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Friday, March 8, 2024

Native Plant of the Week- American Beautyberry

The American beautyberry is an open-habitat, native shrub of the Southern United States that is often grown as an ornamental in gardens and yards. American beautyberries produce large clusters of purple berries, which birds and deer eat.










Wednesday, February 7, 2024

 Plant of the Week: Texas Mountain Laurel

(Sophora secundiflora)

Texas Mountain Laurel is a native tree/shrub that grows clusters of 

beautiful lavender-colored flowers. These plants are prevalent throughout thre Texas hill country

and are popular for their bright and beautiful colors. They are drought-tolerant plants and do best in rocky limestone soil. 


Weekly Update: What’s Happening This Week?

This week in the Green Academy, we're working to create new shelters for the goats and sheep in the Golden Triangle. These brand-new structures will create a better environment for the animals on campus and allow us to better care for them in the harsh weather conditions. In other news, students have been working to plant and care for hundreds of native seeds in the greenhouse. We are working to ensure the healthy growth of these seeds, and are excited to see them sprout!

Sixth-grade classes have been working to strip turf to create their new vegetable gardens in recent days. These vegetable gardens will teach students how to properly care for gardens of their own, and will hopefully produce fresh, healthy, and delicious foods!  - Dean Pelaez

Thursday, February 1, 2024

 Our native plant of the week is Turk's cap. 

Turk's cap grows here at Small, it is native to Texas, and does great in our warm conditions. It is a straightforward plant for beginner gardeners to grow and a fun fact about Turk's cap is that it is completely edible, except for the stem.



Wednesday, January 31, 2024

 

Green Academy Weekly Update: What’s New This Week?

In recent days, the Green Academy has installed vent fans and blowers in our greenhouse to improve ventilation and temperature control. Shelving in the greenhouse (with repurposed materials) took a while, but is now installed as well. And lookie here! There be light in the tan shed. All the years of groping blindly in the dark are finally behind us!

We’re also breaking new ground to expand our gardens in a half-acre field we recently acquired.

The wildflower seeds are now sown in our habitat area, so its a waiting game. Rain, please, do your thing.

We're also in the process of creating a covered workshop for woodwork and construction.

Of course, this is all very exciting news; and we will continue to help the environment of our school. 


Friday, January 26, 2024

 Our greenhouse is getting total makeover!

We've replaced the roof, added venting fans, and we're working on overhead storage racks and heat.

This has been a long time coming, with, as you know, very little funding.

The new grounds have rekindled an excitement for Green Academy, and with new shirts and a working greenhouse, we have big plans for the future!


Tuesday, January 23, 2024

 Texas Sage is an evergreen shrub in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae, native to the U.S. state of Texas, where it is the official "State Native Shrub of Texas", and to the states of Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas in northern Mexico.

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