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Garden lessons, school garden

Back to Class

As the state of Washington comes together to take care of each other and get the vaccine–making it safer for students to return to school–Nicole and the students haen able to get back out into the garden.

Some of the most recent lessons that the students have been working on involve learning about pollinators! Nicole and the students are not only learning about the functions and form of pollinators, but they are also designing their own. Engineering pollinators from materials is a great way that students can practice Next Generation Science Standards that keep them on track for science and environmental literacy. 

In the school learning garden, students get an opportunity to search for real live pollinators and observe what colors of flowers they are attracted to. The pollinator color investigation reinforces the importance of pollinators in our garden and gives students the chance to come up with ways to encourage more pollinators to visit our school garden.

Since Spring is here, learning about the pollinators is a great transition back into the garden after a year and a half away. As we welcome your students back to the on campus gardens, they will notice changes that they or their peers have helped participate in during one of our many work parties.

During the work parties, we have added a few new beds, including a garden bed style from another culture. The newest bed, called “Hügelkultur”, is a form of German mound gardening. The unique hill shape allows for the sun to hit it in different ways so that more sun-loving plants can grow on one side, and more shade tolerant ones on the other. It also allows for more plants to grow since there is more surface area in the bed than if it were on a flat surface. Finally, it is made out of logs, which will decompose over time, adding rich compost to the soil.

During the work parties, we have added a few new beds, including a garden bed style from another culture. The newest bed, called “Hügelkultur”, is a form of German mound gardening. The unique hill shape allows for the sun to hit it in different ways so that more sun-loving plants can grow on one side, and more shade tolerant ones on the other. It also allows for more plants to grow since there is more surface area in the bed than if it were on a flat surface. Finally, it is made out of logs, which will decompose over time, adding rich compost to the soil.

If you can, join us for our final garden party this Sunday, June 6th! We will be further beatifying our already gorgeous Cascadia Learning Garden.  

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Meet Elianna

Elianna is our current amazing Social Media intern! She has been doing awesome work keeping Foxberrye’s Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn up to date and creating some beautiful artwork for the page. Here is an example of Elianna’s art:

Hummingbirds in a nest by Elianna Chen

We are so happy to have Elianna as part of the team as she studies Early Education and Family Studies at the University of Washington. She originally hails from Taiwan and loves swimming, drawing, listening to music, and reading. An animal lover, she has an adorable pet dog named “Niny”. Elianna is a very passionate, authentic, and caring individual. Her personal motto is “It’s okay not to be fine”. Thanks for everything you do, Elianna!

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Thank you, Elsa!

For the past few months, we have had a Social Media Intern at Foxberry. She has been completing her Service learning requirements at UW by helping Foxberry Education with our online and social media presence! Elsa has been an amazing asset, and we want to thank her so much for her contributions!

A little about Elsa:

 I grew up in Taipei, Taiwan, a beautiful island in East Asia, and currently study Education and Business at the University of Washington. I chose to intern at Foxberry Education because I love nature and I think it’s an amazing program that helps the younger generation understand more about our surroundings. I also really wanted to learn more about social media management. Back in high school, my friends and I started a Harvest Sustainability Program in which we owned a little organic garden on campus and used it to grow vegetables and sell them to our community for charity. In the future, I hope to incorporate education and business together in my career. I can’t wait to learn from this program and see the great things Foxberry Education brings to our community!

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3 Projects to do with Green Tomatoes

Well, it is now late October. Let’s be honest, those tomatoes on the vine out there are never going to ripen. Luckily, we have some suggestions for how to use them so they don’t go to waste!

Try these fun, family friendly activities this season and enjoy the memories for years to come. A few of them are also freeze-able, which makes them last all year! Give them a taste, invite friends over to help you eat them, or give them as a gift. Whatever you do, make sure to make good use of your green tomatoes this year with these 3 delicious recipes.

Job and Volunteer opportunities

Meet Taylor

Meet our newest team member, Taylor! Taylor Carstens (she/her/hers) is a current senior at Arizona State University studying Earth and Environmental Studies with certificates in Environmental Education, Environmental Humanities, and Cross-Sector Leadership.

Being from Auburn, Washington, she is excited to work with Foxberry Education to support her local community. In the fall she will be attending the IslandWood Graduate Program in Education for Environment and Community at the University of Washington. Some of Taylor’s favorite activities are baking bread, brewing kombucha, talking about mental health, and playing with her cat Grandpa.