Growing Together: Open Forum

Hi and happy new year!!! I'd love to start the new year off with some inspiration from this community. What are your garden goals, resolutions, or dreams for 2023 (for yourself or your organization/program)?

One of mine is to do more for pollinators in 2023! I'm hoping to plant more pollinator-friendly flowers in my own garden and encourage my parents to do more in their yard/garden (they have so much space for milkweed!).

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Amelia Dupuis
Kids Garden Community Manager
KidsGardening
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Hi and Happy New Year back acha:)  So my gardening goal for this year is to get the gardening co-op off the ground and also be a more effective gardener.  We'll be learning and teaching about soils, composting, poultry and also correct timing and placement of plants and encouraging pollinators.  Excited about the new season coming but also a bit overwhelmed with the amount work involved so I am looking forward to getting great advice from this community!  Thank you:)

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Shawnee McAninch
McAninch Farms, Inc.
Penrose CO
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Hello and thanks for the great question! I love thinking about goals this time of year!

I am still pretty new to my garden and I am so excited to jump right in this season. We have completely redesigned our garden beds for more companion planting. I am very excited to experiment with different veggies, herbs, and flowers and how they grow together. We are also starting a brand new summer day camp this year. We are starting everything from scratch and are very excited and nervous! Every day, campers will be in the garden planting, watering, weeding, making art, and just digging and exploring. One of my goals is to have a successful 2 weeks of camp and set aside intentional reflection sessions with and without the campers. (If anyone out there has tips for starting a day camp at a botanical garden, let me know! :) 

Thanks and I wish you all the best this year!

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Ariel Christian
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Ariel,
My sister is the co-founder of the Ithaca Children's Garden in Upstate New York. They have a summer camp. I'm sure the garden coordinator or the camp director would love to share ideas with you. Just go to the website.

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Evelyn Margolin
(916)501-1173
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-04-2023 11:19:54 AM
From: Ariel Christian
Subject: Garden Goals for 2023

Hello and thanks for the great question! I love thinking about goals this time of year!

I am still pretty new to my garden and I am so excited to jump right in this season. We have completely redesigned our garden beds for more companion planting. I am very excited to experiment with different veggies, herbs, and flowers and how they grow together. We are also starting a brand new summer day camp this year. We are starting everything from scratch and are very excited and nervous! Every day, campers will be in the garden planting, watering, weeding, making art, and just digging and exploring. One of my goals is to have a successful 2 weeks of camp and set aside intentional reflection sessions with and without the campers. (If anyone out there has tips for starting a day camp at a botanical garden, let me know! :) 

Thanks and I wish you all the best this year!

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Ariel Christian
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Ariel, I have been running a day camp at a botanic garden for a decade or so. I have about 20 pages of activities and resources I can send you. My document isn't uploading for some reason.

Shelley Mitchell
shelley.mitchell@okstate.edu

------------------------------
Shelley Mitchell, PhD
Associate Extension Specialist
Youth Horticulture
Dept of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture
Oklahoma State University
358 Ag Hall
Stillwater, OK 74078
[405-744-5755]
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 01-04-2023 11:19:54 AM
From: Ariel Christian
Subject: Garden Goals for 2023

Hello and thanks for the great question! I love thinking about goals this time of year!

I am still pretty new to my garden and I am so excited to jump right in this season. We have completely redesigned our garden beds for more companion planting. I am very excited to experiment with different veggies, herbs, and flowers and how they grow together. We are also starting a brand new summer day camp this year. We are starting everything from scratch and are very excited and nervous! Every day, campers will be in the garden planting, watering, weeding, making art, and just digging and exploring. One of my goals is to have a successful 2 weeks of camp and set aside intentional reflection sessions with and without the campers. (If anyone out there has tips for starting a day camp at a botanical garden, let me know! :) 

Thanks and I wish you all the best this year!

