How Does Your Garden Grow?

By Tom Young

Thomas Fuller once said, “Many things grow in the garden that were
never sown there.” This is certainly true at the Waitsfield
Elementary School. Thanks to the work of many, the Waitsfield
Elementary School’s garden has been “reincarnated” over the past three
years. This garden initiative has offered both children and adults
alike a chance to explore the growing process, to think about the
benefits of growing locally, and to use the garden as a community
place.

The intent was to get the students in the garden, and to have
them learn how to plant and maintain a garden plot. Students
found themselves immersed in activities that focused on seed and soil
quality. There was a “guest chef” cooking up a bowl of soil and
explaining all of the ingredients needed to produce a rich and fertile
garden base. There were young botanist dissecting and exploring
the parts of the inner seed. The learning then moved to the
outside as students were guided through the soil preparation, the
process of laying out the crop space, and the actual sowing of seeds,
and the planting of a variety of vegetable plants. Students used
their time to water and maintain the newly planted garden. Each
Fall, the students return to school and work with teachers, adults, and
peers in harvesting and preserving the fruits of their labor. The
students certainly got a “hands on” gardening experience.

Over the last four years, the school and community have focused
on the local grower, and the difference in local food quality.
Classrooms used produce from the school garden, local farm stands, and
the Farmer’s Market to conduct comparison taste tests against produce
shipped from all around the country. Teachers also used local
businesses to like American Flatbread, and Red Hen Bakery, to discuss
the importance of not only local but also organic produce, grains, and
other agricultural products. The school’s lunch program has also
joined in the push for healthier, fresher produce. The new
coordinator works with local growers to supply fruits and vegetables
for the salad bar. The lunch program also supplies locally baked
organic bread, and will use products from the school garden when ever
possible. Students have also helped local farmers with the
harvest season. Each Autumn, you will find Waitsfield students
helping pick pumpkins, gourds, and squash all around the valley.
The local push has caught on quick and its overall support has
certainly highlighted its worth.

The garden has also become a resource for many social
connections and interactions. A variety of families, teachers,
and other community members work together to weed and maintain the
garden over the summer months. On any given summer day, you can
find families finishing the garden tasks and then spending time
conversing as their children are running around the garden and
playground area. During the tough “weeding months” of July, there
have organized barbeques in the garden space. Garden dilemmas have even
opened the door for conversation and laughter. Last summer a
“have a heart trap” was set to try and rid the garden of unwanted
woodchucks. Fortunately, the trap worked but caught a skunk
instead. Quickly the lines of communication opened and with a
help of a sheet, a trip across a river, and some old Vermont intuition,
the skunk was released. The gardening experience has certainly
led to many memorable social encounters.

The garden at the Waitsfield School has certainly helped the
students learn a new skill, while helping all of us focus on the value
of local goods, and has fostered many positive community gatherings and
memories. This year the community has increased its support for
the garden initiative by hiring a consultant, and has planned a vision
that could lead to a greater service to the school and its community as
a whole. Although the garden was originally intended to teach the
science curriculum, and produce a few crops, it has certainly sown much
more than anyone could have predicted.