This past Friday, twenty-five 4th and 5th grade students at Southeast Raleigh Elementary School held their second garden workday on the roof of the school with SWC. The first one, held at the end of March, was a day to plant crops in one half of eight large raised beds and to learn hands-on how to prepare, seed and plant, and care for new plants.
This was the second in the series and included weeding around the new crops and then planting pollinator plants on the other half of the boxes. There were four seasons of blooming native plants planted: Spring, Summer, Fall, and late Fall/Winter.
The kids were excited to see how their crops have been growing since last month, as potatoes have emerged, kale and broccoli have grown, and radishes, beets, and letuce have sprung up from seed. Much easier to see once weeded!
We talked about pollinators, how important they are, and how to protect them (no insecticides!). This was a refresher of that topic from second grade, and they remembered a lot of it, which was great to hear. We finished off with an indoor pollinator game, blindfolding a designated pollinator and having them find their preferred plant among several plants all calling out their plant names.
By all accounts, a fun day for all! Next month, harvest and more pollinator garden tending. Thanks to Cissy for the planning and to Dave, Penny, and Bill for helping run the activities.