What's Happening?
Fall 2011 - Asked Mr.Bergman for his approval to have a gardening class and to grow a garden. I also asked permission to cut down the red pines that are in the way or will be shading the garden. That fall I cut down the trees and was going to clean up the branches and tree trunks but did not get to it until spring. In the late winter when all the snow melted in a warm spell, I got some students to pile the branches so it was easy to pick up to take it to the village's garage area. The branches seemed to have multiplied so it was going to be lots of work to get rid of it by myself. So, I asked Norman Heikkinen for help. One Saturday morning, the two Heikkinen brothers, Dale and Norman, came with their Bobcat with large gripping claws that could grab bunches of branches and dropped them in the dump truck. Through many trips to and from school and the village's garage area, the branches were picked up and taken care of by noon, a feat that would have taken me and my little trailer days to do. Thanks guys!!! The tree trunks stayed until I decided what to do with them. Finally after exploring all of the options, I decided that somebody could take it for fire wood.
Sorry to past Environmental Students and teachers for cutting down your red pines, hope you will understand.
January-February 2012 - We have 8 students signed up for the summer. Most are to be Seniors and Juniors.
The Prentice Girl Scout Troop will also be working in cooperation with the garden, so there will be lots of help to set up the garden from scratch. Planning for the garden is taking place.
March 26, 2012 - Talked to Lyndon Stunkel at Complete Rain Gutter Service in Kennan to put up gutters on the football announer building and the gym equipment shed. Rain water will be stored in the rainbarrels that I will be making. The work will probably be done during spring break.
March 28, 2012 - I got all the purchase orders together. Most of the seeds are in and half of the plants in the greenhouse are transplanted and growing well.
March 29, 2012 - Picked up thirteen 55 gallon drums from United Pride Dairy for making rain barrels. The barrels are cleaned and scrubbed and ready for me to put on couplings, shut-off valves, and overflow connection and hose.
April 20, 2012- We got all of 31 apple trees (six varieties), 54 raspberries, and 12 grape vines planted and mulched during community service day. Thanks to my Focus student participants and a few from other Focus group for giving them up.
April 21 & 28, 2012 - Thanks to Kyle from the village for moving the pile of dirt from behind the softball field to planting beds in the garden site. Fencing was installed which was done by two individual Girl Scouts. Apple tree cages were anchored and tree cable guides were installed so the trees will grow up straight. Some raised beds were installed and planted with asparagus and rhubarb. Thirteen more grape vines were planted.
June 6-30, 2012 - This whole month the class worked every hard every day for 4 hours a day. We had to finish the beds and mulch anywhere we weren't planting. We planted many plants and gave them a heavy dose of water. Many of complained every day but the work was well worth it.
June 26, 2012 -Today only two of the students came, and for the absent others, they were lucky because what we had to do was gross! We had to shovel horse poop on a trailer to use as fertilizer. When we were all done we got cookies and Kool-aid.
July 3, 2012- Today was a normal day of gardening which consisted of quite a bit of weed picking. We also got to see that our native garden's flowers were starting to bloom.
July 5, 2012- Local Field Trip- Field trip days get a little long, but they are always fun. We usually stop for lunch at Subway, and if we can, we try to talk our teacher into stopping for ice cream (YUM!) even though he is lactose intolerant. This time, since it was a local field trip, we traveled around our area to different gardens to learn different techniques in gardening, how farmers make a living off of gardening, and experience different types of gardens. We also were able to see a man's personal greenhouse which was absolutely AMAZING! Words can't describe how unbelievable the greenhouse was. It had hundreds of different kinds of plants most of us had never seen before, and it even had a little pond in it! Even though it was one of the hottest days all summer, overall it was a great day, and we had fun which is the most important thing. :)
July 9, 2012-Today was just another day in the gardening. We listened to the radio while doing some mulching around the native flowers that were planted, weeded, placed vines back on their trellis, picked those nasty potato bugs, and waited for our crops to grow. For the most part, the morning was easy going and enjoyable. :)
July 16, 2012- Today we just spent the day in the garden. It was a pretty hot day but we pulled through. :) We all started off with harvesting the plants. We ended up with a lot of zucchini! After we picked everything, we all sat down and started weeding.
At the beginning of the class, Mr. Banh told us that because we are just starting this garden and that we are now the first year students, we would become real weeding pioneers. At the time I had just laughed it off and didn't really understand the meaning of that statement. Now I completely understand what he meant!
Dear Second Year Garden Students,
You have it easy! Don't complain about the weeding because first had it a lot worse...just ask Mr. Banh! Your welcome. :)
Sincerely,
The First Year Garden Students
July 18, 2012- Northern Field Trip- It was a long drive for this field trip! All squished in the school's Suburban was Mr. Banh, his wife, and son; Caiti, Brittaney, Cassidy, Morgan, and Kelly! Even though we were packed in, we were excited for the day ahead.
