Projo Garden Blog

Photo by Sheila Lennon. Click it for a larger version.
Student gardeners pose with "golden" shovels at a groundbreaking ceremony for the Martin Luther King elementary school's new garden. The Providence school is among seven to win the first "Garden in Every School" grants. The adults are, from left, PTO board members Kim Rohm and Amanda Lucas, the school's principal, Michael Lazzareschi, and Kurt Van Dexter of The Children's Garden Network.

Every new garden is a patch of dirt and visions of the bounty to come.

At Martin Luther King Elementary School yesterday, the young gardeners breaking ground with shiny shovels know what they want to grow: Potatoes, tomatoes, flowers, watermelon, pumpkins and peppers. Between now and spring, they'll learn how.

Congressman Patrick Kennedy secured $280,000 in federal seed money for "The Children's Garden Network Campaign 2010 - A Garden at Every School," a program that aims to bring a garden and the materials and know-how to make it grow to every school and youth organization in the state over the next four years. The first seven award winners were chosen from among 37 applicants to receive $2,500 grants.

Rhode Island is the second state in the nation -- California was first -- to launch the ambitious program.

Photo by Joe Landry
Kim Rohm, left, and Amanda Lucas gather with students for a photo at yesterday's ceremony.

Amanda Lucas and Kim Rohm of the school's PTO board originally brought the idea to King principal Michael Lazzareschi, who enthusiastically supports them for having "the capacity to write and sustain such a grant."

Kim Rohm said the children saw the potential, too, when the grants were announced last spring.

"Harry Binder, a second grader then, said, 'Fresh produce in the cafeteria!' "

Besides teaching basic gardening practices and skills, the school plans to explore sustainable options such as irrigating the garden with rainwater captured from the roof and composting cafeteria plant scraps and parings. During the summer, the YMCA has agreed to make tending the garden part of its daycare program at the school, and the PTO hopes to enlist parents to care for the plants on weekends.

Photo by Joe Landry
The ground is broken.

Kurt Van Dexter of North Kingstown, a landscape architect, art teacher and painter, represented the Children's Garden network yesterday.

When asked if the students would be planting garlic for a spring crop, he said, "First we'll plan the garden, where the paths will go, what kind of plants we'll grow." Over the winter, students will learn how plants grow and what plants might work in the space -- tucked in a courtyard between wings of the school, it won't get full sun all day. In spring, they'll start seeds and set in plants.

Photo by Casey Dahm.
The future garden with its layer of compost.

As a first step, over the summer Eagle Scout Nate Taylor spread 38 cubic yards of compost on the garden area as his Eagle Project.

The Rhode Island Center for Agriculture Promotion & Education (RICAPE, the University of Rhode Island College of the Environment and Life Sciences (URI/CELS), and the Rhode Island Nursery and Landscape Association (RINLA) are collaborating on the statewide initiative. According to a URI press release, their intent is to foster "agricultural education by supporting food and plant growing projects and include opportunities for student learning, curriculum development, teacher training, and horticultural technical assistance."

The Projo Garden Blog will be checking in with them periodically to see how they're doing. We hope to track their progress over the next year.

The six other winners are Cumberland Office of Children, Youth & Learning; Robert F. Kennedy Elementary School, Providence; Ponaganset Middle School, North Scituate, Pilgrim High School, Warwick; Reynolds Arts Magnet School, Bristol and St. Mary's Home for Children, North Providence.

Photo by Joe Landry
Martin Luther King principal Michael Lazzareschi beams as the project gets under way.

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