Feb 2013 Louisiana School Gardening News ` For more information, Please see websites below: ` Organic Edible Schoolyards & Gardening with Children http://scribd.com/doc/239851214 ` Double your School Garden Food Production with Organic Tech http://scribd.com/doc/239851079 ` Free School Gardening Art Posters http://scribd.com/doc/239851159` ` Companion Planting Increases School Garden Food Production by 250 Percent http://scribd.com/doc/239851159 ` Healthy Foods Dramatically Improves Student Academic Success http://scribd.com/doc/239851348 ` City Chickens for your Organic School Garden http://scribd.com/doc/239850440 ` Simple Square Foot Gardening for Schools - Teacher Guide http://scribd.com/doc/239851110

1. Inside this issue:
Arbor Day at Burden 2
Growing Gardens!
Kathryn “Kiki” Fontenot , PhD
155 JC Miller Hall
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
LSU AgCenter
William B Richardson, Chancellor
Louisiana Agricultural
Experiment Station
Jon S Russin, Interim Vice
Chancellor and Director
Louisiana Cooperative
Extension Service
Paul D Coreil, Vice Chancellor and
Director
The LSU AgCenter is a statewide
campus of the LSU system and
provides equal opportunities in
programs and employment.
Veggie Bytes
Coach Charles Furlan, Physi-cal
Education instructor at
Holy Rosary Academy in
New Orleans is sharing his
personal love for gardens
with his students. Holy Ro-sary
recently changed loca-tions
in August. With their
move came the addition of a
new school garden located
on campus. At the old Espla-nade
Holy Rosary location,
Coach Furlan and students
would garden at a teachers
house a block from the
school's campus. Now stu-dents
are able to enjoy more
garden time with less com-mute
as Coach Furlan and
parents in the lumber and
construction industry part-nered
to ϐind enough timber
and soil to construct (1) 4 x
6 ft garden and (2) 11 x 6ft
gardens. With seeds donat-ed
by parents Coach Furlan
and his 3rd -7th graders are
raising a variety of vegeta-bles
such as broccoli, cab-bage,
spinach, radish, beets,
Romaine and head lettuce.
The students have had poor
success with cauliϐlower and
tons of success with snow
peas! The Holy Rosary stu-dents
are also growing
herbs. Charles works with
the students during "club"
time. Clubs meet once every
other week for an hour. Stu-dents
choose what club they
want to participate in at the
beginning of the school year.
Holy Rosary is a small school
with approximately 10-12
students per club. Coach Fur-lan
says his students love his
garden club because it is or-ganized
with lots of fun ac-tivities
such as trying to
February-April 2013
Volume 4 Issue 1
freshen their breath with
spearmint from their gar-den
and just getting their
hands dirty! This spring the
students will grow a "three
Sisters" Garden with corn,
beans and squash. The gar-den
club students are al-lowed
to take extra plants
and seeds home. Many
share their successes and
failures of their home gar-den
with their Coach and
fellow students. Cont. p3
Let’s Talk Plants! 1
Connecting the class
to the garden
2
Book
Recommendation
3
Recipe 3
What’s Growing? 4
Upcoming Events 4
Grant Information 4
Let’s talk plants with
Holy Rosary Academy
Let’s Talk Plants club gets ready to
work in the garden!
Bountiful harvest at
Holy Rosary Academy

2. Veggie Bytes Veggie Bytes
Arbor Day-LSU Burden Center Feb 23
Arbor Day in Louisi-ana
is celebrated on
the 3rd Friday in Jan-uary
and even though
we’ve ofϐicially
passed Louisiana Ar-bor
Day there’s no
reason why we can’t
celebrate it any day
of the year. After all,
the day is centered
on protecting the en-vironment
and pro-moting
clean air by
Burden Arbor Day 2012
Photo by Bob Souvestre
planting more trees. People often
plant the Louisiana’s state tree,
the bald cypress Taxodium dis-tichum
which is a beautiful tree
but is very large and may shade
out your veggie crops. Why not
plant a citrus tree such as navel
oranges, satsumas, lemons, limes
and grapefruit. In areas of the
state where the weather gets
colder in the winter months, cit-rus
trees can still be grown but in
very large containers
that can be moved in-doors
when a frost is
forecasted. Citrus trees
require little mainte-nance
and produce an
abundance of fruit from
October to January
when students are in
school! Host your own
arbor day or attend
Burden Center’s Arbor
Day on February 23rd
(4560 Essen Lane Ba-ton
Rouge, La) 10am-1pm. Par-ents
and children of all ages are
welcome. You can plant and take
GPS coordinates of a tree or go
for a hike on one of the trials. Ad-mission
is $5 for individuals, and
proceeds will support the Project
Learning Tree program for chil-dren
conducted by the Burden
Horticulture Society. Trail mix and
water will be provided for those
who work up an appetite .
