there are any questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to reach out at coveschildrensgarden@gmail.com

Rather than waste paper with backpack mail, I will be posting all our news and events on this blog and also over at Twitter, @CovesGarden. I look forward to meeting and talking to you...Meg

Garden Journals and Seeds!

The past two Mondays have not been so favorable for us in the Children's Garden, but we've adjusted and still managed to get our garden preparations started. To start, we made Garden Journals, as a way to document the transformation of the garden. They really are fabulous!

Today, we managed to get some seeds planted in containers ranging from sunflowers to various vegetables. We can't wait to see how these seeds sprout! Many thanks to Mrs. Spreen for letting us use her sunny classroom until they are ready to plant in the garden. 

Also, in other news, we are taking our first Garden Club field trip to Morraine Farm this Thursday, April 3rd at 2:30. We will be taking a tour of the greenhouse, exploring where Beverly Schools get some of their vegetables, and see the starting of summer's bounty! Morraine Farm has generously donated seedlings for our tiered beds this year and we are so very grateful. Wear boots, as it will probably be muddy!

Morraine Farm

733 Cabot Street

Beverly

see link for directions: https://plus.google.com/114767782781579277739/about?gl=us&hl=en

Any questions, please email us at coveschildrensgarden@gmail.com

Upcoming Events in the Children's Garden

Cove Children’s Garden

Join us in celebrating Spring’s long awaited arrival each Monday after school in the Children’s Garden. There is a lot of work to do, fun to be had, and learning through exploration!

Upcoming events:

3/24: Make your own Garden Journal to study the changes in the garden

3/31: Planting seeds and seedlings

4/7: Prepping for Spring in the Garden

4/14: Putting our seedlings in the soil!

If you have any questions, please email us at coveschildrensgarden@gmail.com and follow us at coveschildrensgarden.blogspot.com. We can always use extra hands!

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protected by law.

Upcoming Events in the Garden

Upcoming Events in Cove’s Children’s Garden

Oct. 21^st  2:15-3 p.m.: Gathering fall leaves and making leaf crowns

We will search the garden for beautiful fall leaves & make leaf crowns.

Oct. 27^th, 2:15-3 p.m.: Pumpkin exploration

Join us as we explore pumpkins from the inside out!

Saturday, Nov. 2^nd, 1-3 p.m.: Weekend clean up day

For those families and friends who cannot make it during the week, this is the perfect time to come join us as we prepare the garden for winter. We will read a book, talk about the changes in the garden, and have some fall treats.

Nov. 4^th  2:15-3 p.m.: Herb hunting day

Our garden has quite a few hidden herbs ranging from oregano to peppermint. Come join us as we search the garden for various herbs and clip them for drying.

For more information, please email us at coveschildrensgarden@gmail.com, read our blog at www.coveschildrensgarden.blogspot.com, or follow us on Facebook. Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

Fairy Houses in the Garden

What fun we had a few weeks ago in the Children's Garden building fairy houses! Amanda read Fairy Houses by Tracy Kane and everyone got to work. If you have a chance, stop by the garden and check out the great fairy houses!

Soil Exploration

We had the pleasure of our first classroom visit to the Children's Garden, Mrs. Trowt's second grade class. They were learning about soil and after they shared so many great things about soil, we got a bit messy.

The second grade soil experts sharing all their soil knowledge.

soil from the beach

compost from the tiered beds

all sorts of treasures like crab legs, shells, and seaweed in this soil

and the most exciting things we found were worms!

So much fun exploring all different types of soil, the creatures and components of that soil, and the importance of soil in nature. We love dirt!

Many thanks to Mrs. Trowt for allowing us to get a bit dirty in our exploration! 

Mum Planting in the Tiered Beds

We were very busy these past couple of weeks getting the garden ready for fall. We moved a ton of dirt into our tiered beds but decided we needed something to spruce them up a bit before the planting season arrives. We chose Mums, as they are hearty, pretty, and colorful. Once again, these petite gardeners worked so very hard to add some color to our special Outdoor Classroom.

We hope to have a mix of flowers, plants, and vegetables this spring and summer. We are indeed off to a great start! Happy Autumn!

Stories in the Garden

Last week, we had the pleasure of reading Peter Brown's, The Curious Garden at Garden Club. The book is about a boy determined to bring beauty to his drab city landscape and as the seasons change, he not only gains new plants, but also fellow gardeners. After the story, the children drew their own dream gardens. It was so much fun being outside reading and drawing together. We decided to start each Garden Club with a story, as it is a nice way to come together before we get to work! So, if you have a free Monday afternoon, please stop by and join us!

Over the summer, we ordered two tiered garden beds and hoped to get them up before the fall, however, we needed to fill them with 2 cubic yards of compost. The dirt was delivered and luckily, we had some very strong hands to help us move all that dirt!

The pile seemed so very daunting at first, but with such enthusiastic helpers, we worked hard together and inch by inch, we did it! (Wheelbarrow rides are great motivators, too!)

Everyone, even our smallest members pitched in on this job!

When our muscles ached, we took a break to paint some rocks for the garden. 

If you have a chance, come check out the product of our labor...the garden beds, complete with compost ready for planting! A huge thank you to everyone who helped us, we could not have done it without you!

Welcome to Cove's Children's Garden!

A warm welcome to Cove's Children's Garden!

Who are we?

A group of families that work together to maintain, grow, and learn in the special outdoor classroom at Cove Elementary School. The garden was started a few years ago by a wonderfully dedicated and inspiring former parent and a few of us have committed to keep up with her vision and hard work. This is a learning process for us, but one we are excited and eager to delve into.

We meet every Monday, weather permitting, after school to work in the garden, read a story, or do a garden related project. It is our goal and passion to allow the children to play and learn outside, using nature as our classroom. Children must be accompanied by an adult during this time. If you are unable to make the after school meetings, we have monthly weekend work days to spruce up the garden, usually on Saturday afternoons. The fall is very busy in the garden preparing for winter, so we can use all the hands, both big and small, that we can get! If you have any questions, please feel free to send us an email at coveschildrensgarden@gmail.com. You can also subscribe to this blog to recieve up to date news. Thank you so much for your support and we hope to see you in the garden soon! 

~Meg, April, Heidi, and Amanda

"Let Nature be your teacher." ~William Wordsworth