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Georgia’s 2021 Farm to School Month Planning
Livin’ La Vida Okra
October is Farm to School Month and schools and early care centers across Georgia will be celebrating all things okra! Livin’ La Vida Okra is a state-wide celebration to get kids eating, growing, and participating in okra-themed activities.
To participate in Livin’ La Vida Okra at your school, home, early care center, or in your community, visit bit.ly/livinlavidaokra and sign up. Participants will receive free electronic resources to help you plan and implement your activities. Resources include standards-based lesson plans, activities, recipes, videos, school garden planting and harvesting information, and more!
The first 300 people to sign-up will be able to choose whether or not to be mailed a free packet of okra seeds, washable okra tattoos, and a Georgia Planting and Harvest Calendar for school gardens. Share your Livin’ La Vida Okra pictures and activities on social media with #livinlavidaokra. Each week during October, anyone who uses this hashtag will be entered to win a gift card and at the end of the month, there will be a grand prize winner. Questions? Visit https://farmtoschool.georgiaorganics.org/frequently-asked-questions or email kimberlykoogler@georgiaorganics.org.
UGA Extension has a fantastic publication on growing okra that could be useful for those gardeners new to the crop or for those who want to improve their harvest!
Happy Gardening!
Using Seed Catalogs In the Classroom
The seed catalogs keep arriving. In my household that is cause for excitement. I save them until I have time to properly enjoy looking through them. What do you do with your seed catalogs after you have looked through them and placed your orders? If you throw them into the recycling bin you are missing out as these gems are full of useful information.
If you are a school gardener, or a community gardener that works with youth, the seed catalogs can be used throughout the year! To start with you can laminate the beautiful photos to use as plant markers.
You can use the information provided in the catalog for lessons:
Seed spacing guides can be used for students to create a garden bed design.
Days to harvest information can be used for students to determine the planting dates of their garden design so that all the produce is ready at the same time.
Seed package cost can be used to calculate the total cost of the garden design.
All of this information can be used to determine how much produce can be grown per square foot (inch, meter).
Marketing plans can be created to sell resulting produce at a Farmers Market. How much money can be made given the input costs?
Aspiring artists can design artistic seed packets using the information given.
English classes can pick vegetables and re-write the plant descriptions.
Of couse, students can look through the catalog and pick a vegetable they have never tried before and make a plan to grow it.
Happy browsing!
Turnip the Volume- Farm to School Month is Coming!
October is Farm to School Month and schools and early care centers across Georgia are celebrating all things turnip! Turnip the Volume (Can you Dig it?) is a state-wide celebration to get kids eating, growing, and participating in turnip-themed activities. To participate in Turnip the Volume at your school, early care center, or in your community, visit https://farmtoschool.georgiaorganics.org/turnip-the-volume and sign up. Participants will receive free electronic resources to help you plan and implement your activities. Resources include standards-based lesson plans, quick activities, recipes, videos, school garden planting and harvesting information, and more! UGA Extension has been a partner in Farm to School Month celebrations and your local UGA Extension office can answer questions about growing turnips or using them in recipes.
The first 300 people to sign-up for the program will be mailed a free packet of turnip seeds, washable turnip tattoos, and a Georgia Planting and Harvest Calendar for school gardens. This information is great for educators making plans for going back to school.
Share your Turnip the Volume pictures and activities on social media with #turnipthevolume. Each week during October, anyone who uses this hashtag will be entered to win a gift card and at the end of the month and we will have a grand prize winner at the end of the month! Questions? Visit https://farmtoschool.georgiaorganics.org/october-f2s-month or email kimberlykoogler@georgiaorganics.org.
Summer 2020 School Garden Training
Extension has designed a creative approach to school garden education this summer. On June 16th a no-cost, symposium consisting of four webinars will be conducted through a Zoom classroom.
10 AM Adding Fruit Plant to Your School Garden with Ashley Hoppers, Gilmer and Fannin County ANR agent
11 AM Seed Saving in the School Garden with Rosann Kent with University of North Georgia
Noon – 1 PM Lunch Break
1 PM Vermiculture (worm composting) with Josh Fuder, Cherokee County ANR Agents
2 PM Using the Great Georgia Pollinator Census in Your School Garden with Becky Griffin, the census coordinator
The lunch break, from noon until 1 PM, will be a chance to ask any questions about your school garden and to network with other gardens while we have our lunch.
Additional at-home activities will be available for those who want to put their new skills to immediate use. For those who complete all four webinars and all four at-home activities a Certificate of Completion will be issued. This can be presented to your school administration for proof of course completion.
You will be ready to get results from your school garden before school starts back in the fall. This is open to anyone who works with school gardens – Master Gardeners, volunteers, and educators of all types.
To register for the free symposium visit https://schoolgardenwebinar0616.eventbrite.com. For more information contact Becky Griffin at beckygri@uga.edu. The details of the day are listed below:
Adding Milkweed to Your School or Community Garden
Leading up to the Great Pollinator Census we will be looking at the benefits of adding pollinator habitat to your school or community garden. Today we will look at milkweed.

Attracting Monarch butterflies to your garden involves including their larval host plant, milkweed or Asclepias, in your garden. Common milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) is a popular milkweed with orange blossoms that frequently appears along roadsides. The beautiful plant also provides nectar to bees and other pollinators. Many gardeners feel that growing milkweed from seed is challenging and it can be. However, there are a few tips and tricks that can help you find success.
Common milkweed seeds need to be stratified before they will germinate. This means that they need a period of moist cold. In nature, it is easy to see how this is accomplished. Our winters provide the chill and the rain provides the moisture. You can mimic this process at home with a few easy steps.
- First, purchase some clean sand from your local hardware or craft store. Craft or playground sand will work. Moisten the sand with water until you have a paste. You want damp sand, not wet sand.
- Add your milkweed seeds and mix them in the moistened sand.
- Put all of this in a plastic baggie or jar and label it with the date.
- Place this in your refrigerator for thirty days. Mark on your calendar the date the seeds will be ready so that you don’t forget them. Once they have stratified they are ready for planting.
- Lay the seeds across planting soil, not covering them. They need light to germinate. Use your greenhouse or home light set-up.

For more information on milkweed join us on the Georgia Pollinator Census Facebook group or on @gapollinators Instagram. This week we will be exploring milkweed types, ways to grow it, and how it benefits our pollinators. Leading up to the Great Georgia Pollinator Census we will be exploring all types of pollinators and pollinator habitats in our social media groups. This year’s Great Georgia Pollinator Census will be on August 21st and 22nd. You can find out more at the project website: GGaPC.org.
Happy Garden Planning!