Fall in the Venable Garden

written by Sarah Wayne

October is a month filled with change. Elementary school students frequently go outside to observe these sometimes-subtle changes to the world around them. In Kindergarten, students observe the changing leaves and temperatures. Older grades focus on plant life cycles and how they revolve around the seasons.

The echinacea seeds are nestled inside the spiny centers of the flower and require a different approach. After the seed heads were harvested by Isabel Smith’s 3rd grade class, Samantha Kayser’s 2nd grade class separated the seeds from the seed heads. By placing a few seed heads in a closed container and then shaking it, the seeds separate and can be collected.

To read the rest of the article and see more pictures, go to the blog.

Our 10th Annual Fall Harvest Festival!
article written by Shannon Gaffey

Fall is a season naturally inclined towards celebration: it’s a time of bounty in the gardens, high energy in our schools, and a collective sigh of relief when the heat of summer finally breaks. It’s a season of food and community, and the Fall Harvest Festival at Buford exemplifies all these things in one evening of community fun, food and relaxation. While the Festival takes place all in one evening, it is actually a month-long program that includes the Family and Consumer Science (FACS) Veggie Cook-Off Competition, PE, ESOL, and Garden Aide garden preparation, planting and repairs, AVID and Civics Pre-Festival Community Service, and the Festival itself.

The day of the Harvest Festival is full of excitement. To harness that energy, set up the school for the event, support students in staying for the Festival and meeting their Civics class requirement, City Schoolyard Garden staff and Buford teachers engage over 60 youth in two hours of community service all around the middle school.  This year, Civics and AVID students made garden signs for our elementary school gardens, shoveled, raked and mulched the nature trail through the woods beyond the playing field, moved tables, laid out table cloths, hung banners and signage, sidewalk chalked and cleaned up the campus, set up activities and games for the festival, and helped take care of every other conceivable detail required for such an event.  We are especially grateful to the CCS teachers who supervised community service projects and activities during the event.

To hear about the Veggie Cook-Off and Pre-Event programming OR if you just want to see lots of pictures, head over to the blog!