Welcome to New City Blossoms Staff!

Hello Everyone,
This summer we have been very lucky to have 4 Summer Youth Employment Program staff join City Blossoms and help us lead classes all over the city! David, Hazle, Sabrina and Kevin are all DC teens who are enthusiastic to work with kids and learn more about creating gardens, even when it means getting a little dirty and hot (especially with DC's blazing summer!). Over the next several weeks, our staff will be creating posts to tell about their experiences and ideas about gardening, making fresh food, exploring outdoors art and connecting with neighbors at all of the City Blossoms spaces. Here are some of the first observations below - enjoy!

In the past few weeks working with City Blossoms has been a real pleasure. I have learned about all types of plants, and herbs that could be cooked. I also learned how to be a role model to kids that are younger than me and teach them how to be gardeners and excelllent cooks. The most interesting class was when we cooked pasta salad with carrots, onions, parmesan cheese, squash, lemon, and oil with the kids today at NCFC. My favorite part of working with City Blossoms is that I get to work with some smart kids that are in the pre-k and upper classes. My least favorite part about working with City Blossoms is that I have to work in the sun under the heat. If I could teach a class I would like to teach about science, and plants and how plants really came about to the world, and how the world uses them for food.
- Hazle Crawford

An Interview with David Holmes

What have you done in the past week with City Blossoms?
I have been working with all kids in the garden and make recipes with them. Also we I have been watering all plants.

What did you find interesting?
I find working with the kids most interesting.

What was your least favorite part about working with City Blossoms?
My least favorite is getting dirty but, you got to do what you have to do.

If you could teach a class, what would you like to teach about?
Well kids like City Blossoms a lot because of the water and growing plants, I mean I guess gardening and /or math.



Hi my name is Sabrina and as I’ve been working for City Blossoms for a couple of weeks we have experienced many things as we all have worked in various gardens. For example, we have worked with lots of kids that are different ages, which is great because its a whole new experience for me as a high school student. It's been so great teaching them things about gardening and as I do that, I am also learning myself by my co-workers teaching new things every day. Every time at work I learn new things which makes me feel great because I can go home and do the same - not just at home but with other students as myself. Today we helped teach class to some high school kids. I was sort of scared and ready at the same time but I felt great working with kids my age. It seems as though we understand each other better as we teach class amongst kids our age. What was it like me being a high school student and facilitating a class of high school student? It was an amazing experience because we all understood each other very well and got to know things about each other as we helped them wash the ingredients, mix them, and try it. I felt so excited, helpful, and awesome!! It's something I'm not gonna forget. I know I'll go further as my teacher teaches me and I teach others. So this means i still got a lot to learn and experience more things!!(laughing)
- Sabrina Molina

Wonderful Wiggly Worms!

We're back in garden class after an extended snowy break!

Our youngest students (kindergarten and pre-K) have been learning all about the creepy-crawly inhabitants of our gardens: bees, ants, grasshoppers, ladybugs, and now worms.

Worms are fascinating creatures. They aerate the soil and transform waste into fabulous fertilizer. In our lessons, we observed worms and learned about the parts of their bodies through an active dance. Many of the kids were brave enough to hold the worms in their hands! Each student had the opportunity to sculpt worms out of Play-Doh and examine a worm habitat. We also discussed what materials worms can and can't safely digest. We're going to be placing worm bins in each of our three preschools so that the kids can witness firsthand the miracle of worms. Most of the kids loved the worm unit, so the bins should be a very exciting addition to their learning environment as well as an eco-friendly way of recycling classroom food waste.


Pre-K kids observe worms and learn about the parts of a worm's body (anterior, posterior, mouth).










Students practice fine motor skills by sculpting worms out of Play-Doh.









It's a worm party!

















Observing our portable worm habitat (we can't wait until each school has its own real worm bin!).










Pre-K kids learn that apples, newspaper, and leaves make excellent worm food. (Please don't feed the worms ice cream or markers.)

Lovely Ladybugs . . .

