I’m so excited to introduce my guest because it’s someone I met from the Organic Gardener Podcast Facebook group. I asked one of the awesome members if she wanted to do an interview and she recommended Jennifer Brown from the Children’s Garden at Woodend Sanctuary Audubon Naturalist Society of the Mid-Atlantic States in Silver Spring Maryland, a mile north Washington DC.

Tell us a little about yourself.

I work with children. I remember of course working with my mom and my grandmother. Every summer we would go to upstate NY and visit her and my mothers relatives. They had an extensive raspberry patch. Look at the asparagus flowers and herbs. The foundation got laid early on as it does for most people and of course I ignored it for many years.

Until my 20s 30s, I started to take it on as a hobby. The first thing I grew was tulips … they came out and were beautiful. 

About my late 20s I was living in a group house, it had a patch of ground in front and a yard in the back. I decided to grow things. They came up in the spring. I decided to cut a whole bunch to take to a friend. She was so impressed. 

Always Learning

I thought that more would grow! I was shocked! I thought I knew something about gardening!

Which has been the theme of my life in gardening is there is always so much more to learn! 

I plant with students and kids of all ages, I am constantly learning!

We grew amaranth this year, and I hope this week we will be able to cook it, so we are alway learning! I teach them that old people like me are always learning. That’s sort of the theme of my gardening journey.

I love all of that!!!

Now, it’s the Audubon where? What’s the Woodland Sanctuary?

Children’s Garden at Woodend Sanctuary Audubon Naturalist Society of the Mid Atlantic States, Teddy Roosevelt belonged to it. It had no home in Washington DC. I woman who had built a mansion donated it. 

It’s a beautiful site, they have many weddings take place there is one way they raise money and their mission is environmental education!

I went to work there in 2008, not trained in that specifically. With a small group wanting to work with school to bring more green education. I decided I wanted to know more of gardening native plants and vegetables. I took that on as a way to grow into the job and to learn more. 

Historic Greenhouse

There are 2 raised beds in the site. Right near in the historic greenhouse. The base is there and the water supply. I had everything I needed. Since then it has tripled in size.

So my question is how do the kids get there? Do they come in buses? Do you go to schools? Local neighborhoods? Who are the kids?

The kids are

3 different groups

Busloads of kids who come throughout the school year to visit Audubon and get some activities about the environment. There’s a stream on site and they will go down and see macro invertebrates and learn that’s a way to assess the health of the water in the area.

So far they don’t make official visits to a vegetable garden. 

Who’s coming now?

Audubon Summer Program

Very active for a summer program. Parents sign up during the week or several weeks. 

School day out camp, so they are holidays from school where parents need to do something with kids for the day. That’s great in the fall to continue harvesting or they can quickly sow a lettuce row. 

I get an enormous amount done over spring break if you come back for summer!

I bet there’s a ton of listeners who’s brains are spinning gears are turning. In the spring we don’t have much for holidays in my school. 

Nature Preschool at Audubon

We also have on site we have a nature preschool for 3-5 year olds. Different classes. 

One that happened this last year

Forest Oaks and they’re little 5-year olds not ready for kindergarten who basically roam the estate and learn all kind of things in nature and come to the garden regularly. That teacher is fabulous for having them plant peas very early and explore the garden. She feels very comfortable using the garden.

Summer Training

I met these amazing girls. I went to this training this summer. The last session was using a garden in early childhood education. She taught us all about things you could do with children, it was geared towards pre-k although mostly it was elementary and high school. You could use them across the grades. The college I was at had the oldest pre-school in the state dating back to 1912 or something. I love to hear that they were doing more gardening with preschoolers.

Now we have on staff a woman on staff who was a Phd on mushrooms, so I’m excited to learn more about mushrooms.

I love that to always be learning. And no matter how much you know about gardening, the climate is changing as what you’ve learned about growing peas 20 years ago might be different now and also we’re always expanding 

all leaving

Tell us about something that grew well this year.

Amaranth

It did grow well, but I have been warned it was aggressive, so I’ll find there whether it will I find it popping up everywhere

I garden there in raised beds

I picked

Hopi Red Dye Amaranth, one of the camps we have is called ethnobotany.

Summer Camps

The kids learn how humans interact with plants and how they c

• weaving things
• finding various dyes
• Hopi red dyes

Native Americans which we love to emphasize learning from them. As far as I know it’s the flower which is a deep red color. I’m excited to be picking some of that flower. 

