Grinnell Head Start visits the garden

This morning we had 14 kids from Grinnell's Head Start program come to the garden with their teachers as part of a week of learning about food. The got to take part in planting the very first vegetables in the new raised beds. We started by0 planting seed potatoes and showing how the plants grow from the 'eyes' of the potato piece. Next we planted onion sets and the kids saw the difference between the onion sets and onion seeds. After that I demonstrated transplanting lettuce seedlings and showed everyone lettuce seeds. Finally, we planted 3 small pots with a lettuce seedling, radish seeds, and an onion set, and then a big pot with a seed potato. They will add soil to the pot as the potato grows to simulate the 'mounding up' that you do to a potato plant as it grows in the garden. When its time to harvest, the pot can just be dumped out to reveal the buried potatoes. The class took these pots with them so they can take care of the plants, see them grow, and harvest them. Gardening with four year olds is not precise (you don't always get the spacing or planting depth you want) but its very satisfying to see kids recognizing and working with plants and seeds. It was a short visit but I hope that the kids will be back with their class or with their parents to see the plants growing.