Coordination fifth entry

Hello everybody!

During the las week, on thursday, the Gardenicious group class went to a big urban orchard in Ciudad Universitaria. The main organizer met us and explained and shown everything there. The plants they are growing, the distribution, their project... Everything was bigger than expected!

They also found there was a big green house in the instalations. Inside there, they were growing different plants to those that were outside. There they explained us that it is important to set each plant in a different part of the green house as well as to know in which possition they must be set.

The organaizer also gave us many good advices to take into account for our own vertical garden, and I am sure we wil use those advices.

But it wasn't anly something didactic, our mates also had time to enjoy time there, and explore the area having fun together.

See you soon!!

Planning tenth entry

Hello everybody!!

Last week we went to Complutenses’ University to learn about the vegetable garden that they have there. It is so big and they have all so tidied. When we came we had a small meeting with the organizer and he was explaining us how is the vegetable garden structured. Then he was telling us what kind of flowers, vegetables and plants they have and the most important thing about our group, how is the vegetable garden structured. They had there different parts where they grow plants. There is a big greenhouse where they plant and later put these plants in different position in all the garden. Also, they make their own fertilizer, they have worms too and they are creating at the moment with the help of a school a pond. It was quite interesting because the man was telling us how the plants have to be situated in order to grow in a correct way, so we payed attention to that because it is very important to our vegetable garden. Here, you can see some photos that we took:

We enjoyed the visit too much…

                

Apart from that, we could observe the structure of the vegetable garden. There were different parts with aromatic plants like rosemary, lavender, thyme… then there was another part where they create their own fertilizer with food, plants too and they put this mixture together in the sun around 60º degrees… he told us that is a very good idea if you want a perfect fertilizer. Also, there were tomatoes, lettuces, aubergines, marrows… one important thing is that, they put between these plants some flowers in order to get the attention of the insects and bees. All the structure was with lot of care and in a correct position to the sun and with a good irrigation. You can see more photos:

If you want you can come too, because this vegetable garden is inside a plan of Comunidad de Madrid and it is called, “Urban vegetable garden” you can go there to take care the plants, or maybe go with your family to enjoy a day or if you have free time, why not? It could be a fantastic idea!

Didactics sixth entry

Once we have finished planting our garden with children. This week, from 16^th to 22^nd, on Thursday 19^th of May,  we have gone to the garden of University of Complutense where this time we were the students and learning seed different plants, how to seed it, care them.

There were a class of 5^th primary education and we made aware from pre- primary to primary education is possible develop with children a garden.

We think it has been a good idea because it has helped us understand better the garden.

Mantainance second entry

Our goals in this week have been to create some web pages like a facebook account as user, a facebook account as diffusion page, a twitter account and so on.This is to diffuse our project and in that way everybody will know about it and they can collaborate with us.On facebook and twitter we are going to upload some photos of us working in the garden, we are also going to upload photos about the plants, its process, the placard…The same with tha page on facebook, we are also going to public here some news about the process of the project, or some data as the link of our blog, etc.
We have also created a triptych with information about the project, with this, people will know about it, and they will be able to contribute with us.
This will be in the door of university and in each class, in that way it will be easy to see the information. 

Planning nineth entry

14/05/2016

Hello again!

The big day has arrived. Planting’s day.

Previously, we have said that plants which are planted not grew up. For this reason, we have bought new plants in a garden center. We bought some plants such as mint, lettuces, pepper, basil, oregano, chives, etc.

We had everything prepared; we had the soil in their boxes and in the pallets too. All that was missing was the junior gardeners. Who were the junior gardeners? They were students of three, four and five years of  Escuelas Santísimo Sacramento school.  

All the member of this project, we had divided into several groups. In this case, the persons responsible for planning were waiting for children in the garden’s corner.

The first class was three years old.  The children were accompanied by their teacher and

our classmates of didactic. Some children brought other plants that had grown so that we

could plant them.  In addition, they made some drawings of plants that were planted.

These drawings were placed in a mural to improve on garden decoration. 

We divided the children into groups so that we would be easier to plant them, in an individuated way. The class of three years old, planted mint.

The next class was five years old. These followed the same procedure as before. 

We gave the drawings and later, we stick theses drawings on the mural.  We made a brief

explanation of what we were doing and finally planted chives. 

And for the last class, were four years old. In this case, the children planted oregano and basil.

In between classes, the persons responsible for planning received the visit of some students and teachers CES Don Bosco. All the persons carried different plants for planting. We were there to help them. Many people participated in this event.  

As a final conclusion in this big day, we would like to thank a third grade of Pre-primary education “The unicorns”. We would also like to Escuelas Santísimo Sacramento School for participation in it.  

Didactics fifth entry

During this week, from the 9th of May to the 13th of May, the didactic group has finished some details for the children’s activities on Thursday 12th. We sent the plant worksheets to the teacher so she could print them for the pupils. We also had to print the last plant-flashcards and laminated them. Also, we finished the organization of the schedule for Thursday that would be with the children.

On Thursday 12th, the children’s activity finally took place and it was great! Since there were three groups of children we divided the plan and the activities in a schedule so everybody could do everything but without bothering others.

