in this issue How Plants Change in the Fall p. 1-2 Where do reptiles go in the Fall p. 3-4 Gifts / Announcements p. 5-6 Recipes p.

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1 Fall 2016 in this issue How Plants Change in the Fall p. 1-2 Where do reptiles go in the Fall p. 3-4 Gifts / Announcements p. 5-6 Recipes p. 7 Ask Professor Pansy p. 8 Share the Harvest p Harvest Fest p. 11

2 Plants, like people, love summer. The sun and warmth in the summer make it easy for plants to grow. But the summer sun doesn t last forever. Before long, the ground becomes covered in frost and the sun starts to set early in the day. Plants can t move inside to get warm so they need to have other ways of protecting themselves from the cold. Some plants called annuals, don t survive the winter months. These annuals survive by growing quickly each spring so that they can produce seeds before they freeze in the winter. Those seeds are how the plant will grow again the following spring. The opposite of annual plants are perennial plants. Perennials live for many years. Many of them can survive the winter by going into dormancy. This is when the plant is no longer growing, but instead saves its energy. A plant makes sugars and starches and stores them in the stem and roots. They are almost like batteries that the plant can use later. When humans eat plants, we can use this same stored energy to power our bodies. Some plants even have special roots that store energy for long periods of time. How plants change in the fall by hannah dayley is a part of the plant underground that will start growing again when the temperatures get warmer and the days get longer. The soil acts like a blanket and keeps the underground parts safe and warm. There are also plants like shrubs or trees that have woody stems. These plants will lose their leaves, but the stems will stay. If you have ever seen leaves on trees turn orange or red in the fall, then you have seen trees going into dormancy. By losing their leaves, plants don t need as much water. This is good because even water in a leaf will freeze if the weather is cold enough. If the water inside a leaf freezes, the plant will be damaged and could die. Plants that lose their leaves in the fall and winter are called deciduous. Some trees and plants don t lose their leaves at all! These plants are called evergreen, because they have green leaves all year round. The waxy coating on the leaves acts like a jacket and protects the water inside the leaves from freezing. That way the evergreen plants can still use photosynthesis to make the energy that they need while protecting themselves from the cold weather. Important words to remember! Annuals: plants that only live one year. Perennials: plants that live for many years. Dormancy: when a plant conserves its energy to protect itself from harsh conditions. Herbaceous: plants that are mostly leafy without thick stems. Deciduous: plants that lose their leaves in the fall and winter. Dormancy is different for different kinds of plants. Perennials that are mostly leafy, also called herbaceous plants, will die back to the ground. These plants look like they have died, but really there Evergreen plants and trees still need to protect themselves from the freezing weather. They use another method. Instead of losing their leaves, they grow smaller leaves, and some have a waxy coat on them called cutin. Evergreen: plants that keep their leaves all year. Cutin: waxy coating used in some evergreen trees to protect from freezing temperatures. 11 2

3 Where do reptiles and amphibians go in the fall? by hannah dayley There are lots of reptiles and amphibians around during the spring and summer. We might see them in the garden or out in nature. But where do they all go when the weather gets cold? It seems like they just disappear, but somehow they come back next year! Reptiles and amphibians are cold blooded. They get all of their body heat from the sun. That is why you can see lizards and turtles lying on rocks or logs: they are soaking up the sun rays. But when the sun goes away during the winter, they don t have the energy to move around anymore. Some animals will migrate to warmer climates so that they don t have to worry about the cold weather. They can go very long distances to find the warmth they need. However, most reptiles and amphibians can t travel long distances. Instead, they have to find other ways of surviving the cold winter. Most lizards, frogs and turtles go into hibernation. That means they sleep most of the winter months. Lizards will hide in crevices like tree cracks or rocks while they hibernate. Lizards will also hibernate in small groups to protect each other. Turtles can slow their heart beat to once every 5-10 minutes during their hibernation. This helps them save energy for the next spring. Some frogs have a special way of surviving freezing temperatures. They have a protein in their blood that keeps it from freezing completely. The rest of their bodies can be frozen but the blood is still circulating and keeping them alive. Once the sun comes back and the weather starts to get warmer, these reptiles and amphibians will start to thaw out and get back to their normal lives, basking in the sun. Next spring if you see a frog, you ll know that they never disappeared. That frog has probably been around all year round just waiting for the warm weather to come back. 3 4

