Parent-Child Outreach Outdoor Learning Environment

We have been busy at the Alexander County Partnership for Children creating an Outdoor Learning Environment designed to teach parents and their children how to grow common garden plants in uncommon places. This week with the help of a very special volunteer we created the first element of our Outdoor Learning Environment, a bamboo bean pole tee pee. Thank you Steve Bost for sharing your tee pee building knowledge! Below are pictures and descriptions of the process.

Six bamboo stalks were used to form the tee pee. Gather all of the stalks together and using strong string, twine, etc. weave in an out of each stalk to from a a tight space for the stalks to stand up together. Stand the tee pee upright and form the triangular shape adjusting the width of the legs. It is helpful to have two pairs of hands for this. If the tepee is loose at the top where you have wrapped with string, re wrap.......it took us three attempts to get the tightness that was needed.

Straw bales are placed on three sides to hold the bean plants. As you can see, we are blessed with an abundance of white gravel so we will not be planting in the ground as one normally would.

An opening in the front of the tee pee will allow you to have access to the inside.

Children and their parents planted bean seeds several weeks ago during Parent-Child Outreach, held at the Partnership. Planting cups made from newspaper held the soil.

This picture shows the different stages of growth. Two different Parent-Child Outreach groups planted organic seeds. Planting at different times allowed the staggered development of the plants. These plants are three weeks old.

Opening the bottom of the newspaper cup reveals the bean plant roots and will allow them to stretch and grow in the straw .

Form a hole in the straw bale and fill it with soil. Insert the newspaper planter . Cover with soil. Water.

We removed the newspaper cup from one of the plants and planted directly in the straw bale.

Wrap string around the bamboo to give the bean stalk something to vine onto. We placed three plants in each straw bale. According to the seed packet, our plants should produce beans in 54 days.