Burden activities :
 Planting trees in Burden
woods
 Tree scavenger hunt
 Visit with Smokey Bear
 Presentations on trees
and the environment
 Create edible tree deco-rations
for wildlife
 learn more about trees
and leaves with a leaf
stamp activity
 Receive take-home tree
seedling from La Dept
Ag and Forestry
Connecting the class to the garden
 Fresh Cranberries
 Popped, plain popcorn
 Cheerios/grain cereal
 String
 Large sewing needle
 Thin slices of citrus/
fruit
 Peanut butter
 Pine Cones
 Uncooked Oatmeal
 Bird Seed
3hrs in an oven at 200F or de-hydrate
for 16-24 hrs. Tie a
loop of string through the rind
and hang on the tree.
Roll the edges of the pine
cones in peanut butter then roll
the pine cones in a mixture of
uncooked oatmeal and bird-seed
using string to tie a knot
on the top of the pine cone and
hang throughout the tree.
Then sit back and watch nature
feast and observe which snack
was the favorite! Don’t forget
pictures!
Tie a large knot in the end of
the string and loop it through
the sewing needle. String 3-
4ft strands of cranberries or
popcorn or mix both.. Take
these short strands and wrap
them in the tree.
Again tie a large knot in the
string and loop the sewing
needle through. Make small 6-
8 inch strands of cheerios and
tie the ends together to form a
loop. Hand as ornaments
throughout the tree.
Bake the thin slices of apples,
oranges and grapefruit for 2-
Don’t have the space to
plant a tree for Arbor Day?
Decorate one! Teach your
students to observe the natu-ral
world around them by
decorating a nature tree.
Pick a tree right outside your
classrooms window or in
another highly visible loca-tion
to watch the birds and
squirrels feast on the edible
treats you’ve placed on your
nature tree.
You’ll need the following:

3. Let’s Talk Plants Cont...
Coach Furlan is a self-taught garden-er.
He and his wife enjoy growing
vegetables at home so extending his
passion into the classroom was a well
received task for him. Veggie Bytes
wants to commend Coach Furlan for
his garden efforts. It is quite an ac-complishment
to construct a garden
and raise vegetables in such as short
period of time. There are many suc-cessful
school gardens in Louisiana.
Most have a dedicated teacher like
Coach Furlan. If you are struggling to
grow or maintain your school garden,
visit teachers from neighboring
schools with gardens to get
their tips for success. Also re-member
to call your local coun-ty
agent! They are here to
help. If you don't know your
county agent, simply visit our
website www.lsuagcenter.com
in the bottom right hand corner
under "ABOUT US" click on
"PARISH OFFICES". Simply
click the name of the parish in
which you reside and you will
find contact names and information.
Beets make a sweet treat!
Book Recommendation
The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle is just the book to read to younger
students (grades K-3) right before you plant your seeds for the
spring garden! This book will inspire your class to grow a won-derful
garden and includes seeded paper to grow your own
flowers. See the What’s Growing section in this issue of Veg-gie
Bytes to determine what types of seed are appropriate to
grow right now!
Ingredients:
 Fresh beets
 A Misto can filled with olive oil
 Pinch of salt
 Rosemary and/or garlic
(optional)
 A baking sheet
 Aluminum foil
 Mandoline or sharp vegetable
knife for slicing
Forget the store bought beets in a
can and try eating them fresh from
the garden. Processed beets can’t
compare to the amazingly sweet
taste of fresh beets - especially when
you roast them. Roasting vegetables
in the oven brings out their natural
sweetness and gives them a unique
flavor. If you prefer a more savory
taste, just add your favorite herbs
and spices. If you are looking for a
crispy snack, try this quick and easy
baked beet chip recipe:
Page 3
Charles Furlan takes pride in his
school garden harvest
Pre-heat oven to 350°. Line a baking
sheet with aluminum foil and lightly
coat with olive oil. If you do not have a
Misto, either brush the oil on with a
pastry brush or pour oil onto a paper
towel and rub over the foil. Next, wash
and peel your beets, then thinly slice.
