Little Explores in the Garden - Aug 12 

How does our body know to grow a head and not an arm? How are humans and bananas related? What makes a living rabbit different from a rock that’s not alive? It’s all in the DNA!

These were some of the questions we asked and discussed in the garden. In thinking about the deep origins of DNA, we discussed the hydrothermal vent theory (1). It’s crazy to think that there may not have been “life” as we know it on the planet before that! We also talked about how our genes control our body plan (2) and how they can be very similar or different to create the variation of living things in the world.

Our young scientists then went on to explore what it meant to be told knowledge vs. experimenting to see knowledge for our own eyes. To SEE DNA, we did a DNA extraction on strawberries in the garden (3). We thought about how crazy it is that this goopy white DNA is life’s instruction book! A fun activity you can do at home too ~

Jan

Some heated scientific discussions amongst our future knowledge makers ~~~

Our budding scientists with their DNA extractions!

  1. https://www.nature.com/articles/nrmicro1991

  2. https://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/basics/hoxgenes

  3. https://www.genome.gov/Pages/Education/Modules/StrawberryExtractionInstructions.pdf

Guided Work Party - Aug 14

It’s time to get ready for fall veg! We cleaned out the calendula flowers from our veg bed and put in some seedlings of Ethiopian Kale, Red Sails Looseleaf Lettuce, and Rouge d'Hiver Lettuce. Red Sails and  Rouge d'Hiver are quite cold hardy. Alex mentioned that Ethiopian Kale can be quite a good producer even in cold weather, so we’re going to try and overwinter this variety! The calendula flower heads were harvested by Emily to make calendula tea, yum.

We also got another round of wood chips delivered and started spreading that around the edible food forest paths. We also went around and harvested some seeds from Arugula and Fireweed. We could tell that the Arugula seeds were ready when we gently shook the seed pods and heard a rattling sound. 

The blueberries were still going so we were still picking! The crows also had a go at some of the blueberries. 

With compost turned and bountiful blueberries harvested, we took a rest at the end of the day with some chips and salsa! Alex brought over some coriander, and had bits of their seed heads with the salsa. What a delicious and complex flavor.

Jan

Collecting seeds into paper bags

Calendula at the different stages of flowering!

Turning compost

Harvesting blueberries!

Planting our fall leafy greens

Guided Work Party - Aug 10

A nice cool day for gardening. We started off with a discussion on weeds in the garden. Dock and bluegrass are two that need to come out! Art mentioned that the weeds in the soil are partially a remnant of the park's soil, partially from the soil we had trucked in over 6 years ago, and partially from what we have or have not weeded out over the years. Buttercup and bindweed are two that we never seem to be able to rid ourselves of! Then we got to weeding around the garden.

There were also many blueberries to pick. Arugula, carrot tops, lacinato kale, and beans from our citizen seed trial were plentiful. We left the Purslane as someone from the Farmer’s Market wanted to come by and forage it later! We also cut the flower tops off of the basil. Apparently basil is actually a perennial!

Jan

Top: Art discussing history of the soil at RPCG; Alex pruning flowers off of our perennial basil!

Bottom: Purslane in the garden; harvesting variegated arugula