HSGC Welcomes Maia from Depave for November Meeting

Last night the Hayhurst School Garden Council had the opportunity to welcome Maia Nativ from Depave to come and discuss with us the process and exciting prospect of partnering with us in the development of our learning gardens at Hayhurst.  In the coming months the HSGC will be working closely with PPS and Depave to develop a plan to depave a portion of Hayhurst's blacktop play area and turn it into a vibrant and exciting extension of the classroom. Get ready to get dirty Hayhurst because come summer of 2012 we have to be ripping up the blacktop and transitioning it into a unique Hayhurst vegetable, herb and maybe even fruit garden!

Thank you to Maia and Depave for their hard work and we look forward to working with them in the near future for the good of the Hayhurst students' learning experience.

Oregon Farm to School Resources

These are some great links for the most up to date info on Farm to School efforts in Oregon.


Website: http://www.upstreampublichealth.org/F2SHIA

Radio Program:  http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20119272/Upstream%20on%20Jefferson%20Exchange.m4a

Thanks for Growing,
Jeffrey

Join the Movement to Support School Gardening at Hayhurst School!!! We need your help to hang on to the #1 spot!

Hi Root 4 Kids fans, We’re two weeks in to our schools competition, and already there are dozens of schools competing for the grand prize of a Farm to School program or a school garden! Following is a list of the top 10 schools in the running so far. Don’t see your school in the lead or on the list? No worries! There’s still plenty of time to rally community members and generate sign ups. 1. Hayhurst Elementary School – Portland, OR 2. Lakeshore Elementary School – Mooresville, NC 3. Greenwood Elementary School – Seattle, WA 4. Richmond Elementary School – Portland, OR 5. Pleasant Prairie Elementary School – Pleasant Prairie, WI 6. Saints Peter and Paul School – West Chester, PA 7. Hampton Elementary School – Hampton, CT 8. Battle Academy – Chattanooga, TN 9. B.J. Hooper Elementary School – Lindenhurst, IL 10. The Village School – Eugene, OR Forward this email to friends and family and encourage them to sign up, and send it to the school you voted for and ask them to share it with their networks. The school with the most sign ups by May 31 will win! Bye for now, The Root 4 Kids team

HSGC Teacher Survey a HUGE Success!

In an effort to bring the ideas and interests of the teachers of Hayhurst School into the process of establishing the school garden program, the Hayhurst School Garden Council gave a simple teacher survey at the most recent staff meeting. The results of the survey are exciting to report and hopefully will go to facilitate the future efforts of the HSGC.  When asked “would you be interested in incorporating school gardening into your instruction,” 100% of Hayhurst teachers said YES! Yep, you are reading that right, each and every teacher at Hayhurst Elementary School wants school gardening to be a part of their teaching.

Added to that they expressed the need for support mostly along the lines of gardening skills then, secondarily, the need for more garden-based curriculum resources and more time to work it in to their busy schedules.

These are important and motivational insights moving forward with school gardening at Hayhurst and the HSGC is currently working on an overall planning and visioning meeting to manage these positive results and for the long-term sustainability of the gardens at Hayhurst.

New Compost Bin Completed

Hayhurst School now has a new compost bin for food scraps and yard debris!  Thanks to a grant from the Jeanne and Dick Roy Fund, the HSGC was able to purchase materials for the system.  Please stop by the bin at the front of the school and admire the construction work of our volunteers: James, Lee, Harry and Emma Hayes, Jeffrey Briley, Chris Wold with Mats, Heather James, and Brian and Adrienne Smith.  

Next week, the project will continue with the construction of a worm bin for the courtyard.

Many thanks to everyone who gave their time on a beautiful Saturday to build the bins!  Special thanks to the Roy Fund for funding our compost project!

Pea Planting Day a Success!

  Our inaugural garden pea planting at Hayhurst was a BIG success. Thanks to all the great students who where involved and beaming with excitement (and experiences too).  Each child had the chance to get a little dirty and plant their own pea in the barrels. Now they get to sit back and watch them all grow! 

  I just wanted to also send a big thanks out to the Garden Council members who helped with the class teaching sessions, created the great pea pod fundraiser/bulletin board, and all of the other tasks that made this happen. Everyone's work is so important.  Also a special thanks to the great Hayhurst teachers who were very interested and appreciative of the gardening program getting up and running. 

HSGC Work Party

The Hayhurst School Garden Council gathering over the President's Day holiday to build a couple of raised garden beds for the coming Spring planting season. All hands were on deck with Parents, Teachers and Students working hard for their future gardens.
    Thanks to Hopworks Urban Brewery for rounding up some old wine barrels to use as planter boxes for sweet peas for the students to plant next week and for donating some of their reclaimed wood for the raised beds. Also a big thanks to all of the parents and students who donated a dollar for our "Sweet Pea for Your Sweet Pea" fundraiser that went towards purchasing organic planting soil for the barrels.  Now it's time to plant and watch them sprout an grow!

Even the smallest of helpers took part.

The barrels were placed near the play area of the school so the kids could see their progress and enjoy them when the time comes.                                                                                        Nice work Owen and Zachery (and Bella too).

Pea Pods Sprout at Hayhurst School

In the face of the cool wet winter weather the Hayhurst Garden Council has decided to dive...or dig rather...right into school gardening with the Hayhurst students.  To get the school community buzzing about gardening we will be planting sweet peas at the end of February in donated wine barrels from local wineries.  Hayhurst students will have the opportunity to plant the first seeds of the season, watch them grow throughout the early spring and to enjoy the tasty little pods when they are ready.

To help fund the purchase of the certified local soil and seeds to be used the Council sent a paper pea pod home with each student to be returned to school with a dollar. These pea pods are rolling back into school proudly colored by students to be displayed in the front bulletin board of the school for the whole school community to see. 

It's an exciting start to the 2011 gardening season and the first efforts of the Hayhurst School Garden Council. Keep your eyes peeled for more signs of growth at Hayhurst!

FIrst HSGC Meeting

This is an email from December of 2010 after our first meeting. Seems like so long ago.


Hi Everyone,
   I just wanted to send a huge THANK YOU to everyone who come out to the first Hayhurst School Garden Council meeting last Wednesday.  What a success!  Also a big thanks for those of you who were unable to physically be there that night but shared your excitement and support for school gardening efforts at Hayhurst. Hopefully you will all be able to participate in the future, since we will likely have plenty of ways for you to get involved.  

It sounds like the Council is full of great ideas, experiences and resources. It was also motivating to have some action points coming out of the meeting. Talk about hitting the ground running!  We are working on some great stuff...

-a grant proposal for an On-Site Composting System from the Center for Earth Leadership
-exploring the potential of visiting the Garden of Wonders at Abernathy Elementary School.
-working on sourcing reclaimed wood for future raised garden beds

We are also in the process of figuring out the best way to stay in touch with each other.  Some awesome ideas are being passed around (blog, google group, etc.), so let us know if anything comes to mind that has worked well for you in the past. 

Stay tuned for more.

Keep Growing,
Jeffrey