Day 1-3 Wisely, Freeday, Brandlehow Garden, and Kew Garden

Hi everyone,

I didn't have time to post anything for the past three days, so I'm going to do a super long post.

On the first day, the airplane ride was a rather miserable 8 hour long ride... at least for me.  But I really can't complain too much since I have ridden a more longer ride to Taiwan.

Anyways arriving at London was terrific.  It was nice and sunny.  It was also very warm as well.  The Wisely Garden was a very nice place to go to.  I enjoyed looking at the plants and trees.  I found many unique plants, one of them included bamboo.  Who knew bamboo could grow in London!

Freeday was pretty cool as well.  I didn't do much for my group spend mostly the entire day in front of Buckingham Palace waiting to see the "Changing of the Guards" program.  I have to admit that I was slightly disapointed about it.  It wasn't as special as I thought it would turn out to be.  Instead of taking the Hop On Hop Off tour, we then decided to just walk around.  There we went to a few places including Westminister Abbey and Big Ben.

Today at Brandlehow, the Year 3 students that I went and taught, surprised me a lot.  They knew a lot about what we were teaching them.  But I must say, that made our teaching go a lot faster and smoother.  Overall I think this experience was very exciting as well as fun.  I can't wait for tomorrow's school!

Last but not least, the Kew Gardens.  I think the plants here were as magnificent as they were in the Wisely Garden.  My favorite area was the Japanese Area.  I saw a lot of cherry blossoms blooming and different types of trees growing that I have never seen before.  As for the tours that we took, the information given too us was very interesting.

Day 1 of teaching plus exploring kew

Today we started off by teaching at Brandlehow. I helped teach 5th grade about starting apples from seed, grafting, and how the apple responds to different seasons. The children seemed to enjoy it and loved the apples that we brought them to taste. I thought it was interesting that one of the students said the apple tasted like a banana. Then we explored the school garden which seemed rather small but there were a variety of different plants.

After teaching we went to Kew gardens. At Kew, we had the opportunity to explore the research labs and herbarium both of which I found interesting since I am interested in doing plant breeding. It was interesting to find out that they look at the chromosome and DNA for taxonomy as well as morphology. We also got to explore some of the other gardens there including the treetop walkway and other gardens. It's been great seeing daffodils, crocus, and hyacins in bloom here because I know they won't be blooming for another 4-6 weeks in Minnesota.  The weather has been 50-60 Fahrenheit which is gorgeous compared to minnesota. Unfortunately,  I don't have pictures at this time because I can't hook my camera up to my tablet but I hope to post some at a later date.

Tonight, after returning Monica and I decided to try one of the apples that are used for cooking here in London called Bramley. First, we tasted raw slices. They were very sour and bitter as you can tell by our faces in the first I took with my tablet. Then we warmed it up for 45 seconds in the microwave which made the apple seem a lot sweeter which is the second picture but it oxidized very quickly.  I'm very excited to teach more and explore some other gardens for the rest of out time in London.

At Wisley

Spring!

We have arrived!!!

Hey everybody! My name is Kari and I am in my fourth out of fifth year at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities.  I am going for a degree in Fisheries and Wildlife a second major in Psychology and a minor in Environmental Sciences Policy and Management.  So that is a little background about me but now here is the fun stuff.  Yesterday we arrived in London just before noon and went directly to Wisely Gardens.  We had beautiful weather when we arrived.  There are so many colors here it is great! Below is a picture from Wisely.

For today we had a free day and I took the day to go explore.  We came across the St. Patrick Day Parade. The Trafalgar square was packed with people celebrating.  It was really cool to see. 

It was a great day but a long day.  So far it has been a successful trip.  I cannot wait for tomorrow where we are going into actually teach at one of the schools.

~Kari

Free Day #1

For our first full day in London, a few of us spent our free day exploring some of the main sights. We took the tube to Hyde Park, walked through Green Park (both of which had tons of daffodils in bloom) and went to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard.

After, our quest for lunch took us farther into the city where we found a pub for fish and chips. 

After that, we took in a few of the major sights, including the National Gallery and Trafalgar Square, the latter which was swarming with St. Patricks Day celebrations. After, we walked toward the river and saw Big Ben and Parliament, as well as Westminster Abbey. The Abbey was closed since it's Sunday so we couldn't go in, but the outside was still impressive.

We decided to see the rest of the sights on one of our other free days with a bus tour we have tickets to, but walking through London ourselves was really interesting and surprisingly easy to navigate. Even the Tube stations were really easy to figure out, so we could zip right back to the stop near our apartment building very easily.

Tomorrow we visit Brandelhow School and Kew Gardens and more schools in the day following that, so more garden related posts are to come.

-Abby

Wisley is in bloom!

Group photo under flowering cherries at Wisley. Magnolias, camellias, spring bulbs, at 62 degrees!

Cooking with Microgreens

Hey all! I'm Abby, yet another one of the students on the trip. I'm a horticulture major/sustainable agriculture minor and I'm so excited to have to opportunity to work with school garden programs here in the US and across the pond in London. 

Since our microgreens were ready to harvest this past week, I took a few bags home and have been experimenting with how to eat them. The first thing I added them to was a fish and rice dinner that I cooked up. They made an awesome and delicious garnish. There's so much you can do with fish and rice, but I stuck with simply cooking the fish in olive oil and basil on the stove and garnishing it and the rice with a blend of Mexican spices. Then came a hefty pinch of microgreens to top it off. If you want to get fancier, there are tons of different ways to cook tilapia and lots or recipes for risotto and other rice dishes out there. Thankfully, college students who don't have much time on their hands can make this simple dish in just a half hour.