If you drive past the Kensington Elementary School, you may notice something new. The fourth grade students spent some of their last days at school on a very special project to give back to the community; they transformed a bare patch of land in front of the school into a flower garden. Our Head of Agriculture, Rich Colburn joined them to answer questions, give them advice on how to prepare the land, and helped plant the garden.
“The purpose of adopting a visibility site was to make it look beautiful and to inspire other classes to do things like it”. -Adam B.
Farmer Rich taught the students the importance of planning where everything will go before beginning planting. The students kept their plants in pots while choosing a space, and left space for a decorative rock that they had engraved.
“I helped make the piece of land look better throughout all of the process. First, we picked up grass and then we planted the plants down into the ground. We also put fabric around the plants and then put mulch on top of the fabric to make it look pretty.” - Ellie
Many of the students have experience gardening at home. Here are a few things that they shared:
“I help my Mom by planting fruit and vegetables in our garden and I help water them”.– Molly
“I grow corn, lettuce and carrots. I help by making the garden.”- Michael F.
“At home I help put bushes in by my front walkway”. - Colin R.
“In my backyard we have a garden with strawberries and I like to pick them and give them to my neighbors”. – Sarah
“Our family just got wood, soil and vegetables to make a garden.”- Ty R.
Planting a garden to give back to the community has left the fourth graders inspired to do more for their community.
“It inspired me to help the community”. - Tenley L.
“It inspired me to want to find more visibility sites and adopt them to make them beautiful too” . - Adam B.
“It inspired me to adopt more land and maybe make it for the whole community so they can come and visit”. - Ava D.
“This has inspired me to help out other people by planting a garden and giving the produce to a farm stand so they can have more vegetables to give to people”. - Molly G.
“It inspired me to know how to plant things because I really didn’t know how to plant flowers”. – Garrett
We are so proud of the students at Kensington Elementary for their hard work and desire to give back to the community. At the Farm, we are thankful for the opportunity to share in this experience.
