While QAE is at John Marshall this year, our PTSA Garden Coordinator Andrea Hildebrandt is helping keep us connected with our natural environment!

On the morning of Saturday, Sept. 15th, come celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Seattle P-Patch program with neighbors at the Queen Anne P-Patch at 217 Lynn St. See the flyer below for more information.

Are you interested in helping with the garden at John Marshall? If so, please contact Andrea at garden1@qaeptsa.org
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End of Year Garden Gratitude
Saturday, June 23 at the QA P-Patch from 9:30-11:30 a.m.
All are invited to have coffee, pastries, kid-friendly and garden variety snacks while getting to know other members of our greater QA Neighborhood. Check out the QAE Garden Patch, find out how you and your family can get involved, crafting and nature hunts for kids, ask questions and enjoy the morning. 

A Summer Garden Class is being offered by the QAE Garden Coordinator, on various Wednesday mornings 9:30-11:30 at the QAE P-Patch. It's a suggested $10 and 100% will go towards Lowell Elementary 2018-19 5th graders to help fund their Fall IslandWood experience. The Summer garden class schedule will be out shortly.

See the QAE Garden site for more details...

These buzzing furry friends are important for pollinating fruit trees. They're great for kids to observe because they don't sting. These special native bees require a special clay to protect their eggs. With the help of parents, students, teachers and staff our QAE community can help bees do the important jobs of pollination and growing future generations of bees. It's exciting to learn about the natural world around us! Please talk to your kiddos about the Mason Bee Hive. The Bees will be our guests until June.

Visit the QAE Garden Blog for information and fun links.

Check out the complete list of activities below. See the QAE Garden site for more info!

We need your recyclables! Before we adventure off on Spring Break please bring in your clean and dry recyclables. There will be collection boxes near the entrance to the Tree House and Brick Buildings this week, April 1st-5th.

These materials will be used at the Recycled Instruments Creation Station set up after school on Monday, April 16th. All students young and old are invited to create as we kick-off Earth Week, 2018. Visit the garden blog to get the scoop!

Here's a quick list of what we need:

• Paper towel tubes
• Cardboard boxes
• Yogurt containers
• La croix cans (or similar)
• Egg cartons
• Rubber bands (usually cut and used as guitar strings)
• String/ribbon
• Bottle caps (to use as parts of a guitar)
• Coffee tins
• Milk cartons
• Costco produce containers
• Tape (duct/masking/scotch) ​

Building momentum towards Earth Week: a creative community event!

Gather to help construct the largest globe we can! It will hang in the lunch hall at school when it is complete. Expect a casual, fun and creative family time with our QAE Community! 

When: Saturday, March 24,  11am-4pm
Where: The Powerhouse Art Studio in Fremont, 3940 Fremont Ave North

More information will be available on the QAE Garden page.

UPDATE: Due to weather concerns, this event has been changed to Saturday, November 18th from 10am to noon! We'll see you there!

Join us for a QAE Fall Garden Party on Sunday, November 19th! Our November Big Dig is all about finding new homes for the perennial garden plants. Come June, our garden space is going to be sadly bulldozed. The good is that it makes new classrooms for our growing population of students. 

Our Big Dig will be from 10am-12pm at the QAE Garden! Dig up now as these plants go dormant for beautiful blooms in the spring/summer. Learn how to build a cloche for winter gardening.

We hope your family participates in this growing adventure with us! Find out more on the QAE Garden page...

Who: QAE Community, families, students, staff, faculty and friends

What: A little work, a lot of play! Help spread wood chips and hay at school. It's a labor of love and gratitude. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Post work, You and your families are invited to come hang, eat, drink and be merry. BYOB and dish to share. We'll provide the BBQ Grill, S'mores, Coolers, Music and open our home for a gathering space (although small, it will be cozy).

Where: QAE Garden and The Hildebrandt Home located at 510 W Galer St, Seattle 98119.

When: Saturday, June 24 10am- 12pm at the QAE Garden ... Potluck to follow immediately with no planned end point.

​Why: As our Seattle summer turns into drought-like weather, typically, July into September, the wood chips and hay will keep the soil moist and prevent it from turning into plots of dust. It will be a good way to indicate appropriate walking paths and put nutrients back into the soil as it decomposes over the coming seasons. We need your help spreading them!  Out of gratitude for the garden, our school community, the work our students have done and everyone that has helped in the garden, we want to gather in recognition of it all. Evan if you haven't had a change to help in the garden but are happy for it's existence and our community please come and celebrate! 

Help us plan by RSVPing to garden1@qaeptsa.org. And see our Garden page for more details.
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The Queen Anne Elementary Garden has received a $2,000 grant from the Whole Kids Foundation! Check out the write-up in the Queen Anne View about the grant!

Our wonderful Garden Coordinator Andrea Hildebrandt has big plans build on integrating the garden into our Five Pillars of learning. And as the weather is getting better, be sure to join us after school on Wednesdays for Gather in the Garden. Take a little time after school to help our garden grow and learn about earth and plant science!

​Come for the donuts, cider and pie. Stay for the weeds! 
Our garden needs to get ready for the winter! That means we need as many adult helping hands as possible!! Get ready to cut old growth back, turn soil, plant bulbs and spread mulch. A huge thank you to Five Corners Hardware who is donating and delivering mulch for us! Bring your bulbs!! (School colors, purple and orange would be great but all colors of course are welcome!!)  We'll also be collecting non-perishables for NW Harvest at the party. Kiddos are encouraged to come.

See the Gather at the Garden page for more details...

It's Fall in the Garden. A great time for some pumpkin fun!

Please join us on Sunday, Oct. 16 from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. for a Pumpkin Carving Party at the Garden. Dress for the weather and bring a pumpkin, carving tools and a picnic lunch. Some snacks and drinks will be provided.

To RSVP for the event and for any garden questions connect with Andrea at garden1@qaeptsa.org.

See the QAE Garden page to learn more about how you can help the garden grow!

** We're planning to be there, but we will reschedule if the weather is really bad. We'll update this post and the QAE PTSA Facebook site if there's too much rain and wind on Sunday! **

The QAE PTSA Garden Committee is hosting our Annual School Beautification Day on Saturday, 9/27, from 9:30-12:30. We will be setting up raised planting beds, weeding, planting, painting (if the weather cooperates), mulching and sweeping our school into tip-top shape in anticipation of another terrific year as Explorers. 

If you have any questions please email Heather or Christa, our Garden Co-Chairs.