Growing Healthy Gardens Program!

Spring Break Camp 2008 "Spring Into Action"

Our annual Spring Break Camp took place April 21^st- 25^th at the Cummings School and the Somerville Community Growing Center.  1^st- 3^rd graders joined us for 4 days of planting in the garden, cooking nutritious lunches, visiting Gaining Ground Farm, and exploring our natural community.  The week was a huge success thanks to beautiful, sunny weather and the help of 10 enthusiastic volunteers!

Our Newest School Garden

The Argenziano School at Lincoln Park is up and running and with it our newest school garden!  With the help of our 3^rd grade after school Garden Club, led by wonderful Tufts volunteer, Anna Feldman, and GWS staff, Aviva Asher, we are laying the foundation for a beautiful garden.  The garden bordering the playground, is equipped with a pollinator garden to attract butterflies, bees, and bats, a maze of herbs, berries for every season, and of course, nutritious and delicious vegetables!  We are looking for families, gardeners, and neighbors of the Argenziano School who would like to join our Adopt- A- Garden program for a weekthis summer in exchange for fresh produce and a nourishing experience.  Come join us this coming Wednesday, June 4^th, from 12pm- 3pm as we plant, taste, and then celebrate the hard work of the 3^rd grade Garden Club, who designed and planted a garden at the new A.F. Argenziano School at Lincoln Park.

Urban Wilds II at the Healey School

After the huge success of the Urban Wilds pilot last fall, we introduced the spring Urban Wilds program to the Healey School in celebration of Earth Day.  Eight classes from 3^rd- 6^th grade came to the garden to learn about ways we can make a positive impact in our community.  We tested these methods as we used our water catchment system to water seedlings, considered how we can reduce our waste by composting, and considered alternative energy as we pressed apples into cider!  Students also went down to the Mystic River to learn about the river habitat.  We discussed the pollution levels in our river and considered the reason students were unable to go canoeing as they had planned, following a large rainstorm.  These classes will be going canoeing on Tuesdays throughout the spring with parent volunteer, Jen Capuano.  If you are interested in accompanying our youth onto the river one Tuesday this spring, please contact us!

Garden Workdays

It's that time of year again and each school has been gearing up for a school-wide family workday!  Contact us if you'd like to help organize a workday at your child's school.  Last month, we had students from the Brown School and the Healey School plant peas,  sunflowers, and other seedlings around the garden that they had started in their classrooms.  We finished our new perennial herb garden and installed a Butterfly Garden at the front of the school (led by parent, Jen Capuano.)  Thank you to all the teachers, parents, and students who joined us for a beautiful day!      

This past Wednesday, May 21^st, the Edgerly Center hosted a festive workday that united elementary students from ESCS with middle school and high school aged students from Next Wave and Full Circle Schools. Over the course of one day, students, parents, teachers, and community members came together to lay down raised beds built during a Tufts University Alumni volunteer day.  We all worked hard, hauling soil and planting, while artistically inclined painted colorful signs and murals, and the chefs prepared a delicious cucumber yogurt salad!  Visit us at the Bonair Street garden on Friday afternoons.

English Language Learners help Groundwork in the Garden

At GWS, we feel it is important to strengthen the connection between youth and gardening, especially for those students who have recently made a home in Somerville after moving from another country.  Recently, students from high school and middle school SEIP classes have engaged in gardening lessons and activities.  These lessons have offered students an opportunity to improve language skills outside the classroom while engaging in hands- on activities that open students to considering ways that gardening in Somerville can help us maintain our cultural identities.  After all, growing food is a universal act!

After- School Garden Clubs

This spring, Groundwork Somerville teachers and interns spread out across the city; offering 65 students from 5 schools the opportunity to design and plant in their school garden or design and paint a mural with a Somerville artist as part of a 21^st Century after School Garden Club or Mural Club. 

Art and Gardening go Hand in Hand

What do ART and GARDENING have in common?  Community Beautification.  Over the past year, GWS has welcomed the expertise of Tufts University art student, Nora Chovanec, and community artist, Rachel Asarnow, who have worked with youth at ESCS, Healey, and WSNS to design and paint murals that examine the theme of "Farm to School" while beautifying their school.   Try your hand at painting a mural as we work to finish our newest mural at the West Somerville Neighborhood School before the end of the school year!

Butterflies Are Teachers

Groundwork Somerville is piloting a Community Service Learning project with the City of Somerville, in which 8 middle school youth from the East Somerville Community School work with science/ math teacher, Greg Cook, and Groundwork Staff to design and implement lessons for 2^nd grade students from their school.   Middle School students employ "just in time learning" as they work in a Pollinator Garden discovering the importance of pollination, native habitats, and the roles of different pollinators.  After ESCS was closed due to a fire in December, the B.A.T. students have adopted the Pollinator Garden at the Somerville Community Growing Center as their learning garden.  This program was first created and implemented by Groundwork Bridgeport who is helping us adapt the program for Somerville.  Butterflies Are Teachers is generously funded by the Tremaine Foundation.