AERC-Our guide showed us his garden, then took us to two bigger plots where there were college students working in them. He let the students explain to us that they garden in those plots in their free time from school, and that the garden helps the school and the students. Then the guide came back and showed us his pigs. He explained to us that he moves the pig's pen around in order to help fertilize the soil.
Deep Roots Farm- Our guide showed us around his farm. In his basement, he grows plants from seeds then when they're big enough, he transplants them. He has pigs for the same reason AERC does, and he also has two bee hives so that they can pollinate his plants. He also has many chickens to help the soil fertility, for their meat, and for their eggs. He has a fairly large organic farm in which he hires some people to work and sells the food at farmers markets and to restaurants.
Great Oak Farm- I really liked this farm because they almost have more animals than they do produce! They had hundreds to thousands of chickens! There were also some turkeys and a big work horse named Dolly. They call Dolly their tractor, because with a few tools, she can do what a tractor does. Dolly's pen is also moved often so that she will eat the grass and weeds in an area along with fertilizing the soil. Great Oak Farm had a lot of different techniques of growing and one that I had noticed they were using, was the Three Sisters technique (corn, squash, and beans) which was created by Native Americans hundreds of years ago.
Hermit Creek Farm- This farm used a lot of hoop houses to grow things, which seemed to work very well for them. It is also a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). I liked that this farm had solar panels and is trying to be very environmental. They have a lot of land. They also have pigs to help the soil fertility.
River Road Farm- Our guide showed us around her little farm. Even though they are starting out a little small, this family is trying to get their children's school to take the food and hopefully use it to feed the school. I really love that they are doing this and hope it works for them, because I want our garden to be that for our school too. Maybe one day a lot of Prentice School's lunches will be straight out of its own garden. :)
July 31, 2012 Potato Field Trip - When we got to the research facility, we were put in a conference room and showed a slide show about potatoes. Our guide told us about the history of the research facility and what studies they conducted. Afterwards we went into the basement were a woman was making potato chips. The guide said this was how they checked for sugars and starches in the potato. He went on to say that the research facility was testing out what the best temperature for keeping potatoes stored in. The potatoes, when stored, turn their starches to simple sugars over time and make potato chips look dark when fried. Our group left the basement of the faculty, and walked to the green houses were the potatoes are grown from seed. On the farthest side of the green house was a natural air conditioner that utilized water with a fan blow through a radiator and the dry air to cool down the green house. We left the green houses and went to the potato fields. Our guide let us each pick a bunch of potatoes and we took them home.
Evergood's farm- We all piled out of the car and met a man from New Zealand. He was nice but it was hard to understand him because of his accent. He showed us the bees and the pond first; we then moseyed along to his refrigerating trailer. He and Mr. Banh talk about the trailer for a long time before we got to the garden. When we finally got to the garden, Mr. Evergood talked in details about the garden. We then left the farm, in the car that was hotter than a stove.
Rhinelander Community Garden – The garden was situated behind an apartment building where residence would have access to a garden and have a garden plot. The garden was designed with some raised beds that were high for a person to access it by wheel chair. There were other raised gardening beds but not as high and beds that were flat on the ground. People were growing all kinds of vegetables from carrots to peas to flowers.
August 2, 2012 - At the start of the day, we picked our and harvested veggies. We then proceeded to thin out the carrots and weed the garden beds. After weeding, we took soil samples and went back to the room. When we got to the room we used four sets of chemical tests and found the soil was in bad condition because of the low nutrients. It's a miracle that anything grew at all.
August 7, 2012 - To start off the day we started with picking the vegetables out of the garden. Then we went to the green house to start painting our rain barrels. This was a blast, but my pointer finger was really sore at the end of painting.
August 9, 2012 - Once again we started the day off by picking veggies. Except for today we were able to harvest one bed of onions. When we were done with the picking the veggies we came inside to paint the designs on our rain barrels because it was pretty cold out. We had so much fun painting the rain barrels. It was really cool to see what ideas everyone came up with.
August 14, 2012 - Today we just worked in the garden picking veggies and weeding. It was kind of cold but we managed to work thought it. We had a fun time working and talking to one another.
August 16, 2012 -Today we worked in the garden for about two hours picking veggies and weeding. After that we went over to Mr. Banh's house and made lunch. We made a dish that had cooked noodles and squash in it. It tasted fantastic and smell great. After we were all done eating Mr. Banh taught us how to blanch veggies before putting them in the freezer. This was a great learning experience.