Winter weather might keep us indoors, but we're still having lots of garden-related fun! This past week, our pre-K classes completed a unit on ladybugs. They learned that ladybugs play an important role in the garden by eating aphids, which eat the plants. We read a few ladybug-focused books (including Eric Carle's The Grouchy Ladybug - everyone's favorite!) and practiced math skills by counting ladybugs and their spots. We also made some super ladybug hats which the kids didn't want to take off!



Pre-K kids paint their ladybug hats.












Adding detail with spots, googly eyes, and pipe cleaner antennae . . .












Two pre-K students show off their lovely ladybugs.












A pre-kindergardener is transformed into a ladybug, no pupa involved.












Watch out, aphids: we've got a roomful of ladybugs ready for lunch!

Happy New Year!

City Blossoms is gearing up for what promises to be our busiest year yet! We're in the process of expanding our garden classes at local schools, breaking ground for a new community garden in Shaw, and planning for the upcoming RootingDC conference in February. We'll keep you posted on all our projects!

Our fourth graders at DC Bilingual Public Charter School have been learning about herbs. They have participated enthusiastically in growing, harvesting, drying, and learning about the various uses (culinary, medicinal, etc.) of these fabulous plants. To celebrate the New Year, some of our students paused to reflect on their herbal activities of 2009 and their garden hopes for 2010:

“I loved when we took the herbs and hung them up to dry. I liked doing jobs like taking the leaves off the stems. My favorite was when we made the Tummy Soother tea. My stomach was really hurting that day, and it made me feel better. Before garden class, I never knew that lemon balm and other herbs were really herbs – I thought they were just normal plants that you can’t eat.

I hope that we get to plant flowers and herbs in our garden." -Kessya



“My favorite activity for the herbs was anything with eating because I’m always hungry! I also liked cutting the herbs and cutting them off the stems. The mint tea was my favorite to drink. Before garden class, I didn’t know that mint came in so many flavors.

I hope we get to make mint ice cream!” -Alex



“I love the herbs, because after growing them, we get to eat them and do things with them! We made tea, and we also made cream cheese with chives, which is my favorite herb.

I hope that we can make pizza in the oven with the herbs we grew.” -Julissa



“I like that we learn how to take care of plants and trees – they’re important because they give us oxygen and we can’t have food without plants. My favorite was when we made tea, because the tea was so good! My favorite herb is cebollitas [chives] because it tastes so funny in your mouth.

I hope we get to make pizza with the herbs!” -Marilyn




Fourth graders at DC Bilingual remove dried oregano leaves from the stems.



Students carefully cut dried lemongrass leaves into small pieces for use in cooking.



Fourth graders used the herbs they harvested to brew two kinds of herbal tea.



Our tea connoisseurs sampled both Tummy Soother tea and Relax tea. (They concluded that Tummy Soother, with its spearmint and ginger flavors, was the general favorite.)



They also enjoyed preparing and eating Swiss chard wraps seasoned with their favorite herbs - yum!

Butterfly Watch 2009

It is exciting and calming at the same time to see these beautiful winged visitors in our gardens each summer. The kids become hushed and focused as soon as they drop down onto a drooping blossom and start squealing happily once they take flight. A Monarch and Tiger Swallowtail have been sipping from our CentroNia butterfly bushes regularly this month, and I hope they've found safe places to lay their eggs too! Our gardens receive a few more quiet visitors, such as the ever-growing family of birds who mischieviously get caught in the grapevines while stealing fruit or a clump of slimy slugs cooling off in the dark corners of the compost piles. This year we've learned with our young gardeners to appreciate our visitors a little more, and hope that pesky ones (aphids, rats, cucumber beetles) will find another garden to bother.

Come and Get IT!

We have a great event coming up - on September 7th we will have a big potluck celebration at Girard Garden. Bring a dish to share and try out some of the garden's harvest prepared specially by a guest chef! It is also Girard's first birthday, and we want to celebrate with the whole neighborhood.

Yay Rebecca!

Rebecca and I went to NYC a couple of months ago to help out with Fritz Haeg's Hudson Guild Project, a children's edible garden. It was a long, dirty day (including a roundtrip from chelsea to the bronx) but by the end we had made lots of new friends and learned some cool new garden techniques. The even was sponsored by Ovation TV and Gardenburger, and you can see some video below with an excellent soundbite from Rebecca!