With the help of the Upper Valley Farm to School mini-grant that we received this year, Hanover Street School is bustling with gardening activities. Now, in our first full season with a school garden we are finding our way, trying new things, taking chances, sometimes with great success and sometimes learning the hard way. In our efforts we are reminded that patience and flexible thinking are key in both gardening and life.
We began our activities this year with 1st and 2nd grade students planting marigolds indoors. Some grew beautifully and went home for Mother’s Day as planned and some which were planted in starter mix, are still slowing coming along.
On Earth Day, 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders planted our first cool weather crop of snow peas, kale, lettuce and spinach. It has been a slow start but they are looking bigger and stronger everyday.
We received about 60 free cabbage plants from Bonnie Plants for the 3rd graders a couple of weeks ago as part of a state wide growing competition. Most of the kids took them home to plant in their own gardens. But we still had plenty to plant in the courtyard. Our raspberries that we planted last year are spreading and getting a lot of new leaves and the blueberry bushes made it through the winter too.
The Green Team, which is a new-after school program for 4th graders, meets weekly and after working on an anti-litter campaign have begun to look at gardening with garbage, growing food from scraps. We plan to share our results at the Lebanon Farmer’s Market on June 18th. – Marjie Bish, HSS Green Team Coach, Hanover Street School, Lebanon, NH