Published: Saturday, October 20, 2007
As students arrive for Hamlin Middle School’s garden club, teacher Paul Cesmat hands out tools and instructions.
“Are you going to help us cut weeds?” he asks,
unlocking the gate to the garden. “OK, get a shovel. I’ll show you
what the weeds look like.”
He directs others to some of the biggest things growing in the garden, both in numbers and in size. Thirty sunflower seed heads lay piled on a picnic table, ready to be harvested, and twice as many of the huge plants have yet to be pulled from the ground.
“Whoever said two heads are better than one was wrong,” eighth-grader Michael Edmonds jokes. “We’ve got sunflowers growing out of our ears.”
It’s a busy time, but there are signs that harvest time is nearing its end. Tomatoes are turning mushy, and the lettuce has gone to seed.
That doesn't mean work in the garden is finished, though.
Take those sunflowers. Cesmat says they've already got a large grocery bag filled with the seeds — and he expects to collect another 10 bags full. He plans to show the kids how to soak the seeds in brine, then roast them to get them ready to eat. Some seeds will be saved for planting in the spring.
There are also fall crops to plant: lettuce, garlic, green onions and cabbage, to name a few. This winter, students from Cesmat’s shop classes will make signs to label the things in the garden, while others will build shelving for the garden’s three greenhouses.
“It’ll just keep going as long as I’m here,” Cesmat says. “And I don’t plan on going anyplace.”
Cesmat started the garden four years ago with a former teacher at the school, Judy Svoboda, to provide a place for hands-on learning and introduce kids to growing their own food.
Volunteers rototilled a large patch of grassy lawn in back of the school, and students built the greenhouses and eight raised vegetable beds. The garden has grown to include a tool shed, a covered potting area and soil bin and a compost pile.
Goldfish swim in a pond that has water pumps powered
by solar panels. Rows of corn and bush beans fill vegetable planting
beds that were added last year.
Cesmat plans to add a worm bin, as well as a waterfall for the pond.
The project has been helped along by $4,900 in grants, along with donations of recycled or salvaged materials.
Jared Pruch, director of the School Garden Project,
visited Hamlin’s garden this summer and said the site is “a great
example” of what can be accomplished.
Hamlin is one of four Springfield schools that belong to the School Garden Project, a grassroots nonprofit group that provides training and support to member schools.
“We really think being able to connect kids to the food they eat is an important part of their education,” Pruch says.
Cesmat, who grew up spending summers on his
grandparents’ farm in California, agrees. He wants to show his
students, many of whom live in apartments, where food comes from —
and if they learn a little along the way, that’s just as well.
Two days a week, students arrive after school for the
garden club, led by Cesmat and fellow teacher Sue McCumsey.
Typically, about 10 to 12 kids show up, although there have been as
many as 30 — a number that can be too large for just one adult to
handle effectively.
“What I really need is (adult) volunteers,” he says.
About a dozen students arrive for a recent garden club gathering, scattering in all directions after Cesmat gives them their assignments for the day.
Minutes later, a boy comes up with a strange-looking bug in his hand.
“It’s a ladybug larvae,” Cesmat says, explaining that his students identified it on a Web site after finding one earlier this year near the pond.
“We’ve learned a lot about insects and bugs,” he says. “I didn’t know that (ladybug larvae) hatched in the fall.”
Later, someone else approaches with a collection of
different seeds for Cesmat to examine.
“Those are marigold seeds. And those are peas. And
those are radishes,” Cesmat tells the boy. “And they will grow.”
The garden is decorated with student art, both on the
greenhouses and in murals along the bordering walls. Yellow, red and
blue birdhouses — made by shop students in their free time — sit
atop posts.
Students are encouraged to pick ripe vegetables and take them home.
Edmonds, 13, munches on a tomato in between gardening chores. He so enjoys the garden that he spent some of his summer helping tend to the vegetables.
“It’s got some learning involved in it, but mostly I’m here for fun,” he says.
This article was shared with us by
Christina. Thanks Chris!
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