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Compost Tea

Nov 14, 2022

Brew Compost Tea

Making compost tea is a fun and easy way to increase the microbe population in your soil and in turn, improve soil health. Compost tea is a liquid produced by… 

soil microbes

Nov 14, 2022

Soils 101: Soil Microbes

Former President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “A nation that destroys its soils, destroys itself.” We may not know whether he specifically recognized the value of microbes to soil health, but he… 

Information Text Examples

Nov 14, 2022

Support Informational Text Lessons with Garden + Pollinators

Teaching reading standards for informational text can be a challenge. Students have such a wide variety of interests it can be difficult to find one that engages all students. Pairing… 

Soil Your Undies

Sep 20, 2022

Soil your Undies

Healthy soil contains billions of microscopic organisms. Just one teaspoon of healthy soil contains more microbes than there are people on the planet! Soil microbes are constantly feeding on organic… 

Soil Graphic

Sep 20, 2022

Soils 101: Why soil, not dirt?

Why is it that people like me (Doug) get bothered when someone refers to soil as “dirt”? Are there grounds for this minor irritation? (Perhaps.) Is it fair to expect… 

Soil Story Clip

Sep 20, 2022

Grow Your Soil

Last year our focus was on Social Emotional Learning; this year we will take a deep dive into soil. Each issue of our newsletter for the 2022-23 school year will include an… 

May 27, 2022

Growing School Gardens Summit

Amy and Doug were presenters at the Growing School Gardens Summit in Denver, Colorado, April 22-25. The conference gathered 400 folks together who are invested in school gardens. Those 400 participants represented… 

May 27, 2022

Lessons from the Garden

I am often amazed at how many life lessons we can learn from observing the garden and how plants communicate their needs. Consider these three unexpected ways that students may… 

May 27, 2022

Growing Sweet Potato Slips

Sweet potatoes are typically started by planting bare-root vegetative cuttings that have just begun to grow roots. Sweet potatoes are our favorite crop to plant at the end of the…