Brooklyn Greenhouse

Lucky, Lucky Day

Wed, 15 May 2013 17:47:46 -0400

Yesterday, by some incredible stroke of luck, every single kid in my Kids Crew class found a four...

It's a Snake!

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 16:28:00 -0400

No, it’s just a giant earthworm that the kids found in the digging bins today. Fun worm...

Emerging from Winter Dormancy

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 14:14:07 -0400

Most temperate plants need a winter rest. So did this blog, it would seem. Today I got our tiny...

Mind Your Beeswax! Yesterday’s program had a little bit of...

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 10:51:00 -0500

Mind Your Beeswax!

Yesterday’s program had a little bit of everything. Beekeeper Emily Vaughn joined us for a Q and A session and brought lots of beekeeping equipment for the kids to try on. Tiffany dressed up as a bee, led the kids in the pollination waggle dance, and had the kids throw velcro pollen balls until her sweater was covered with them. Between the beeswax candles that the kids rolled and Emily’s smoke bellows, the greenhouse smelled like a waxy, woodsy campfire.

One kid knew all about bees and nectar and pollen, so I assumed he was a bug guy. “Do you like bees?” An emphatic no. “Bugs?” “No.” “What do you like?” “Monster trucks.” So we talked about our favorite (Gravedigger, obviously) and he went on his way. What a job this is some days.

Let’s make candles, dudes.

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 10:47:00 -0500

Let’s make candles, dudes.

Snail Tightrope

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 16:28:41 -0500

We’ve raced snails before. Today Marcos Stafne, the Museum’s awesome new Education...

5 Reasons Leaf Pounding is Better Than Leaf Rubbing

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 17:36:00 -0500

I hate leaf rubbings. Am I allowed to say that as a garden educator? They’re so lame. I mean...

Pretty surreal moment yesterday: Eli and his grandfather came...

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 16:53:34 -0500

Pretty surreal moment yesterday: Eli and his grandfather came into the lobby. Eli, all of 2 or 3 years old, was carrying a small bird in his right hand. Eli was gentle as could be, and the bird sat there, alive, but perfectly still. I assumed it was stunned or sick, that maybe it had flown into the windows or fallen from a tree, so my first thought was to get it back outside, find a cozy bush, wish it luck, and wash Eli’s hands.

Eli’s grandfather said he’d really like to put the bird in the museum garden instead, where a stray cat might be less likely to get it. I really should have insisted. To get to the garden, you have to walk at least 100 feet through the museum, and walking through a museum with a wild bird in a two year old’s hand is not a good idea. It could have flown away, getting lost in this cavernous museum, leaving no trace but bird droppings all over our nice exhibits.

But Eli charmed me like he charmed that bird, and I took his other hand and we walked down the rainbow tunnel to the garden.

Minutes after the video was shot, Grover (we named him Grover, after Eli’s t-shirt) flew out of the greenhouse and into the garden, healthy as could be. I think he’s a winter wren. Any birders out there want to corroborate that?

First things first, we were extremely lucky in the storm. A few...

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 15:31:00 -0500

First things first, we were extremely lucky in the storm. A few branches came down, but otherwise the Museum and the garden made it through unharmed. Some of our museum staff and many of our visitors weren’t so lucky. Please donate or volunteer if you can.

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When it’s your job to convince kids that plants are cool, Mimosa pudica is your secret weapon. This unassuming little guy responds dramatically to the slightest touch. It folds up at night, and you can blow it out like a birthday candle.

How does it work? The simple answer is that water rushes into the cells on the top of the stem and water flows out of the cells on the underside of the stem. The extra water pressure on top pushes the stem downward, and the wilted cells on the bottom aren’t strong enough to resist.*

That’s pretty complicated for a third grader to wrap his/her mind around, so when I teach a Gardening with Greta program about these dancing plants on Monday November 12th, I think I’ll use a water balloon as a prop, squeezing the bottom to show how pressure on top would force the stem downward, then letting it equalize to show how the plant rights itself again.

The mystery is why Mimosa pudica acts the way it does. Reaction to insects? Herbivores? I’ll collect hypotheses from the kids next week.

These plants are totally showstoppers, but they’re not perfect as classroom plants. The tough seed coat makes germination a bit unreliable, so some kids will get sprouts before others. Mine often get whiteflies, which can be controlled by having a fan blow on them all the time, but then the leaflets stay folded up, which defeats the purpose. In my experience, plants that are touched constantly won’t survive more than a few weeks. I’m going to try this year to stagger plantings every few weeks so I always have reinforcements.

* The more complicated answer is that when the plant is stimulated, electrical signals zap tiny gates in the membranes of pulvini cells (cells at the base of a plant stem), opening some gates so that potassium ions flow in, closing others. Potassium ions are normally surrounded by water, and when they squeeze through the tiny gate in the cell membrane, they leave those water molecules outside of the cell. Water wants to be equal across a membrane, so water rushes into the cell through osmosis, making that cell swell with the added pressure. The reverse process happens on the underside of the stem, and all the water inside those cells drains out. When the top side of the stem has swollen and the underside has wilted, the stem swings downward.

At least that’s as far as I understand it. Biochemists, correct me if I’m wrong!

Big Ol' Garden

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 09:31:19 -0400

One thing I think this blog is missing is a real sense of the broader spaces of the garden. The...

Skeeter-Vac

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 12:28:00 -0400

Oh man is it a bad year for mosquitoes. New York Magazine estimated in May that it could be the...

Water droplets dancing on nasturtiums in the Sun Garden....

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 12:56:47 -0400

Water droplets dancing on nasturtiums in the Sun Garden. Ain’t summer sweet.

No Reading Signs

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 11:36:00 -0400

Malcolm, 7, is destined to be a political cartoonist, don’t you think? Signage in the garden...

Monarch butterflies have just arrived in the garden, and this...

Sun, 26 Aug 2012 11:05:31 -0400

Monarch butterflies have just arrived in the garden, and this one got stuck in a spider web this morning. I intervened. Pulled her down out of the web and then pulled off the dead leaf and the invisible stretchy threads binding her legs together. I probably shouldn’t have. The kids would have been fascinated by the process of a spider wrapping her up into a butterfly burrito, but I am an old softy and she was so frantic.

To Market to Market

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 13:16:00 -0400

Yesterday might have been the best day of the summer. Back in June, we gave every Kids Crew kid...

Rainbows, Moons, and Mud

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 17:14:00 -0400

Jose built me seven new raised beds this season. Seven! Besides the Shape Garden, whom you’ve...

Black-eyed Susan Sunprints

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 15:15:23 -0400

Black-eyed Susan Sunprints

The Shape Garden!

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 15:57:00 -0400

BCM’s audience seems to be getting younger and younger, so we’re always looking for ways...

Teeth, Jaws, Fangs, Baleen!

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 17:16:28 -0400

Who wants to learn about oral hygiene? Nobody. How are you supposed to design a fun lesson about...

Ladybugs on the Loose

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 14:17:26 -0400

Opening a USPS package of live ladybugs is totally creepy. You’re under strict instructions to put...