OC Organic Garden Blog

How did the weed war begin? In the touch and feel garden the lavender bush and some other plants have been taken over by the crab grass. Jordan Jones and Emma Schwarz from Mrs. Helig’s fourth-grade class are looking for powerful students to fight the crab grass and win the victory.

In October, Mrs. Olson’s second-grade students visited the garden to learn about life cycles and how they relate to what they’ll be learning in the garden this year–worm composting.

Julianna had this to say about her experience:

“My experience with Mr. Hay was awesome. My favorite parts were drawing in journals and learning about the life cycle movements and doing them over, and over, and over again. Also, I loved watching over the worms in the black water-looking bin. I saw a couple friends holding the worms. I saw a couple of friends getting pooped on by the worms. YUCK! That was a fun experience. I love the TMA Garden.”

A big thank you to TMA 3rd grader, Joshua Both, his parents Carol and Dave Turner and Orchard Hardware Supply in Santa Ana, for donating more than $1,000 worth of Renee’s Garden garden seeds.

Grades K-5 will be planting seeds from this generous donation in the coming months. Thank you Joshua and company for helping our garden grow!

The TMA Garden is so lucky to have support from parents, companies and community organizations. Without their help we wouldn’t be able to give our kids the interactive garden experience they deserve.

In this busy world that we live in, it’s great to go to one place that has everything you’re looking for, such as Target and Costco. Why do think we spend so much money at those places each year?

Like those popular retail stores, this blog is your one-stop shop for TMA Garden information–whether you’re a parent, student or Garden Master.

This week the Garden Masters, and you know who you are, attended their workshop training. During the training, they were told to visit our blog to get the resources necessary to perform their jobs in the garden.

Starting this Sunday, we’re hosting a handful of events in the garden. So mark your calendars and get ready for a busy but fun week.

Garden Beautification Day

Sunday, Sept. 30 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Thank you for signing up to be a class Garden Master (GM). We have a fantastic year planned, beginning with our first Garden Master Training Workshop, Thursday, Oct. 4 from 8:30-10:30 a.m. In order for your class to participate in garden programs, all GMs are required to attend this workshop. Sorry, no exceptions.

This year you need to select your garden role before attending the Oct. 4 training workshop. Once you select your GM role, please email the following information to garden@mytma.org.

-Name

The Can U Dig It? Team wants to thank Whole Foods Market, Tustin and Duncan and Michelle Millar of Michelle’s Naturally for participating at BTSN.

Gerrie Adams, the healthy eating specialist at Whole Foods Market, Tustin, showcased our garden’s tomatoes and peppers in a delicious watermelon/tomato gazpacho. Please check out the recipe from last week’s post. You won’t be disappointed with this refreshing soup.

Per a grant we won through Whole Kids Foundation to introduce nutrition-based training, Whole Foods Market, Tustin will be giving more demostrations in our garden this school year. Be on the look out for upcoming dates.

When you’re at back to school night Tuesday don’t miss the Whole Foods cooking demostration in the TMA Garden. They’ll be making a watermelon/tomato gazpacho (using TMA tomatoes and peppers). A Whole Foods Healthy Eating Specialist, Gerrie Adams, will be on hand to discuss other quick and easy cooking options and providing recipe ideas.

Here’s the watermelon/tomato recipe for you to try at home.

Serves 4