On Friday 5/4 I was a parent chaperon with 9 students of my dd's middle school Garden Club on a field trip. I suggested that the Garden Cub might like to go see Filoli Estate and Gardens, in Woodside CA- about 40 minutes from where we are. I wrote up a proposal and pitched it to the teacher that runs the club on campus. Apparently middle schools aren't much on field trips, and the garden club had never done one.

Nine students from the club, the teacher and myself went. We started out with a 2 hour nature hike/walk led by a docent. We saw lots of great plants (can make foamy soap out of wild lilac and a little water, and a certain fern can make a stamp imprint), and we saw lots of slugs- that was a BIG attraction for the kids! Then we had a box lunch and the teacher and I interviewed two of their gardening staff (the kids were supposed to do this but they were pretty rowdy during the lunch break). After lunch in the afternoon we all toured the house and gardens on the estate, also docent led- time 1-1/2 hours. The kids were pretty beat by the time they got out in the garden!

careytearose