It Takes a Community to Grow a Garden
Roosevelt Public School students' words of wisdom
Author: Ilene Levine
There’s a saying that goes “More grows in a garden than is planted,” and
that’s certainly true of the creation of our school garden. From this delightful,
enriching experience, the third and fourth graders at Roosevelt Public School
in Roosevelt, New Jersey have learned a tremendous amount about providing for the needs
of living plants, community, and growing up.
The children lived and breathed together in the garden. They solved problems,
shared, cooperated, laughed, talked, had fun, and worked together. They
saw the tangible results of this communal effort. Each day when they went
out to look at the garden, they marveled at each new bud and butterfly.
The children also knew that many other people were involved in the project,
and that every adult contributed happily and generously.
The school butterfly garden has truly been a community effort. Each person
who contributed to our garden has added his or her unique talent and touch
to create a tranquil, special place for nature’s beauty. Here are some of
the things the children discovered, in their own words.
Building Community
"I’ve
learned that our garden brings teamwork by everyone helping with
planting, watering, weeding, and hoeing.”
“I learned
that gardening is fun and easy in a group. For example, we
mulched the entire garden in two days.”
“The most important
thing I learned in the garden was sharing. For
example, when we put the mulch down, seven or eight people
filled up
buckets of mulch. Then one or two people brought
the buckets to one or two other people, and those people poured
the mulch
and spread it in the garden.
It was a lot of fun.”
Life Lessons
“By growing plants from seeds, we learned responsibility
because we had to water them.”
“I learned that when you start
a garden, you want to go all the way to
the end of making it.”
“The garden was an experience that
I will remember for the rest of my life. I learned how
to start a plant and also make a good environment
for it. I learned that you always have to look out for
your plants. If the plants die, the [monarch] butterflies can’t stop
here on their trip
to Mexico."
“It is important to me to know how to garden
so that, in the future, I can make my own butterfly garden."
"Gardening
takes a lot of hard work, months, sweat, and heart. Gardening is
worth it when you see all of those
beautiful plants."
"Making
a garden is very fun. It’s fun because seeing the plants grow
bigger every day is just amazing to watch.”
Horticulture and Science
“You can tell if a plant is healthy by looking
at the stem and leaves. If they’re dark green, they’re healthy.”
"You
have to measure the pot that the plant is in so the hole you
dig for it in the garden will not be too small.”
"You should water the plants and fertilize them
with nutrients.”
"If you do not water or feed nutrients to
the plants or give them light, your plants will die quickly."
“You should not put plants too close together, or their roots
will not have enough room to spread."
“You have
to plant different kinds of plants to attract different
kinds of butterflies in different stages of their lives.”
Roosevelt Public School received a 2008 Youth Garden Grant from
NGA.
Click
here for more information about
Youth Garden Grants and to download this year's application.
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