Hopi Indian Tribe

The Hopi Indian lesson plans

We’ll see if it makes a nice dye! The Hopi actually made red or pink bread

Here’s a great pink tortilla recipe. 

Why not?

We’ll find out next week.

only use of the amaranth

sautee the leaves. I tried tasting them raw but they are not too appealing. We’ll see if they taste good cooked up.

Well a lot of things are like that don’t taste as good raw as cooked. So what made you pick amaranth? I have a feeling someone gave me some or I bought some aramanth seeds this year. I don’t think they actually got into the garden. I think there was  a reason, do they bring in pollinators or is it a companion plant?

(I actually think Jes Pearce from Bountiful Gardens told me about them.

amaranth

It’s about 4 feet tall now, care free, I didn’t have to do a thing! I have it interplanted with calendula! Trying to have something for this ethnobotany camp. These students are a little bit older, so I wanted more challenges for me and for them!

We have some bamboo 40 acres is a lot to manage

some bamboo. One of the leaders is trying to make me some trellises and have the kids learn to make trellis.

Seed Fair 2016 Kalispell, MT

I always like what makes a garden is those handmade things in between. I was looking at some pictures and its the little personal things that make a garden come to life I think! Like any little wooden thing that somebody makes or a sign or a decoration. It puts more of a caring feel to it.

Better then store bought stuff.

Is there something you would do different next year or want to try/new?

I’m ready to plunge into grapes, I think! Very scary because I have seen how fast they grow.

We have a big volunteer body of people who we also train. We are a site  for training master naturalists. They then have an ongoing commitment to service or community. A

They are always looking for projects and we also have eagle scouts looking to earn their badge? Status? We make suggestions to them.

We have one eagle scout make Mason Beehives!

Patti Armbrister brought these from her school garden in Hinsdale, MT

We haven’t seen any bees around our house this summer so I was just thinking about that as I attended a mason bee workshop at the seed fair this spring.

Mason bees

when I first became a master garden, they knew I was interested in working with children gave me a grant to go to

fantastic children’s garden and part of it was one of these mason bee structures! So I took a picture and I handed it to the eagle scout and he figured it out! It’s just a tall structure and the mason bees like small tubes to climb into, just a quarter to half inch depth. You could just drill holes in a log.

The ones I saw they took a coffee can and filled it with rolled up newspaper!

Back to next year.

What I think I might be ready for is an eagle scout to build me a structure for muscatine grapes. 

native to south eastern us

having enough room

excited… to learn.

Mike has been trying to grow some grapes. They’re growing but they need to have a strong structure for sure!

Tell me about something that didn’t work so well this season.

Can I first tell you about something that grew well? I did the 3 sisters garden. Another Native American theme?

Oh yes!

Harvest 3 ears of eating corn

beans growing

really excited about 3 things

spring break camp

made the mounds

I went and got 3 fish heads! The kids loved that! 

Some thing to remember if you are thinking to try but don’t forget the fish heads!

I think that’s awesome! Mike did the 3 sisters thing this year with the beans and the corn and the squash but I don’t think he did the fish head thing, we will have to remember that next year!

Then I thought how fun for the fall days out camp because the corn will be done and we will see if we find the sculls of the dead fish.

I’ll try and call you and see if you found them. I actually teach on reservation during the school year. I know it’s bastille day today July 14th! I feel like vacation just started but that should about when this airs. I think they will be decomposed and you won’t find the skulls. IDK maybe they would be there.

They were cat fish!

I chopped in half one whole one and 2 halves! 

Did you take pictures before while you were burying them? 

Do what didn’t work well?

One of the other things.

I’m a total scavenger. I have these bits of fencing and old poles. 

I tried to put the cucumbers in a new area, I had the kids at spring break build these things you could crawl in. 

I was thinking the cucumbers would. I forgot we were still contending with deer. They never bothered cucumbers before because they are spiny

Deer Trouble

they had been munching on them. The cover of the hut that I vegetable didn’t work.

I keep telling mike it’s a blessing, Mike’s still upset but I think it was better it happened then in a good way because everything’s growing back, there’s a chance when the brocolli comes back it might bolt it will be hot, but I feel like it’s made us more vigilante if the deer got in there now it would be so much worse. Deer mistakes it’s all part of the problem!

if they do munch it...