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School Garden: Benjamin G. Brown School

By Karyn

Garden facts

Size: 120 square feet (3 large beds)
Best thing about the garden: It's visible from the street and school, brand new beds and a great water connection.
Plants: vegetables of all types - tomatoes, carrots, peas, beans and more!
Maintenance: Parent volunteer Shawn Szturma, Groundwork Somerville Green Team, and additional Brown School families throughout the summer
How is the garden used: outdoor classroom for students from the Brown School and mobile market production, when produce is available


Parent volunteer, Shawn Szturma, has been spending a lot of time at the Brown School garden trimming back landscaping adjacent to the garden, planting with students, trellising beans and peas, and much, much more!

 

 
Recently, he spent the afternoon with the 3rd grade classrooms at the Brown school helping them plant some vegetables in the garden.  For many of the kids, this was the first time they planted vegetables directly from seed.  They were pretty amazed at how small the seeds were in their hands. Shawn also asked the students some great questions.

 



 
 
They planted radishes, carrots, salad greens, and beets in carefully marked off the sections of the
raised beds.  In the process the kids learned the following
  • How to read a seed packet
  • Why you need to thin some seedlings even when its seems 'more is better'
  • What germinate means
  • What 'days to maturity' means and figuring out when they could pick/eat what they planted
Over the next few weeks families from the Brown School community will be taking care of the seedlings and harvesting vegetables as they available.

Check back in with us for more school garden profiles!


Garden facts provided by Groundwork Somerville.
Content and photos provided by Shawn Szturma.
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Comments

  1. Shawn SzturmaJuly 31, 2014 at 9:48 AM

    Just want to give you an update on the Brown School Garden. We have mesclun/lettuce mix, basil and radishes ready to pick (see attached pictures). Many of the students planted these seeds, so please stop by and reap the rewards of their hard work.

    ReplyDelete

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