January 2015 Newsletter – Maine School Garden Network

Upcoming Events

Maine Agricultural Trades Show: Jan 13-15

Lincoln County Regional Gathering: Feb 28

Grant Deadlines

Captain Planet Foundation Grant: January 31

The Flannel Shirt Fund: Feb 1

Plum $500 Youth Grants: Rolling

Digital Wish Grants: Monthly

RetreeUS: Rolling

Fruit Tree 101: Rolling

Let's Move! Salad Bars to Schools: Rolling

School and Community Garden Grants: Multiple

Networking

Rebecca Jacobs of Knox-Lincoln SWCD helped us field a question about keeping deer out of the garden with the following recommendation:

"Eight foot plastic fencing (comes in rolls) is the best and one of the most cost effective ways to handle deer problems with gardens.

Here is a link to one of the many suppliers.

They are hungry herbivores and pretty clever at making it through any gaps, so make sure to include landscape staples in the purchase and secure the fence at ground level."

Facebook

Like us on Facebook and share your photos, ideas and questions with other school gardens!

January in the Garden

While spring may seem like a long way off, now is a great time to start looking at seed catalogs to get you thinking about spring planting and what vegetables and flowers you may want to grow and tools and accessories you’ll need for the upcoming season. There are always new varieties to try as well as the old stand-bys and thumbing through seed catalogues just might chase away your winter blues. Find Maine Seed Catalogs on our website, including information on sourcing heirloom seeds from Medomak Valley High School. We also have resources on when to plant your seeds.

Planning out your 2015 garden will help you establish a budget and set fundraising goals for the upcoming year. Visit our grant and fundraising pages for ideas and resources to accomplish your goals. Several seed companies have seed catalog fundraiser programs that will donate a portion of sales to schools.

A highly motivating project to consider doing in your classroom is worm composting or vermiculture, which can be modified and adapted to the age of your students. Students will learn the basic facts of composting with worms. They’ll be able to give examples of “brown” and “green” compost ingredients and construct a worm composting bin. They’ll learn observation, recording and graphing skills as they watch the changes that occur over time during the composting process.

They’ll be able to explain and describe the importance of aeration, use problem solving and persuasive writing techniques in connection with their compost bin.

Resources:

MSGN Compost Resources

Teach ME About Food and Farms: Compost Lesson

School Garden 101 Bibliography of School Classroom Lesson Materials