Many of us at BNS and BCS think it's important for urban kids to experience growing their own food, especially given the environmental, public health, and economic challenges we are currently facing. To that end, in spring of 2009, we built raised beds on a strip of soil along the south side of the building. It took the combined effort of a sixth-grade environmental group, parents, staff and outside volunteers, co-ordinated by Matt Sheehan and Mirem Villamil, to dig up the existing yews, prepare the ground, and build the beds to hold new, organic soil.
Our school garden benefits from the rich compost produced by several extra-large outdoor worm bins, holding up to 40 pounds of worms each, and fed by cafeteria waste. All the elementary school's lunch waste is currently composted. The garden also soaks up rainwater collected in a structure designed by fifth graders, and held in a 255-gallon tank in the schoolyard.
Our planting space includes large wooden planters built on pallets (for mobility). These are used by the first grade for a seed-to-salad program. We have raised beds on the Coles St. side of the building, where we produce salad and cold-weather crops in fall and spring, and we grow a 3 Sisters garden in the summer for the 4th grade curriculum. The pre-K gardens in two large galvanized tubs and the kindergarten takes care of our street trees, adding compost and mulch, watering, and planting groundcovers and annuals. This spring, the sixth-grade garden club built more mobile planters and started many trays of seedlings. High schoolers have been doing plant-based PBAT (performance based assessments) projects resulting in even more beautiful seedlings for the garden. Two afterschool groups are doing specific garden-based learning, including designing and planting a butterfly garden, cooking with harvested produce, and hands-on environmental action.
Also, BNS-BCS has been awarded a Lowe's Toolbox for Education grant to create an outdoor classroom - an Eco-Casita - which will support all our gardening and outdoor learning projects. We're hoping to have our eco-casita up and running by December 2010!
Our goal is for the 610 Henry St. garden to form an integral part of the life, culture and curriculum of both BNS and BCS... and to have a lasting and positive impact on our kids.
Mirem Villamil, Garden Coordinator and BNS parent
For more information on BNS-BCS green initiatives, contact Matt Sheehan (sheehan.matthew@yahoo.com) or Mirem Villamil (mirem@villamil.org).
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