Master Gardeners news: Teaching students to grow microgreens; Grow-Your-Own Festival

This UCCE Master Gardeners of Lake Tahoe (LTMG) recently taught lessons on how to grow microgreens to 11 classes of third graders at four school sites within Lake Tahoe Unified School District, and the second graders at Zephyr Cove Elementary. This project is part of a larger effort to involve more students in the community in gardening. About 250 students got to plant their own microgreen seeds and learn how to grow and use them.

Growing microgreens is easy for children and adults alike. The nutrition is within the seeds themselves, so they can be grown on any media and in any type of container. Media ideas shared with the third-grade classes include paper towels, soil, sponges, shredded paper, and coffee grounds. Some of the third-grade classes saved used milk cartons from the cafeteria to use as containers to grow their microgreens – a great way to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle!

LTMGs and Grow Your Own Tahoe-Truckee provided seeds, soil, and classroom instruction/planting activity with teachers guiding follow-up plant care. Students planted their microgreen seeds and will be able to harvest them in about two weeks. After each lesson, students were excited to share what they learned about growing microgreens with family and friends. Similar to last year, growing microgreens in the classroom will be followed up with a nutrition lesson from CalFresh (CA Department of Social Services’ nutrition program).

2nd Annual Grow-Your-Own Festival

Join LTMG for the 2nd annual Grow-Your-Own Festival, a FREE community event celebrating the joys and benefits of edible gardening in high-elevation regions. This special event will feature a high-elevation seedling sale and edible gardening demos with a special emphasis on watershed-friendly practices.

Starting April 1, you’ll be able to purchase high-elevation edible seedlings online and pick them up at the event. Whether you are a seasoned gardener or just starting out, this event has something for everyone. Come grow with us! Below are the dates and locations for the festival:

Friday, May 31, 2024, from 4 pm-7 pm at UC Davis TERC Tahoe City Field Station, 2400 Lake Forest Rd, Tahoe City, CA 96145

Saturday, June 1, 2024, from 11 am-2 pm at Slow Food Lake Tahoe Gardens, 8000 Estates Dr, Truckee, CA 96161

Saturday, June 08, 2024, from 11 am-2 pm at Tallac Historic Site, 1 Heritage Way, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150

Visit https://www.slowfoodlaketahoe.org/events-1/grow-your-own-a-south-lake-tahoe-community-festival for more information.

To kick off the Garden Festival season, screenings of the award-winning, 2023 documentary film Common Ground are planned for South Lake Tahoe and Tahoe City in May.

About UCCE Master Gardeners of Lake Tahoe

Master Gardeners are volunteers in the community who have been trained under the direction of the University of California Cooperative Extension. Each volunteer has completed more than 50 hours of formal classroom training. Lake Tahoe Master Gardeners offer research-based knowledge and information to community members about horticulture and gardening.

For more information, visit https://ucanr.edu/sites/mglaketahoe/

- Kristianne Hannemann, Master Gardener Trainee 2024