August 20, 2012 - Today was the last day of the gardening class. To start the day off we picked the veggies out of the garden. After picking the veggies we broke up the soil that was in the onion beds. Then we took the veggies over to Mr. Banh's house to make pizza for lunch. This was a blast and probably my favorite thing we did that day. The pizza tasted great.
August 27, 2012 - Today the Girl Scouts were the only ones that worked. They picked the veggies in the garden and watered all of the beds in the garden.
June 10, 2013 - Monday we started to weed each of our own beds then started to plant plants
Sorry to past Environmental Students and teachers for cutting down your red pines, hope you will understand.
January-February 2012 - We have 8 students signed up for the summer. Most are to be Seniors and Juniors.
The Prentice Girl Scout Troop will also be working in cooperation with the garden, so there will be lots of help to set up the garden from scratch. Planning for the garden is taking place.
March 26, 2012 - Talked to Lyndon Stunkel at Complete Rain Gutter Service in Kennan to put up gutters on the football announer building and the gym equipment shed. Rain water will be stored in the rainbarrels that I will be making. The work will probably be done during spring break.
March 28, 2012 - I got all the purchase orders together. Most of the seeds are in and half of the plants in the greenhouse are transplanted and growing well.
March 29, 2012 - Picked up thirteen 55 gallon drums from United Pride Dairy for making rain barrels. The barrels are cleaned and scrubbed and ready for me to put on couplings, shut-off valves, and overflow connection and hose.
April 20, 2012- We got all of 31 apple trees (six varieties), 54 raspberries, and 12 grape vines planted and mulched during community service day. Thanks to my Focus student participants and a few from other Focus group for giving them up.
April 21 & 28, 2012 - Thanks to Kyle from the village for moving the pile of dirt from behind the softball field to planting beds in the garden site. Fencing was installed which was done by two individual Girl Scouts. Apple tree cages were anchored and tree cable guides were installed so the trees will grow up straight. Some raised beds were installed and planted with asparagus and rhubarb. Thirteen more grape vines were planted.
June 6-30, 2012 - This whole month the class worked every hard every day for 4 hours a day. We had to finish the beds and mulch anywhere we weren't planting. We planted many plants and gave them a heavy dose of water. Many of complained every day but the work was well worth it.
June 26, 2012 -Today only two of the students came, and for the absent others, they were lucky because what we had to do was gross! We had to shovel horse poop on a trailer to use as fertilizer. When we were all done we got cookies and Kool-aid.
July 3, 2012- Today was a normal day of gardening which consisted of quite a bit of weed picking. We also got to see that our native garden's flowers were starting to bloom.
July 5, 2012- Local Field Trip- Field trip days get a little long, but they are always fun. We usually stop for lunch at Subway, and if we can, we try to talk our teacher into stopping for ice cream (YUM!) even though he is lactose intolerant. This time, since it was a local field trip, we traveled around our area to different gardens to learn different techniques in gardening, how farmers make a living off of gardening, and experience different types of gardens. We also were able to see a man's personal greenhouse which was absolutely AMAZING! Words can't describe how unbelievable the greenhouse was. It had hundreds of different kinds of plants most of us had never seen before, and it even had a little pond in it! Even though it was one of the hottest days all summer, overall it was a great day, and we had fun which is the most important thing. :)
July 9, 2012-Today was just another day in the gardening. We listened to the radio while doing some mulching around the native flowers that were planted, weeded, placed vines back on their trellis, picked those nasty potato bugs, and waited for our crops to grow. For the most part, the morning was easy going and enjoyable. :)
July 16, 2012- Today we just spent the day in the garden. It was a pretty hot day but we pulled through. :) We all started off with harvesting the plants. We ended up with a lot of zucchini! After we picked everything, we all sat down and started weeding.
At the beginning of the class, Mr. Banh told us that because we are just starting this garden and that we are now the first year students, we would become real weeding pioneers. At the time I had just laughed it off and didn't really understand the meaning of that statement. Now I completely understand what he meant!
Dear Second Year Garden Students,
You have it easy! Don't complain about the weeding because first had it a lot worse...just ask Mr. Banh! Your welcome. :)
Sincerely,
The First Year Garden Students
July 18, 2012- Northern Field Trip- It was a long drive for this field trip! All squished in the school's Suburban was Mr. Banh, his wife, and son; Caiti, Brittaney, Cassidy, Morgan, and Kelly! Even though we were packed in, we were excited for the day ahead.
AERC-Our guide showed us his garden, then took us to two bigger plots where there were college students working in them. He let the students explain to us that they garden in those plots in their free time from school, and that the garden helps the school and the students. Then the guide came back and showed us his pigs. He explained to us that he moves the pig's pen around in order to help fertilize the soil.
