Planting a New School Garden!

Part of the Healthy Schools Project includes school gardens. The idea is that not only will it teach the kids about gardening, but also so that the vegetables can be used to make the school snack healthier. I don't know about where you went to elementary school, but at mine there was a small garden and there was an after school program called "City Sprouts" where we learned about gardening and made some healthy recipes. I'll be honest I only went to a few days of City Sprouts and remember making Kale soup way before Kale became popular. 

I really liked the school garden part of Healthy Schools mainly because it is so applicable to their lives. In the town that I lived in, and the surrounding area the main industry was agriculture. However, I would guestimate that over 90% of what was produced in this area was corn. Literally there were corn fields and only corn fields everywhere. 

Town center (during our fair) surrounded by corn fields 

To start off with, the patch of land that this school decided to grow its garden on had its problems:

The plot to the left - soapy run-off from the bathroom to the right

Burning the school's trash

The school's kitchen billowing smoke

But all that aside the kids, teachers, and I got to work.

Little kids are usually deemed responsible enough to work with machetes

Me getting down and dirty (the kids really did most of the work)

Resourceful

The teachers and I

While the garden plan could use some more work, they did get an ok crop of radishes. It was a start and hopefully next year they will grow their garden so that the vegetables can be used in the school snack. :)

And one picture of the little ones because they are just so stinking cute. This is in the school "playground" aka the dirt field in front of the school.