------------------------------
Ariel Christian
------------------------------

Hi Shelley,
You have so much experience!  I am starting my 3rd year at an inner-city school implementing a Tea Project.
It involves raised bed gardening, tea gardening, herbalism and Mindfulness.  Would you be willing to share your
activities that you have developed with me as well?  I am constantly looking for ideas to bring  nature-based
learning to the students.  I work with elementary kids 1st through 4th grades.
Thank you,
Janet Lawson

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janet Lawson
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 01-09-2023 09:46:37 AM
From: Shelley Mitchell
Subject: Garden Goals for 2023

Ariel, I have been running a day camp at a botanic garden for a decade or so. I have about 20 pages of activities and resources I can send you. My document isn't uploading for some reason.

Shelley Mitchell
shelley.mitchell@okstate.edu

------------------------------
Shelley Mitchell, PhD
Associate Extension Specialist
Youth Horticulture
Dept of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture
Oklahoma State University
358 Ag Hall
Stillwater, OK 74078
[405-744-5755]
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: 01-04-2023 11:19:54 AM
From: Ariel Christian
Subject: Garden Goals for 2023

Hello and thanks for the great question! I love thinking about goals this time of year!

I am still pretty new to my garden and I am so excited to jump right in this season. We have completely redesigned our garden beds for more companion planting. I am very excited to experiment with different veggies, herbs, and flowers and how they grow together. We are also starting a brand new summer day camp this year. We are starting everything from scratch and are very excited and nervous! Every day, campers will be in the garden planting, watering, weeding, making art, and just digging and exploring. One of my goals is to have a successful 2 weeks of camp and set aside intentional reflection sessions with and without the campers. (If anyone out there has tips for starting a day camp at a botanical garden, let me know! :) 

Thanks and I wish you all the best this year!

------------------------------
Ariel Christian

I figured out how to attach documents to this post, so see below for attachments!

------------------------------
Shelley Mitchell, PhD
Associate Extension Specialist
Youth Horticulture
Dept of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture
Oklahoma State University
358 Ag Hall
Stillwater, OK 74078
[405-744-5755]
shelley.mitchell@okstate.edu
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 01-09-2023 04:48:49 PM
From: janet Lawson
Subject: Garden Goals for 2023

Hi Shelley,
You have so much experience!  I am starting my 3rd year at an inner-city school implementing a Tea Project.
It involves raised bed gardening, tea gardening, herbalism and Mindfulness.  Would you be willing to share your
activities that you have developed with me as well?  I am constantly looking for ideas to bring  nature-based
learning to the students.  I work with elementary kids 1st through 4th grades.
Thank you,
Janet Lawson

------------------------------
janet Lawson
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: 01-09-2023 09:46:37 AM
From: Shelley Mitchell
Subject: Garden Goals for 2023

Ariel, I have been running a day camp at a botanic garden for a decade or so. I have about 20 pages of activities and resources I can send you. My document isn't uploading for some reason.

Shelley Mitchell
shelley.mitchell@okstate.edu

------------------------------
Shelley Mitchell, PhD
Associate Extension Specialist
Youth Horticulture
Dept of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture
Oklahoma State University
358 Ag Hall
Stillwater, OK 74078
[405-744-5755]


Original Message:
Sent: 01-04-2023 11:19:54 AM
From: Ariel Christian
Subject: Garden Goals for 2023

Hello and thanks for the great question! I love thinking about goals this time of year!

I am still pretty new to my garden and I am so excited to jump right in this season. We have completely redesigned our garden beds for more companion planting. I am very excited to experiment with different veggies, herbs, and flowers and how they grow together. We are also starting a brand new summer day camp this year. We are starting everything from scratch and are very excited and nervous! Every day, campers will be in the garden planting, watering, weeding, making art, and just digging and exploring. One of my goals is to have a successful 2 weeks of camp and set aside intentional reflection sessions with and without the campers. (If anyone out there has tips for starting a day camp at a botanical garden, let me know! :) 

Thanks and I wish you all the best this year!