Deep Roots Farm- Our guide showed us around his farm. In his basement, he grows plants from seeds then when they're big enough, he transplants them. He has pigs for the same reason AERC does, and he also has two bee hives so that they can pollinate his plants. He also has many chickens to help the soil fertility, for their meat, and for their eggs. He has a fairly large organic farm in which he hires some people to work and sells the food at farmers markets and to restaurants.
Great Oak Farm- I really liked this farm because they almost have more animals than they do produce! They had hundreds to thousands of chickens! There were also some turkeys and a big work horse named Dolly. They call Dolly their tractor, because with a few tools, she can do what a tractor does. Dolly's pen is also moved often so that she will eat the grass and weeds in an area along with fertilizing the soil. Great Oak Farm had a lot of different techniques of growing and one that I had noticed they were using, was the Three Sisters technique (corn, squash, and beans) which was created by Native Americans hundreds of years ago.
Hermit Creek Farm- This farm used a lot of hoop houses to grow things, which seemed to work very well for them. It is also a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). I liked that this farm had solar panels and is trying to be very environmental. They have a lot of land. They also have pigs to help the soil fertility.
River Road Farm- Our guide showed us around her little farm. Even though they are starting out a little small, this family is trying to get their children's school to take the food and hopefully use it to feed the school. I really love that they are doing this and hope it works for them, because I want our garden to be that for our school too. Maybe one day a lot of Prentice School's lunches will be straight out of its own garden. :)
July 31, 2012 Potato Field Trip - When we got to the research facility, we were put in a conference room and showed a slide show about potatoes. Our guide told us about the history of the research facility and what studies they conducted. Afterwards we went into the basement were a woman was making potato chips. The guide said this was how they checked for sugars and starches in the potato. He went on to say that the research facility was testing out what the best temperature for keeping potatoes stored in. The potatoes, when stored, turn their starches to simple sugars over time and make potato chips look dark when fried. Our group left the basement of the faculty, and walked to the green houses were the potatoes are grown from seed. On the farthest side of the green house was a natural air conditioner that utilized water with a fan blow through a radiator and the dry air to cool down the green house. We left the green houses and went to the potato fields. Our guide let us each pick a bunch of potatoes and we took them home.
Evergood's farm- We all piled out of the car and met a man from New Zealand. He was nice but it was hard to understand him because of his accent. He showed us the bees and the pond first; we then moseyed along to his refrigerating trailer. He and Mr. Banh talk about the trailer for a long time before we got to the garden. When we finally got to the garden, Mr. Evergood talked in details about the garden. We then left the farm, in the car that was hotter than a stove.
Rhinelander Community Garden – The garden was situated behind an apartment building where residence would have access to a garden and have a garden plot. The garden was designed with some raised beds that were high for a person to access it by wheel chair. There were other raised gardening beds but not as high and beds that were flat on the ground. People were growing all kinds of vegetables from carrots to peas to flowers.
August 2, 2012 - At the start of the day, we picked our and harvested veggies. We then proceeded to thin out the carrots and weed the garden beds. After weeding, we took soil samples and went back to the room. When we got to the room we used four sets of chemical tests and found the soil was in bad condition because of the low nutrients. It's a miracle that anything grew at all.
August 7, 2012 - To start off the day we started with picking the vegetables out of the garden. Then we went to the green house to start painting our rain barrels. This was a blast, but my pointer finger was really sore at the end of painting.
August 9, 2012 - Once again we started the day off by picking veggies. Except for today we were able to harvest one bed of onions. When we were done with the picking the veggies we came inside to paint the designs on our rain barrels because it was pretty cold out. We had so much fun painting the rain barrels. It was really cool to see what ideas everyone came up with.
August 14, 2012 - Today we just worked in the garden picking veggies and weeding. It was kind of cold but we managed to work thought it. We had a fun time working and talking to one another.
August 16, 2012 -Today we worked in the garden for about two hours picking veggies and weeding. After that we went over to Mr. Banh's house and made lunch. We made a dish that had cooked noodles and squash in it. It tasted fantastic and smell great. After we were all done eating Mr. Banh taught us how to blanch veggies before putting them in the freezer. This was a great learning experience.
August 20, 2012 - Today was the last day of the gardening class. To start the day off we picked the veggies out of the garden. After picking the veggies we broke up the soil that was in the onion beds. Then we took the veggies over to Mr. Banh's house to make pizza for lunch. This was a blast and probably my favorite thing we did that day. The pizza tasted great.
August 27, 2012 - Today the Girl Scouts were the only ones that worked. They picked the veggies in the garden and watered all of the beds in the garden.
June 10, 2013 - Monday we started to weed each of our own beds then started to plant plants
