Just a few more photos of this awesome moment in the garden! Our wheat grows well, the indigo in the dye garden is starting to flower, and we donated 8 big bags of gorgeous lettuce to a community fridge today.

It looks like it's time for litter number 3! #schoolgarden #Garden4Wildlife #EasternCottontails #industrious #expecting

Go volunteers! Pierce parents watering our garden through drought and extreme heat. 3 Pierce staff showed up this week to put down hay as mulch and keep the soil cooler.

Thanks, BEF! This summer, 11 educators from four Brookline schools including Pierce got to try out dying with indigo. Our 2nd graders will harvest and make art with the plants they planted in the library this spring. The Public Schools of Brookline Brookline Education

Any ideas about what has eaten nearly all of our wheat seed heads? Here's late June and then mid July.

In the Sankofa garden in the amphitheater, the gorgeous cow peas happily use the Callaloo (amaranth) as a pole. #sankofa

The indigo in our new Dye Garden got full sun and lots of parent volunteer watering and looks "eh". The indigo in the slightly shaded Historical Building garden is healthy and ABUNDANT! 2nd graders will soon get to harvest and dye fabric with fresh indigo leaves in art class!

2nd graders harvested the indigo that they started from seed last year after reading the picture book, "Blue". In art class, Ms. Black blended it to make dye, and the students dyed yarn for a future weaving.

Kindergarten English Learners have learned words like "rock, roll, pound, and blend" while doing three different dying processes with indigo that they harvested. Tataki zome (Japanese flower and leaf pounding), fresh leaf blender extraction, and both on one piece of silk!

Kindergarteners planted cloves of garlic today. Some patted the cloves in with, "have a good winter, garlic!"

Our little Pierce pumpkin has been a movie star lately. Kindergarteners were VERY excited to share it with the Pierce students on the morning announcements.

We had a great crop of Calico heirloom popping corn, from our Native American-inspired Three Sisters garden (corn, beans and squash). Some of the fifth graders who harvested the corn, had planted it last spring as fourth graders. #microwave popcorn

Pierce garden custom cold frames are officially in use! We cut down the corn - without digging or pulling out roots- and we planted kale and other greens seedlings inside, plus our sorrel plant, with a blanket of leaves. #minigreenhouse #regenerative

As we get ready for planting in the garden, KD and KP are growing microgreens inside as a first exploration. Check out their gourmet cilantro, broccoli, and fennel plants! (and their awesome K spelling of huge words)

It's planting week #1! This week grades 1 - 4 are planting seeds for salad veggies! Ms. Ockene and Mr. Hintz coordinate the moving parts, our PE team is leading all 16 classes in planting, and parent volunteers Tim and Adi help make it happen. Next stop, watering...

1YM is planting our new Asian garden! So far one team planted soybeans so we can grow our own edamame! Still to come: Chinese broccoli, pac choi, Napa cabbage for Kimchi, and the Japanese herb shiso.

Sixth graders made a structure for black-eyed peas and planted okra in our Sankofa (African roots) garden. They also learned about treating the soil well, using organic mulch to retain water. (social studies standards connections)

Math in the garden! Second graders practice their measurement skills with Ms. Washburn. The lettuce that overwintered in the cold frame is the tallest lettuce by many inches (or cm!).

Third graders harvested lettuce, explored who lives in finished compost, and planted Three Sisters gardens in the rain. Undeterred!

Harvest Days involved Pierce students K-4 last week. Students got to cut, rinse and spin the lettuce. Industrial spinners are fun!