4 GIFTS EVENTS SEPTEMBER Pansy or Viola 4 container In the fall, flowers that bloom all summer begin to fade. But winter annuals like pansies and violas can keep blooming all through the fall and winter! Choose a 4 pansy or viola in whatever color you like best to brighten up your garden. Sept All About Bees Have you heard the buzz? Come learn all about bees and beekeeping! We ll have beeswax and other cool stuff to explore, beekeeper clothes and tools to try, and even some honey samples to taste. This event is free. Bee there or bee square! Come in and ask for a Junior Gardener Club membership card OCTOBER NOVEMBER Daffodil bulb from our bulk bulbs Daffodils bloom early in the spring, but we can plant them now! Pick out an individual yellow daffodil bulb from our bulk bulb area for beautiful yellow blooms first thing next spring. Indoor Succulent or Tillandsia 2 container It might be getting cold and rainy outside, but air plants grow inside the house. The amazing thing about them is that they don t even need soil! Choose your own $2.99 Tillandsia from our Indoor Gardening department, or choose a 2 succulent. Oct Sky s Annual Harvest Fest We look forward to it every year, and now it s almost here! Check out the announcement on the last page to learn more. As always, Harvest Fest is free. Nov Make A Mini Indoor Fairy Garden Let s get planting! We ll be making miniature indoor gardens that would be perfect for fairies and other tiny magical creatures. We ll have fun and get creative, all while learning about indoor plants and how to care for them. $10 helps cover the cost of supplies, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. to get your monthly free gift. Make sure to check out our website every month for Junior Gardeners updates and upcoming events. 5 6

5 Veggie Fritters This is a grate way to use garden-fresh zucchini and root vegetables! Get an adult to help with grating and cooking. You will need 2 cups grated zucchini and/or other vegetables Salt and pepper 1/3 cup flour (any kind) 1 egg (or egg substitute) Vegetable oil for frying Optional topping ideas: scallions, sour cream, applesauce Instructions Grate vegetables using a cheese grater. Zucchini works really well. Also try adding carrots, parsnips, or turnips, or greens like spinach. Put veggies in a colander and sprinkle lightly with salt. Let it sit for 10 minutes, Use your hands to squeeze out the extra water. In a large bowl, mix grated veggies with the flour and egg, Add salt and pepper or other herbs you think will taste good. Coat the bottom of a frying pan with oil and turn the stove to medium heat. Drop small handfuls of the veggie mixture into the pan, cook for a few minutes, then flip. Cook until browned on both sides. Serve with any toppings, and maybe a garden-fresh salad. No-bake pumpkin cookie dough This no-bake, no-cutting-required recipe is super simple to make! 7 You will need Instructions 3/4 cup quick oats 1/2 cup oat flour 1/4 tsp salt 1/4 tsp baking soda 1/4 cup sugar 1/4 tsp cinnamon (add other spices too if you like!) 1/3 cup mashed (home-cooked or canned) pumpkin 2 tablespoons milk (any kind) 1 tablespoon oil 1/2 tsp vanilla extract Stir all the dry ingredients together. Stir the pumpkin, milk, and oil together. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and mash it all up! Once it s evenly mixed, put your dough in the fridge for about an hour. Once it s cool and firmer, form it into whatever shapes you want, and enjoy! You can store the dough in the fridge if you don t eat it all. Ask Proffessor Pansy How did the first bee, be on the planet? - Moxie, age 9 Hello Moxie, and thank you for such a thought provoking question. Since they are a kind of insect, bees have a very long history. Insects were on Earth before the dinosaurs. They are very good at adapting and surviving. Insects have been slowly changing along with their plant and animal neighbors for a very, very, long time. About 100 million years ago (even before Tyrannosaurus roamed the Earth) plants began to develop colorful blossoms and sweetly scented pouches of nectar. There were already wasps then, but they only ate meat. When they found the new flowers, some wasps began to change their diet from meat to nectar. Over many generations, these nectardrinking insects became so different from their meat-eating ancestors that they were really a new kind of animal: the first bees! Magnolia trees are an example of an ancient flowering plant. When their flowers open you can watch bees tumble and bumble around inside, just like they have for millions of years. In exchange for food, early bees pollinated magnolias, ginkgo, gunnera, swamp cabbages and many other strange and beautiful pre-historic plants. Bees and flowering plants have lived and adapted together ever since. Humans came along much later. Most of the big dinosaurs that fascinate us today came into existence, changed and spread out, and then disappeared between when bees first started visiting flowers and when humans first walked the Earth. But humans have been working with bees for a big part of our brief history. The ancient Egyptians even painted pictures of bee hives being tended by people inside the pyramids! 8

