Grow G-Dimensional

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas from our family to yours!🎄

On the podium! Eagle Rock FFA rocked it at the LA Section Officer Opening & Closing Competition. Our officers brought home 3rd place.
Our rookies competed in the Best Informed Greenhand contest. They brought home 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th & 9th! So proud of them for taking on their first FFA Competition.
It was a great night all around. 💙💛

Garlic planting, breaking smiles. There’s just something about digging into that dirt. 🐾
Have you planted your garlic yet? 🧄 The time is now! And you don’t have to overcomplicate it. This is organic store-bought garlic, separated for the largest cloves soaking in baking soda and kelp fertilizer. Every student planted one so we’re hoping for over 200 bulbs of garlic come May!
The variety you get from most stores is CA Early soft-neck - it does best in our warm climate and can be harvested earlier than hard-neck varieties. Try it for yourself!

No one I’d rather spend 15 more years of life with …

Slowly getting the school garden looking beautiful again… but it has a long way to go! Students are getting trained to do all the things.
But I love that I have a senior class this year who already had one year with me, so they can get right to work! Today they freshened up the tomato alley and picked some gorgeous fruit! Hoping these toms can keep going throughout fall.
How are things growing for you?!

The garden bearing gifts. Although the work we do in the school garden slows down during summer, the garden is still pumping out the treasures.
All the students who came to our workday got to snack on green beans & cucumbers and take home sunflowers, zucchini & jalapeños.
Enjoying the less structured, free-flowing nature of working in the garden right now. Summertime and the living is eazzzzy.

Flowers & Farewells. I was honored to do the graduation flowers again this year.
But I was even more honored to have these four students for both my years of teaching at Eagle Rock so far.
They have made my Horticulture classes what they are today and I am truly going to miss them! 😭

First Chicken Care Task: checking and caring for Pasty Butt. 🫣
Our chicks got a little “spa” day as students learned how to identify when our chicks’ vents are clogged with 💩 residue and treat.
Fun stuff.
Happy to report all 12 chicks are clean & feeling fresh down yonder. ☺️

Haven’t done a garden selfie in awhile. Remember me?! Still out here loving my plants and taking cheesy plant pics. Especially with these broccoli greens! Showed my students a documentary all about food waste last week -
And even I needed that kick in the butt to remind me that I should be eating as much of my garden as possible. Broccoli is a huge plant and takes up a lot of real estate if you don’t take advantage of the greens.
I like to treat it like kale: remove the rib, chiffonade the leaves, and sauté it down with garlic, onions, chili flakes, salt and pepper. We’re pairing it up with some wild rice and fish for dinner.
What you eating out of your garden tonight?!

Guess what’s for dinner?! Probably the best broccolis I’ve ever grown thanks to LA’s unusually cold and wet winter.
If you harvest your greens when it’s cold they are extra sweet & tender!
Yummmm….
Did you know this is actually a flower? Or technically hundreds of flower buds.
And the entire broccoli plant is edible, not just the flowers. So even if you get impressive florets they are still such a worthwhile plant to grow.
How’s your broccoli growing?? 🥦

A very Merry Christmas from the Eagle Rock Rabbits.🎄 Ain’t they cute. And spoiled with their own stockings and gifts thanks to one of my amazing students.
Hope these fluffy faces provide some joy for you this season! ♥️

Had a great experience last Saturday with my FFA students at their first CDE Competition. The event was hosted by the awesome people who run the Pierce College Farm. 🚜
We took home 1st in the Nursery & Landscape Contest.
Jesse Hernandez - 1st place overall, 1st place Plant ID, and 1st place Knowledge. Rebecca Castro - 1st place Practical. Rainer - 3rd place overall.