Summer Garden Training
Mrs. Burschell and Mrs. Grant went to a L.A.N.D.S (Learning Across New Dimensions in Science) Teacher Workshops through Texas Wildlife Association in Dallas, Texas. This workshop is focused on how to incorporate natural resources into classrooms. Lessons we learned focus on teaching land stewardship, native wildlife, and water conservation and are TEKS-aligned. On the way back to Wimberley, we stopped at Magnolia Seed Supply to see how their garden is set up. We loved their tomato stands and hope to incorporate this into our garden.
We learned about 2 gallon Olla Pots from one of our volunteers (Mrs. Grant’s Aunt) and started using one in our first bed. Our plans are to add more through the year. They are amazing. You fill them up every few days and they do the watering for you.
We have visited the Natural Gardener in Austin. They helped us identify different insects we had in the garden and also recommended “Mosquito Barrier” to help keep mosquitoes away.
Texas Wildlife Association Award
This happened over the summer! The JWE school garden has $2000 to spend for our garden. Cathy Boles and April Grant attended this luncheon to accept the award we received for the garden. We plan to build a retaining wall for native Texas plants on the “hill” of the garden area. This will create a ledge for children to sit and will also provide more space for educational garden beds.
We were very inspired by the presentation and speaker. We are excited about the opportunities in the garden next year!
To read more about the award we received, go to https://www.texas-wildlife.org/program-areas/teacher-awards
Our Goal = Certified Wildlife Habitat
In September of 2016, we decided that our goal in the garden for the 2016-2017 school year is to become a Certified Wildlife Habitat. We are mostly there, but we do need a few items. As always, our incredible students are behind this all the way and eager to help! Our students wrote a grant application to the WEF for the funding to get all of the items we need to complete our goal. We also will be working with Mr. Geisen from Wimberley High School, Lawrence Parent, the photographer and a parent of students in WISD and the Natural Gardener of Central Texas!
Research
Our students researched and made lists of what was needed, brainstormed ideas for the grant writing portion, measured our beds for amount of soil needed, researched pricing, calculated mileage for a field trip to learn about native Texas plants and created our budget. One student saw our quote for garden soil and went home that evening and talked to his dad about getting soil for less expensive. That new quote will save us $400! We are so very proud of our students at JWE.
November 2016…working toward Certified Wildlife Habitat
We have great helpers in our garden club. We cannot say enough positive things about them. November was a month of great things! See photos below. We had our beautiful garden soil delivered by Mr. Leinneweber. Mr. Zeller, one of our Garden Club parents, moved the soil to our new Native Texas plant bed with his bobcat. After our soil was moved to the bed, we had Mr. White, a teacher volunteer, and another dad help us plant our native Texas, wildlife friendly plants. Thank you!!!
Bug Hotel – Troop 1699
January 2017
Girl Scout Troop 1699 needed to complete a community service project. They chose our school garden for their project and created a bug hotel for us. This was one of the items we needed to help us toward our goal of becoming a Certified Wildlife Habitat.
Thank you Troop 1699! We appreciate you!
Thank you WEF and Garden Club Members!
January 2017… Wow! We received a $1900 grant from Wimberley Education Foundation! Our Garden Club members have been working hard to get everything in order. It’s official, we became a Certified Wildlife Habitat!
Sponsor Trip to Natural Gardener
We had such a fun field trip to the Natural Gardener. We learned about what plants are Native to Texas. We also learned which plants are friendly to wildlife. We learned more about what it means to be a wildlife friendly garden. Our garden sponsors are excited to share this knowledge with the Spring Garden Club groups. While at Natural Gardner in Austin, we purchased $500 worth of wildlife friendly, native Texas plants.
While we were there we met and had the pleasure to talk with John Dromgoole. On their website it tells a little more about him. It states, “Today, he is one of the nation’s foremost experts on organic gardening, and in his varied roles as small business owner, radio host, TV personality and public speaker, John’s passion and focus has always been organic gardening. He loves introducing people to a more sustainable life, a way of treading lightly on the earth, and sharing how easy, beneficial and beautiful it is to be an organic gardener.” Thank you Natural Gardener for showing us around and sharing your knowledge with us.
