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Community Corner

Digging in Grandma's Garden

Students at Davenport Ridge Elementary School are rolling up their sleeves this spring to dig in the new raised-bed garden just outside their classroom doors and learn just where the vegetables on their dinner plate got their start.

The raised garden beds were built back in the fall and in the spring, elementary schoolers at lined up to form a bucket brigade, filling them up with dirt.

“A lot of them don’t know where their food comes from—just the grocery store—they don’t know about the farmers that grow it, it’s a big mystery,” Phyllis Lodato-Suppa, the art teacher at Davenport Ridge said.  “It’s a really eye-opening experience.”

Lodato-Suppa, along with teachers Claudia Wolen, Raji Sundararajan, and Barbara Dennis, have taken the lead on the garden, engaging students every step of the way. They formed a Garden Club in March, planted seeds that were cared for by the Kindergarten classes, and incorporated the project into the second grade curriculum that already had a plant component.

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During the day, classes come out to plant flowers or vegetables, water or weed, or just check out the latest developments in Grandma’s Garden — named in honor of a family’s donation that made the garden possible. Davenport Ridge has also been selected to receive a 2011 Lowe’s Toolbox for Education grant that will help them to expand the program.

In recent weeks the garden has been thriving — the plants have been growing inches seemingly overnight and small green tomatoes are beginning to fill the vines.

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“When the radishes were ready, we took them into the cafeteria, sliced them up and asked kids if they wanted to try them,” Lodato-Suppa said. “Everyone who works in the garden can continue to come in to reap its fruits.”

Over the summer, teachers hope that students and parents will come back to watch the garden grow and pick their vegetables. In the fall, sunflowers will be tall and pumpkins ready for the season. In the future, Lodato-Suppa envisions using the garden in the math and science curriculum, starting a compost pile, and growing the project into something truly amazing.

“One teacher brought in a worm factory—they loved it, the kids are grossed out at first, but then they’re just diving in and picking them up,” Lodato-Suppa laughed.

As Lodato-Suppa led one of her classes out to the garden to do some watering, they first spread out around the space—measuring their height against the birdfeeder posts, reading the Popsicle-stick markers, and looking for new things.

“Where are all the vegetables?” one student asked as he examined the bushy stalks of the carrots and the string bean vines winding up a stake.

The students lined up along the back wall of the garden and held onto the hose like a tug-of-war rope, they passed it down the line as each student took a turn watering the plants.

“Everytime they jump off the bus, they ask “Can I go get some radishes?” Lodato-Suppa said. “They just love to dig in the dirt!”

 

We wish every "About Town" story had a happy ending. Sadly, Grandma’s Garden at Davenport Ridge Elementary School was vandalized the night of June 8, just hours after these photos were taken and I visited with Lodato-Suppa in the garden. "Parents and teachers have rallied to offer help to repair the damage," she reported. "There is always a silver lining in such sad events like this."

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