Did you know that you can eat flowers?

Nasturtium 

Plant name: Tropaeolum

Commonly referred to as: Nasturtium

peltate leaves

Description: flower is bright orange red color with five or more petals & peltate (shield-shaped) leaves

  Common Uses:

1.) Mostly eaten in salads (pretty & yummy!)

All parts of the plant are edible!

2.) A great companion plant! Nasturtium repels pests attracted to the plant families of squash and cucumbers, also repels caterpillars and aphids

What is companion planting?

Companion planting is when certain crops with beneficial relationships are planted near one another to help:
1.) Both plants to absorb more nutrients
2.) Keep harmful pests (like aphids) away from the plants
3.) Increase pollination

 All of these things help grow more healthy plants more often!

What is an aphid?

Aphids are tiny insect parasite that suck the sap out of plants and can transmit deadly viruses.

What is sap?

Sap is a fluid that consists of water and nutrients throughout the plant.

My Green Pioneers internship at our garden

Hello my name is Isabel. It's nice to meet you. I have an internship during this spring semester working at Castlemont High Schools' community garden. We meet after school 3 days a week. If you were to visit our garden, you would see Green Pioneers working cohesively as a team planting, constructing, and cooking. It's always a pleasant sight! I'm a freshman from Leadership Prep but our club consists of students from the other three schools on our campus: EOSA, LPS, and CBITS.

This semester, my internship project will be writing about our garden on this blog. Other Green Pioneers and I will also post pictures & videos of our progress throughout the semester. 


 A little bit about me:
- I enjoy helping the environment.
- I like gardening, watching the plants grow and helping with the compost even when we get dirty. Green Pioneers Volunteer, Grace Proctor, likes that students have access to a garden and grow plants and cook what we grow even though the school and neighborhood are located in an urban neighborhood in East Oakland.
- I love drawing and reading books with dramatic stories where I can use my imagination and picture what is happening.

Thank you for reading this blog. I hope you will enjoy learning more about Green Pioneers!