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  George Washington Vegetable Garden:

  Modeled after George Washington’s Kitchen Garden at Mount Vernon

Inside a white picket fence, are the raised beds where the seeds that begin the “circle of life” are planted. Once the last frost in spring occurs, the Kindergarten children are brought out into the garden to dig in the dirt and plant their seedlings and seed tapes. This first wave of plantings will not cover all the raised beds; during the second wave, the children sprinkle seeds into furrows and dig deeper to bury seed potatoes. Now, it is time to watch and wait.

As the sun’s warmth creeps slowly in through the day and night, the seeds, then the leaves begin to open. Coinciding with the sun’s warmth, the spring showers begin. In two weeks, everything begins to grow.

Throughout the summer, families will visit the garden to watch the development of the plants. In the fall, these Kindergarteners will come back as First graders to reap the benefits of their day in the dirt by harvesting a bumper crop of vegetables to be given to the village food pantry.

At our George Washington Vegetable Garden…

The children will learn:
• how a seed germinates.
• how to make a seed tape.
• how to plant a seed.
• what is the best way to plant.
• some vegetables grow above the ground, some below the ground, and some on the ground.
• the life cycle of a plant.
• the basic needs of people, animals, and plants.
• how plants can make each other stronger, ie. planting the Three Sisters.
• how food comes to the dinner table (seed to plant to fruit to store).
• that contributing their vegetables to the food pantry helps many people.
• about six strange pollinators .
• what plants will bring the Black Swallowtail Butterfly to the garden.