Garden Updates - from drought to Eo Lono!
What a fun school year it has already been! Amazing how 3 months can feel like a lifetime and only a blink all at once. We started the year with games like Garden Jeopardy and team building, then jumped right into reclaiming the garden from the summer months - creating fun lessons and managing the drought! (And eating lots of gherkin pickles that we grew and pickled over the summer!) Luckily our garden provided a wonderful example of how “diversity provides resiliency”, as we saw drought tolerant plants providing protection for the soil and resources for plants nearby.
We have seen all 190 students in the garden, working with 6th, 7th and 8th grade Science classes, as well as PE/Health and Life Skills classes. This quarter, Zoe has even started working with our ASD (Austism Spectrum Disorder) students, curating special garden time for this unique cohort to explore and contribute to the mala.
With over 30 days of garden classes, we have made Kim Chi and decomposition bottles with 7th grade, studied clouds and weather with 8th grade, practiced our Qualitative and Quantitative observations with 6th grade, and reviewed “basics of the garden” like seed starting and how to prepare a bed for planting. We also pulled off a late season Glass Gem corn harvest! Gorgeous!
We also welcomed special groups like Ka Oha, Kanu o Ka ‘Āina’s homeschool hui, as well as Konawaena’s 8th grade Agriculture class, where they did a peer-to-peer sharing about air-layering (read more in our guest speakers post!).
Between August - October we harvested 372 pounds of produce, and over 348 chicken eggs! All produce and eggs are used in daily snacks, and we send produce home with students; we gave cooked sweet potatoes to all 190 students, and harvested over 250 avocados to send one home with every student and staff member at WMS. Woohoo!
Grateful for the returning rains and ho‘oilo (wet) season, we are planting lots of flowers and crops that love this weather - cabbages, beets, carrots, kohlrabi, peas and more. Keep an eye on our events for upcoming workdays (December 13, 2025) and garden workshops in early 2026!