------------------------------
Ariel Christian

My goal is to plant more native plants and to encourage schools to add plants native to their area into their school gardens and landscapes. It's the BEST thing we can do for pollinators and birds!

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Michelle Zupan
Hickory Hill
THOMSON GA
7068295394
------------------------------

Happy New Year! I have two big goals this year: 1) to get our school garden's new Subpod vermicomposting system successfully running with a healthy community of worms and consistent green waste from the school cafeteria/classrooms and 2) to simply have a much more productive growing year than last year. It was quite tough for us to get any decent food production last year for some reason. Plants were nourished and watered, but our Los Angeles summer weather was pretty brutal, so between the garden PTA coordinator and myself we'll be trying a lot of fun new tactics this year! I'm really looking forward to it. Cheers to all!

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Noel Nicholas
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Noel, please share how your Subpod goes with the Garden Community. We are supposed to be receiving one for our school garden and I don't know anything about them. I'd love to know how the process unfolds for you! Happy New Year!

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[Lara] [Guerra]
[Science Teacher]
[The Hockaday School]
[Dallas] [Texas]
[lguerra@hockaday.org]
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 01-04-2023 01:12:51 PM
From: Noel Nicholas
Subject: Garden Goals for 2023

Happy New Year! I have two big goals this year: 1) to get our school garden's new Subpod vermicomposting system successfully running with a healthy community of worms and consistent green waste from the school cafeteria/classrooms and 2) to simply have a much more productive growing year than last year. It was quite tough for us to get any decent food production last year for some reason. Plants were nourished and watered, but our Los Angeles summer weather was pretty brutal, so between the garden PTA coordinator and myself we'll be trying a lot of fun new tactics this year! I'm really looking forward to it. Cheers to all!

------------------------------
Noel Nicholas
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1) I plan to help the transition to new staff as I leave a camp garden and the ed program I've led for 12 years; 2)  I just moved to a new place and have a lot of gardening to do here - lots of firsts for me in this; 3) I hope to do an independent study on how schools are integrating/using gardens. I hope that this will help me prepare to work in 1-2 schools, doing gardening. A good new year to all!
Corri

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Corri Gottesman
Ramah Day Camp
Lansdale PA
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Happy New Year!  My goals for this year are to revitalize our raised beds.  I got a local grant for this purpose.  I'd like to accomplish this by spring break and be ready to plant Mid-April.  We plan to involve staff, students, and parents in this endeavor.  In the past, I've done most of the plant planning, this time I intend to give it over to the students.


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Diana Carey
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Happy New Year!  My goal for the coming 2023 garden season is to up our production in the garden!  We are working toward supplying vegetables to the cafeteria weekly.  After purchasing a new hoop house and getting her set up, we are now looking to do a lot of succession planting to be able to provide those vegetables.

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Hope Sickmeier
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A goal for me is to continue learning how to manage school gardens and use them as an educational space! I just started my position 3 months ago as a Farm to School Coordinator in Roseburg, OR and it has been a LOT of learning on the fly! I am super excited to start planting this spring and summer as it will be my first time doing so in a garden this large. If anyone has tips/resources for planning for spring/summer I would love to explore. 

Grateful to be a part of this community :)

Katie

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Katie Halmekangas
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This year I hope to add to our pollinator garden by creating a shade garden. This space will fill an existing shady area of our school garden and complement the sunny Monarch Waystation already thriving!  Students will design the layout and choose native plants to fill the area.  There are a few student benches there where students enjoy resting and reading during garden visits.  My vision is that the children will enjoy visiting the shade along with some pollinators!  
I also hope to get more teachers engaged with taking their classes outside to our garden space - I know their schedules are full and there is much to teach, but time spent in the garden can recharge and restart learning!
Happy New Year everyone!

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Elaine
Stillwater NJ
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