Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Summer Soil Exploration

Welcome to the Summer Program! So much has happened in our first week enjoying San Francisco's beautiful Garden for the Environment, together with 16 youth from middle school and 5 youth staff from high school. Some major highlights for me are watching the youth staff teach the younger youth to garden, enjoy nature, and try crazy new foods ("You picked that from a tree!?!") My favorite quote from the week was, "This is the first time I've eaten a healthy breakfast AND a healthy lunch!" We've got these youngsters eating granola for breakfast and salad for lunch, every day for two weeks!

Here are some photos of our first few gardening workshops on Soil Health. Youth staff led the younger youth in small groups, exploring four different soils up close and personal. They checked the soils for crumbly texture, moisture, air pockets, and number of living things (decomposers!). The youth compared the soils, and chose which they would prefer, from a plant's perspective.

Here are the four soils: the native sandy beach soil, pure compost straight from the worm bin, and two samples of garden soil from different spots.



Stay tuned for more about our summer gardening adventures!

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