This week was a hot one in the garden, but we enjoyed getting to meet our new friend of the garden -Ms. Ellen Vanderburg from the Master Gardener's Volunteer Association of Cabarrus County.  We look forward to partnering with this amazing group in the future.  We continue to harvest a beautiful variety of veggies and herbs at the ATA this summer: squashes, peppers, beans, cabbage, eggplant, cucumber, tomatoes, basil, rosemary, oregano, cilantro, mint & chives!  According to our weekly weigh-in records, we have gathered over 160 pounds of produce with a high record of 28 pounds IN ONE DAY!  Gardeners are enjoying the fresh veggies they choose to take home.  We are also happy to announce that we have donated 25+ pounds of food to The Mt. Pleasant Food Ministry so far for summer of 2017.  Way to go, Cardinals!

Summer Harvesters are proud to announce that we have collected over 40 pounds of produce from the garden thus far!  Everyone who attends garden club over the summer months gets to take home a sampling of our fresh veggies & herbs.  The remaining produce is donated to the Mt. Pleasant Food Ministry every Thursday.  The garden is alive with bushy green plants and bugs of all sizes.  The bees & butterflies are happily visiting our pollinator plants and helping us pollinate the veggies.  The butterfly garden is bursting with color, too.  There is always something to be done in the garden, so come on out anytime and check out what's happening!

The garden looks great! Thanks to the Carolina Tree Company for donating mulch. Also thanks to Mr. Mike Greene and Mr.Sydney Coble for tilling the garden. The clubbers have worked hard putting down cardboard and spreading the mulch throughout the new beds. They have been preparing the garden for winter and seeding. Mrs.Meyers and Mrs.Childress are collecting bottle caps and lids for a mural in the garden. It is going to go in the triangle on the shelter roof. Please save your caps and lids and turn them in at the drop off locations outside the STEM lab and Art room!

Last week in garden club, you wouldn’t believe how much fun the clubbers had!!!! They actually got to make kabobs out of romaine lettuce and veggies from the garden!!! They also harvested peppers and tomatoes and lined the garden with yarn. Well, sounds like this week’s clubbers had a lot of fun!!! Stay tuned for next week’s blog.

Taste Testing

The Clubbers have been busy in the garden planting fall crops like garlic,cabbage,onions,carrots,strawberries, radishes,romaine lettuce,broccoli, and cauliflower.Our fence is finally finished and we are ready to start looking into removing grass, adding new beds, and mulched walkways.Our butterfly garden plants have been trimmed for the winter. Our third graders have tested the soil in hopes to analyze it and help us be more aware of what will grow better with the soil we have. 

It was a rainy day at the ATA.  Unfortunately, clubbers had to meet in our media center.  First, we learned about our new rain barrel made by one of our clubber parents.  Then, we divided into two large groups, K-2 clubbers working with Mrs. Childress on the smartboard and 3-5 clubbers working in partners on the laptops.  Clubbers viewed time-lapse videos of the life-cycle of plants such as tomato, squash, cucumber, sunflowers and more.  Then clubbers worked on a vocabulary sight partnering with businees sponsors who donated 10 grains of rice for every question answered correctly.  The mission of the ATA Garden Club is to provide healthy food for own community so this was a great way for us to impact communities beyond our reach.  Our clubbers were proud to earn over 26,000 grains of rice in just 30 minutes!

Garden Clubbers worked in several teams today.  Team 1 worked on pulling weeds on one side of the large vegetable bed and raking down the mulch "craters".  Team 2 worked on pulling weeds on the other side of the large vegetable.  Team 3 worked in the butterfly garden with adult volunteers adding mulch and beautiful natural stone pavers made by former students of the "old" A.T. Allen.  A new hydrangea plant was then added to this area.  Clubbers then took a little walk around the gardens clapping & cheering each other for yet another job well done!

We had some very special guests visit the Garden Club....BEES!  The amazing Colonel Russ Olson and his lovely wife, Linda, taught us all about the importance of bees and their relationship to our garden.  Clubbers got a close up look at beekeeping tools and a frame of LIVE BEES (contained, of course!).  We were all "a buzz" about our special visitors!

*UPDATE!* New photos have been added to our photo gallery.  The entire school worked in the garden during STEM Lab for a two week period and we are happy to say that our planting is FINISHED!  Many of the plants you will see in the photo gallery were started in the STEM Lab by seed using peat pots and a grow light.  We are so proud of the loving care our AT Allen students put into their hard work!

It was another fabulous day in the ATA Garden Club!  Kindergarteners & first graders worked in the herb beds marking off the perimeter with spoons for our coordinate grids.  They also learned the names of each herb, sniffed the aromatic smells of each one, and picked strawberries from the strawberry patch.  Second graders finished cleaning up the butterfly garden of weeds and enjoyed viewing the new growth of the liatris bulbs and polycodon they planted a few weeks ago.  They also removed the old branches of the lantana to make room for the new growth.  Third graders worked as a strong team prepping two new raised beds.  Students laid down paper as weed prevention and added rich soil and mulch to the freshly painted beds.  Finally, fourth and fifth graders teamed up with adult volunteers at the front of the school to continue sprucing up the bushes and trees with fresh mulch.  STEM Lab classes have been working hard laying out the coordinate grid for the large garden bed's new design plan.  They have also planted purple hull cowpeas (black-eyed peas) and corn this week.  There is still so much to be done, but we have come a long way!  Keep it up kiddos...and grown-ups!

We couldn't be any prouder of our clubbers today! They worked so hard marking off the walking paths for the garden design THEY created during the STEM Lab Garden Design Challenge last fall.  Clubbers worked in teams to "stomp" the dirt paths, lay out the straw, add colorful pavers, and rake the soil in preparation for planting next week.  Bravo to our 4th & 5th graders on a job well done mulching the bushes and trees across from our garden area.