Brenda Kouyoumdjian Virginia Master Gardeners are volunteer educators who work within their communities to encourage and promote environmentally sound horticulture practices through sustainable landscape management education and training.  As an educational program of Virginia Cooperative Extension, Virginia Master Gardeners bring the resources of Virginia’s land-grant universities, Virginia Tech and Virginia State University, to the people of the commonwealth.   As a Master Gardener, I contribute most of my hours teaching kids at Greenspring Gardens, giving docent tours, and assisting pre-schools in launching their own vegetable gardens.  I also blog about my own backyard garden successes and challenges at: http://northernvirginiagardener.blogspot.com/     

12.00 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4     Organic Gardening tips from the students at the Brooksfield School: The students at the Brooksfield School, a private Montessori School located in McLean, Virginia, worked and toiled in the campus gardens this week.  If you are gardening this fall remember garlic can be planted now!  Fall is also a great time to prepare the soil for the winter by mixing it with organic manure!     In the Montessori preschool classrooms our Lower School students are focusing on Author of the Month, including Ezra Jack Keats and Maurice Sendak.  Both authors have wonderful books that the children are enjoying.    

Here you will find updates about the progress on our new GREEN SCHOOL.           3:28 PM Exciting adventures are popping up at the Brooksfield School, a private Montessori School located in McLean, Virginia. As new members of the U. S. Green Building Council, we began the school year with a focus on decreasing our carbon footprint and building a green community.  This year we started a compost, and we have plans to install a rain barrel to collect rain water which will be used to water our gardens. The children have been busy planting in our sensory garden and learning about plant care. In the classroom, the children are talking about recycling and are excited to plant vegetables in a new organic garden that will be planted this Spring.   Our Upper School Outdoor Adventure program is in full swing. We began the year with a campout at Pohick...