First of all, we remembered and reviewed with the kids the plant which has been explained before Easter. Children had to put into practise the learned knowledge and drew the proper plant.

After that, they had to plant these plants with help of the university students. The students had to explain some specific plants features and asked some questions to children about them. Children could stick their drawings on a painting on the wall.

Finally, once again in the classroom, university students and children learned some new concepts of another new plant and played with games about the new plants.

Coordination fourth entry

As we have done every week in our blog from the coordination group, we are going to report the progress of the project this week.

Taking into account that this week was the Science Week in our university, our group has been in charge of setting up a stand for the event. According to this, we have made different posters with pictures and paint colours to make them more visible to the public. With this stand our group has tried to promote our vegetable garden, so that, the entire educational community could take part in it: teachers, students and school staff.

Then, we have stuck in continuous paper some pictures of the worked plants and we have placed some pots so that everyone who wanted could plant a plant in the vegetable garden. Moreover in another continuous paper we have written possible activities to do with children in order to work a vegetable garden in a more dynamic and meaningful way.

Our goal with the stand was that the university knew a little more about our project, inviting them to participate in and provide them with new ideas for their future in order to improve as teachers.

We hope that you like the idea and we invite all those who want to participate in the project.

Planning eighth entry

Hello Everyone!

How are you? We are so happy.

During this week, it has happened many things in our vertical garden. So, let’s start.

Last week, we put some bags with water and soil to check if it put up with.   The result was satisfactory; the bags support it.

On the other hand, there were the boxes. We had to cut the meshes for all the boxes. It was a quick and simple job.
We had the boxes with their meshes and the pallets with their bags. All the work was done. But… we had to carry the pallets and boxes for our garden’s corner.

When all materials were ready (pallets, boxes, bottles, plants, etc.) in our garden’s corner. We begin to mix the compost of horse with the soil. It was the first time that we mix the soil with the compost, I can tell you that it smelled very bad.  

We had already made the mix.  The only thing missing to throw the soil in all the bags and pallets.  

 

We were ready for the BIG DAY. 

In the next entry, we will talk about this.

Be happy. 

Coordination third entry

Hello to all our readers!

This week our project has continue and we have some news.

The first is that the structures of the vertical garden made with palés and flower pot bags are almost done. 

The second new is that we are working in a co-project related with Gardenicious called "Gardenicious, nuestro huerto". We have been asked to make an stand that will be set in the hall of the faculty the next week where we will inform the visitors about our project and we will give them the chance to come with us to our vertical garden and grow one plant in it by themselves. For this stand we have had to make two big posters, one made in continuous paper and another made in big cardboards.

And the third new is that since now, the gestion of this blog has started to be part of our job as the coordination group of our project. We will do it our best. Wish you like it.

See you soon!!

Planning seventh entry

LET’S GO WITH THE MESH

Hi, we are here again!

This week we have done a lot of things and the structure is almost ready to be placed.

We have been very focus on finishing all the bags, for this reason, we have finished to burn all the edges of the bags, because they were a little bit frayed. Later, we have to do the bags for each space of the structure, but we had a problem: How could we join the mesh to form bags? First, we tried to do it burnt the edges and join them, however, this method was not very successful, due to the mesh separated with ease, so we had to find another solution. We thought that staple it would be a great idea, and it was. The bags look great and hold up very well.

When all the bags were finished, we started to place them in the different gaps of the pallets. We have had some difficulties, because we did not how to hold them; however we have solved this problem holding them with staples. And it seems to resist and looks good, isn’t it?

Finally, we have poured soil and water in two of the bags to prove if they resist the weight of the soil and the water, and we are very happy because it seems to have worked, because it holds up very well.

The next week, we will continue telling you how our work in the vegetable garden continues developing. 

Planning sixth entry

RETURN TO WORK!

Hello! We are back!

After our internship period, we are already back to the university this Monday 25, and now we return to carry on our garden project!

The previous week before starting the internship period, all the class planted a chive plant with the idea and the aim of make it grow a little bit to transplant it after into our garden, but we have failed and any plant hasn´t grown, so we have to change our plans and we have decided that the only solution is to buy seedlings, but you could know more about that in other publications!

Also there are some good news too! Before going to our internship schools, the pallets and the Wood boxes were varnished and the mesh was cut. Everything is ready to continue working in the next steps.

Thank you!

More information about GARDENICIOUS PROJECT in following publications.

Didactics fourth entry

The first week of May, Didactic group had been planning the children activities which we are going to develop next week with the Infant Education students.

And we had created our own schedule with the activities organization. Moreover, a big wall for the children vegetable garden in which we can see : "Gardenicious Nuestro Huerto" .Also, we made a worksheet about the plants to complete the next day with children.

  

Also, we had been adapting the plants context for children can understand it.

Didactics third entrance

During the placement period, we had been analysing the plants growth.

And, this is the final result:

Moreover, all the class were cooperating with the plants bags which we needed to the vegetable garden. We were burning the bad edges to make our special pots.

Finally, it is the result of our pots.

Also, here are other pictures when we were burning the pots.