Spring Has Sprung!

The tulips, daffodils and crocuses are blooming, pollinators and bugs are waking up, and volunteers are back working in the garden! Thanks to the Raised Bed Garden Team volunteers who recently seeded a few beds of peas, cilantro, radish, calendula, and sweet pea flowers.

They also covered them up with some fancy bed covers, started some other seeds in DIY milk jug greenhouses, and moved the (heavy!) maple boil evaporator.

On Saturday, another team of Garden Volunteers did some pruning, cutting the branches and twigs into homemade mulch. Stop by the garden sometime soon to see sprouts starting to peek out, and to check out the garlic greens popping out of one of the raised beds!

Want to make a milk jug greenhouse yourself? Check out last year's mini greenhouse planting videos - part one and part two if you'd like to try this on your own, and thanks to volunteer Danielle Krcmar for leading the DIY Milk Jug Greenhouses workshop a few weeks back!

And if you're interested in joining the Garden Team, reach out to volunteer@thegrowingcenter.org!

We also wanted to extend a special thanks to the Dandelion Montessori Preschool on Bow Street (one of our Early Childhood Partners) for donating a fresh mix of sand for the sandbox in our Nature Play area! We know that all the young children who play in the Growing Center are very grateful for it, and really appreciate Dandelion's efforts to make nature based play a priority for the children of Somerville.

Speaking of which - we wanted to share this lovely note from Devanshi Desai, Director of Dandelion Montessori Preschool:

Using sticks, branches, logs, shells, pine cones, sand, dirt, water, and other materials, children have built 'campfires', 'ships', 'rockets', 'rivers', and more. Using their full bodies, the children run, jump, dig, climb, slide, twirl, kick, trip and fall.

The Growing Center is such a wonderful oasis in the city where we can celebrate local culture, learn and witness plant cycles of indigenous plants and where children are deeply engaged with ALL of their senses.

Children are severely disappointed when we are unable to go to the garden. They have fostered an emotional attachment with being in nature at the Growing Center.

Check back here on our blog in the coming weeks and months for more updates on the garden, Garden Team, and Children in Nature Initiative!