JMG Meeting

This Saturday we had our second JMG (Junior Master Gardener) meeting at our house.  We were so excited that our Master Gardener Advisors were able to come too:  Bill & Marie!

This month we learned about soil, composting and water flow/effects.  We were able to do lots of activities this week as a group, fewer than last week were required but so many went hand in hand that I did more than we even needed to.

We took a soil sample in a jar, filled it 1/2 way, then filled the rest of the way with water.  Then we shook it all up and let it sit. 

As it separates it tells us what our soil is made up of – the percentages.  So we were able to see most of our soil is sand, and then some silt & clay and we even separated out the mulch/compost materials.

Then we headed back to the compost and talked about how we constructed it, we also talked about what we put in it and what we do not.  Then we talked about how we have to turn it, water it and keep an eye on it.

Then we let the kids dig into the compost to see if they could find bugs that help the composting process.  We did offer gloves for the kids (since it is composed of trash virtually) and the kids LOVED it!  They found lots of bugs, mostly maggots, but there were some beetles, ants, and a few other bugs we did not really know.

 

After that we talked about water and how water erosion is something we have to watch out for and try and prevent. We also talked about how much water our world was made of and some ways we can be good stewards of that water and conserve when we can.

Our master gardener, Bill, took us over to one of our squash plants (pumpkin I think) to show us the difference in the male flower and the female flower. I never knew the difference, even though I knew there were both kinds. The male is just a straight stem with a flower and the female has the fruit at the base of “her” flower’s stem. Pretty cool! So when male flowers show up, they grow first, you know that the females are not far behind!!

Nest month we are going to talk about ecology and horticulture in the garden! Looking forward to that!!

JMG this week

We are loving our Junior Master Garden Class!!  It is so fun to go out in our yard and explore and learn!

This week we are talking about plant parts – which my kids really knew already, but that is okay!  We still talked about the different parts : stem, roots, leaves, flowers, fruit, and buds.  Then we studies the different kinds of roots : taproot or fibrous.

We still had some daylilies hanging around on the ground so we looked at taproot with them and then we pulled some weeds & grass as saw the fibrous roots there.  Then the kids sketched each type of root and listed some plants they thought were under each.  Pretty cool.

Next we are going to do a Variable Menu Project.  We are going to plant beans in 3 different pots, the same size and all, same location, same water, but we are going to use 3 different kinds of “soil”.  We are going to use potting soil that I purchased, soil from our ground (sandy), and then I think some woodchips.  So the kids can make hypotheses about which they think will do better, then in a few days we will start studying the differences.  Should be interesting!

Meanwhile, my oldest is doing a mini-study of Guinea Fowl since we like them but do not know much about them.  He should get it on his blog this week, if he does I will post a link here!  Fun learning around here!

JMG–Plant Growth and Development

Lesson #1 & #2

# 1 - Importance and Uses of Plants

We are learning how plants are used in our every day life this week.  We have talked about what our world would look like without plants :

• we could not breath
• animals would die
• no clothes
• bugs would die

For our project we are going to make a plant sandwich by pressing a flower or plant leaf in between some paper and put it in a thick book to press it out.

#2 – Plant Classification

Our next task is to talk about how we can group different plants to help us identify them and learn more about them.

We talked about

Monocot – parallel veins

Dicot – netted veins

and we collected different leaves from around our house as examples to make rubbings from them.

We also talked about different kinds of leaf edges – another way to identify a group of trees – and study similarities.

Entire – smooth edge 

Serrate – obviously a serrated edge

denticulate – a very tight jagged edge

lobed – big loopy lobes

We were able to find each leaf edge type – but only dicot leaves here around our house.

I think the kids learned some, but certainly got excited about learning more nature stuff, they had fun making rubbings and identifying their leaves.  I know we are going to love this program!!

JMG : Junior Master Gardener

I am so excited that we are starting up a JMG group in our County through 4H!  The extension agent suspected that we would have about 10 kids come, would you believe that right now we have 16+ already signed up and we are expecting more?!  I am so excited!  (I know, I said that already)

We are going to have the meetings at our house once a month.  There is a Leader Handbook and student handbooks that go along with the program.  The kids have between 4-7 tasks to do at home, and there are a number that they can choose from for each task.  Then when we all get together we get to do another batch of tasks to reinforce the concepts and learn as a group. 

So, we are about to embark on our first month of tasks, all three boys will be participating and hopefully get certified!  Not sure what the certification will do for them, but it sure cannot hurt!

So, stay tuned to see what we are learning as we get certified!  We are going to learn lots plants, soil, careers, and much more!!