Toss the beets in olive oil and sprinkle
with just a little salt. Place the beets
flat onto the baking sheet making cer-tain
not to let them overlap. Roast in
the oven for about 30 minutes. The
thicker you cut the vegetable the long-er
it may need to bake. Enjoy!
Recipe by Natalie Savoy

4. Page 4
What’s Growing?
Start gearing up for your Spring vegetable garden now so that you can harvest produce before
school lets out for Summer. Typically in Louisiana, Spring vegetable crops are not planted outdoors
before the last frost date. South Louisiana gardeners can plant around March 15th; North Louisi-ana
gardeners should wait until April 1st. However, if you want to harvest a few ripe tomatoes,
peppers, etc before school lets out, you’ll need to start transplants indoors. To grow transplants,
plant seeds into containers in a sterile soil “germinating mix” indoors. Near a sunny window. Do
not move these transplants into the garden until they have developed their first true leaves and
after the last chance of frost. See the planting guide below for vegetables that can be planted now.
February
Vegetables
Direct seed into the garden:
-beets, turnips, mustard, pars-ley,
radishes, lettuce, snap
beans, and irish potatoes
Transplants into the garden:
-broccoli, cauliϐlower, cabbage,
lettuce
Start in the classroom:
-start transplants of tomatoes,
peppers, and eggplant
March
Vegetables
Direct seed into the garden:
-snap beans, swiss chard, radish,
lettuce, collard greens, mus-tards,
and turnips
Transplants into the garden:
-tomatoes, peppers, and egg-plants
Start in the classroom:
-start cucumber transplants,
plant after last frost
 Thursday evenings from 6-7 pm at Burden there will
be 1 hr workshops on basic garden topics. Admission is
free but registration is required. Contact Kiki Fontenot
at kkfontenot@agcenter.lsu.edu
-4/11: Starting and growing your own vegeta-transplants
‐6/13: What is a weed-what is a plant?
-8/8: Insect Identiϐication
-10/10: Is it ready to harvest/eat?
-11/14: Preparing your fresh vegetables
 Saturday February 23 10am-1pm bring the family out
to Burden (4560 Essen Lane, BR) for Arbor Day; $5
admission.
 Mon April 22-Friday April 26 is LSU AgCenter’ s Ag-
Magic program with guided school tours available from
8 am-1 pm. Pet livestock, explore the world of plants
and insects, take a tour of a forest and much more. This
is a free event for students and teachers.
 Saturday June 15th from 8 am-12 pm visit Burden for
Garden Fest where you will enjoy food, garden tours
and live music! Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for
children.
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries Environmen-tal
Education Commission (LEEC) is now accepting proposals
for their 2013-2014 Sustainability Grants program. These
grants are designed to encourage student learning via sustain-ability
initiatives in EPA region 6K-12 schools. Proposals to be
considered are those within a speciϐic school campus that will
both actively engage students and result in a more sustainable
facility. Project funds are provided via a grant from the EPA
ofϐice of Environmental Education Sub-Grants Program to
LDWF. General Information:
 Application deadline is March 15, 2013
 Grant awards are not to exceed $5,000
 Applications will be accepted via electronic submission
 All applications will undergo an anonymous and competi-tive
grant review process
For more information contact:
Venis Ortego
Environmental Education Coordinator
La Dep of Wildlife & Fisheries
(337)948.0255 vortego@wlf.la.gov
Upcoming Events
April
Vegetables
Direct seed into the gar‐den:
-snap beans, butter beans,
radish, collards, cucumbers
Transplants into the gar‐den:
-sweet potato slips, tomatoes,
peppers, and eggplant
If you have a year round
garden, you can also
plant the following.
Sweet corn can be direct-ly
seeded in LATE Febru-ary.
Plant cantaloupes,
squash, cucumbers, and
watermelons after the
last frost. Okra, Southern
peas, peanuts, pumpkins,
winter squash and sum-mer
squash can be di-rectly
seeded into the
garden in April.
Grant Opportunity