Gardening with Georgina

Horticulture

Distance Learning Email 1.            24/8/21

 

This is written for you as parents/ whānau to discuss with your child. Please let me know if you and/ or your child would like further guidance/ learning opportunities in this subject during the lockdown. Gardening at home and suggested ideas + tasks are optional but encouraged. I am available via phone and email. I do not wish students to have to spend time on computers to complete any of these tasks so I am happy for you to have conversations with them and then you email me their responses or they handwrite/ draw etc. and you send copies of these or wait till we get back to school to discuss/ hand tasks in.

Home Gardening during Lockdown:

I would like to encourage students to connect with nature during the lockdown and to use this opportunity to help in the home garden- be it a vegetable garden, farm, orchard, and/or ornamental garden. Students could help weed, plant, build soil, look after the family garden, + spend quality time in their backyard and surrounding natural environment. When we get back to school students will share with the class how they contributed to their family’s garden and/or looked after/ enjoyed time in nature during the lockdown. For example, they could build a bug hotel, a weed that overgrown veggie patch, build a planter box, make a ‘lasagne garden’, make a birdbath, go for nature walks, do a nature study of the garden ecosystem, (the list is endless). There are SO many ideas online or you could just go outside and be inspired by the surrounding nature. Students should keep a record to help them remember all that they got up in their home gardens/backyards/surrounding natural environment; ready to share back in Horticulture Class.

To start with, it would be good if students could tell me during this time (themselves or via you) about their home garden and surrounding natural environment, i.e. what kind of veggie garden do you have, how big is your garden at home, what is your family growing just now, what work needs to be done at the moment, are you helping- how? If not, what could you start doing to help? Are there any challenges to growing during the lockdown? If your family doesn’t have a veggie garden, how else could you help in your backyard? Students could include photos and/or drawing+ writing. This will help me understand your individual situations in relation to gardening/ the natural surroundings and what your child is able to do during this time.

 

 

Plant Families In class, we are just about to learn about Plant Families. Did you know plants have a family! It helps to know the various families and groups of vegetables as there are some general rules which apply to each family and how they get along with each other. Talk to your child about families plants belong to (that you know of). You may know of and have different ways of grouping them… there are lots of ways to group plants and many different names for these groups of plants ranging from Latin to common names, but in Horticulture class these are some of the ones to know by the family names I like to use (see list below). Try to remember these family names and 1-3 examples for each of the families. What are some clever ways to help you remember?! Solanaceae [NIGHTSHADES]  Tomatoes Tomatillos Eggplants Peppers Okra Potatoes Sweet potato Cucurbits Cucumbers Zucchini & Summer Squash Watermelon Musk Melon Pumpkin Gourd Goosefoots  Beet Spinach Chard Quinoa Aster/Daisy Sunflower Lettuce Dandelion Endive Artichoke Brassicas Broccoli Brussels sprouts Cauliflower Cabbage Kale Collards Radishes Kohlrabi Rutabaga Turnip Mustard  Alliums Onion Leeks Chives Garlic   Legumes Peas Runner beans Bush beans Fava beans  Garbanzo beans Peanuts Grasses/ Grains Corn Millet Rice Barley Wheat Rye Umbellifers Parsley Carrots Parsnips Celery Fennel Cilantro/Coriander

Fun Task: Re-Grow from Kitchen Scraps There are lots of fruit and vegetables you can grow just from your food scraps! Try some out and let me know how you get on. https://www.diyncrafts.com/4732/repurpose/25-foods-can-re-grow-kitchen-scraps?fbclid=IwAR2OU-qQ1otAZG5X5D_T04Y5DyYwfDlCizjK9KmL3LCQLf_0hZaRslB93kE

Happy Gardening

Georgina (Horticulture Teacher)

georginas@ch.steiner.school.nz     Ph: 027 5680 344