Woolly Pocket

Water is one of our most precious and valuable resources, and there is increasing concern over us approaching its limits. For this reason, it’s becoming increasingly important to educate our youth—and each other—about water conservation and sustainability.

At Luther Burbank Middle School in Los Angeles, one inspiring teacher—Jamie Wisehaupt—uses her Woolly School Garden to teach her students about water sustainability in California. She covers important topics, such as “how we get our water supply, how to recharge our local water table and most importantly choices we can make as a community to encourage responsible water usage.” With the help of two students from Woodbury University, Jamie created a California Natives garden in order to demonstrate why we should consider planting “California-native plants as opposed to all these plants that come from other parts of the world.”

As a result, Jamie’s students have become increasingly interested in California-native plants, especially cacti and other succulents—which, of course, don’t need much water!

Jamie and her students decided as a class that they wanted to create a vertical garden using succulents. “While our plants are still small” Jamie explains, “they are thriving in the pockets and are enjoying the California sunshine.”

I suppose this is what I truly love about the Woolly School Garden Program—how every school uses the program in their own unique way! Thank you for sharing your story with us, Jamie.

How are you using your pockets? Let us know! Email us at pr@woollypocket.com

We had a great time at the Good Food Festival. in Santa Monica. We met some incredible folks- Nona from the Whole Kids Foundation, the great guys from Chipotle, our incredible partners Growing Great, and the always inspiring Mud Baron. We also heard the stories of fantastic model school gardens from all over Los Angeles. Thanks to everyone who came out to the Rose Garden to learn about vertical gardening, and the woolly school garden program! And a big thank you to the Good Food Festival volunteers for helping us woollify the school garden with beautiful veggies and herbs!

The organizing committee of the Good Food Festival & Conference has put together five days of STELLAR events as part of the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market.

Stop by this weekend at the Rose Garden from 10am – 5pm to meet our very own Woolly School Garden extraodinaire, Shauna Nep to learn about vertical gardening with kids. We’ll have our new Mini Wally and children’s book for you to check out. There will also be a street fair with good food, local tops chefs, and wonderful workshops on cooking and growing your own food. We’d love to see y’all there. It’s gonna be a GOOD weekend!

Good Food Festival & Conference @ Santa Monica High School
601 Pico Boulevard
Santa Monica, California 90405

Yippee! We love hearing what our very inspiring garden representatives are up to. We are constantly amazed by all the different ways teachers use their garden for all sorts of subjects! Thanks Paige for updating us on what the Waldorf School of Pittsburgh Fifth Grade class is up to, and how you’re using your Woolly School Garden:

“Last Spring we used a whole variety of seeds and tried everything from flowers to vegetables, from upright plants to trailing plants and large things to small. We wanted to see all the different varieties of plants. By the time we said goodbye for the summer in mid June, we were sampling arugula and nasturium leaves and watching the various seedlings develop.

This Fall, my students returned to school eager to see what our Woolly School Garden had grown.  We found that a wide range of seeds had grown and are now in various states of their life cycle, perfect for our Botany studies. Some still are producing flowers and fruits, some have gone full circle and are setting seeds. As we study each stage in the metamorphosis of plants, we are able to use our Woolly Garden to provide real life examples of that stage to observe and draw. The Woolly School Garden will be passed to the rising Grade Five class in the spring so that it can continue to provide wonderful Botany studies year after year.”

We are so happy that you are loving your garden, Paige! Thank you for sharing your story with us!

To learn more about the Woolly School Garden Program, please check out www.woollyschoolgarden.org or email us at schools@woollypocket.com

xx
Shauna
Woolly School Garden Coordinator

Wow! Are we ever grateful today. Despite the rainy weather, our friends at Whole Foods Callowhill raised $5000 for the Woolly School Garden Program! That’s 5 schools in Philadelphia that will have a beautiful outdoor classroom, and will start learning gardening + nutrition! What a great way to kick off the school year. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

We are super excited to debut our new Mini Wally with our children’s book, Dudley and Omar’s Moving Garden this month! Our new Mini Wally comes complete with a children’s book, created to inspire parents and children to garden together. Mini Wally can hold three 3″ plants, and works both indoors and outdoors.

20% of sales go to the Woolly School Garden program.

Our Mini Wally and book  are exclusively sold at ecomom which you can order now, just in time for back to school. Hooray!

About the book:
Dudley & Omar, two adventurous, desert dwelling camels, have a knack for finding water. The trouble is, water is all they ever find — where’s the adventure in that? One day, they travel farther than ever before and discover a magical oasis where Nungma, the gardening monkey, teaches them the secrets of plants and flowers. Now, how will Dudley & Omar use their newfound knowledge to create a garden oasis of their own?
By Doug Hammer | Illustrations by Chris McDonnell

Name of School: Margaret Landell Elementary Location: Cypress, CA Number of Students: 600 Dollars away from reaching their goal: 655

Thanks Melinda! To donate to Margaret Landell Elementary, click here!