6 9 Kids Can Make a Difference Sharing Food with our Communities If you grew some food in a garden this year, you might be able to share your fresh produce with kids who need it. Some things that people need to survive are free. For example, air is free to breath. But even though all people need healthy food to survive, it is so expensive that many people can t afford it. Out of every five families with kids in the United States, one of those families can t always buy the food they need. This can be for a lot of different reasons. Each family is different, but we all need help sometimes. If your family has enough food, you might be able to help by donating to a food bank. Since some people have a lot of food and other people don t have enough, food banks try to help balance things out by giving everyone a way to share. Out of every three people who get food from a food bank in the United States, one of them is a kid, just like you. Food banks can t fix all of the problems that make it hard for people to get the food they need. We need bigger solutions for that. But for now, food banks do help people have healthy meals. There are lots of places to donate canned or boxed food to food banks. We even have a donation bin at Sky Nursery during the fall. But many people don t know that you can also donate fresh produce from your garden! As you know, fresh produce is really good for you. Fruits and vegetables are full of vitamins and minerals that our bodies need. Besides, they taste great and feel good to eat! Everyone deserves to eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, but not everyone can afford to buy them. Gardeners of all ages can help by sharing the harvest. There are lots of locations where you can take fresh produce to donate, and it s really simple to do. Two organizations working locally to help connect gardeners to food banks and pantries are, Lettuce Link & Ample Harvest. Lettuce Link This website has lots of information about Lettuce Link: org/our-impact/hunger-nutrition/growing-giving/ To can call Solid Ground, the organization behind Lettuce Link: Visit Solid Ground s headquarters at: 1501 North 45th Street in Seattle Ample Harvest Ample Harvest Helps gardeners donate produce all across the United States. Seattle area food banks that accept fresh produce. Each one has particular donation hours and rules, so make sure to call ahead. Shoreline Foodbank and Emergency Services: Westminster Way N, YWCA Food Bank (Capitol Hill): 2820 E Cherry St, Pike Market Food Bank: 1531 Western Ave #P, North Helpline Food Bank (Lake City): rd Ave NE, University District Food Bank: 1413 NE 50th St, Ballard Food Bank: 5130 Leary Ave NW, Volunteers of America Greenwood Food Bank: 9041 Greenwood Ave N, More food banks and locations: wp-content/uploads/2015/12/wheretodonate.pdf Let s work together to help everyone in our community have enough healthy food to eat! 10

7 games garden critters Join us October 22 for Harvest Fest 2016 It s our yearly free festival full of crafts, games, and fun! We re bringing back favorites like pumpkin bowling, an archaeological dig, and squiggly worms, plus some brand-new things to try. There will be farm animals to visit, tasty treats to eat, and lots and lots of fun stuff to do. Wear your favorite costume and take a picture at our fall photo booth, or just come as you are. Either way, we can t wait to see you there! archaeological dig pumpkin bowling 11