From the very beginning of the Planting Seeds project, I knew that it would take a great deal of team-work to accomplish our various goals. This past Tuesday the Border Star students and the Planting Seeds staff truly embraced the collaborative, team-work spirit as they built and filled six new raised garden beds. It was exciting to see the students take ownership of the project and to see their planning and attention to detail pay off with such beautiful new garden spaces. The new beds are 4x8 feet and are divided two beds for each of the three Upper Elementary classes. Each class had a short 40 minute window in which to get basic instructions, construct and then fill their two beds. In my mind this seemed like plenty of time. Needless to say, I was greatly mistaken. Our goal was to give each of the 25 students in each class an opportunity to work on their two beds, so we shuffled the work around between all the students. The students and staff worked tirelessly and at the end of the school day we had only three of the six beds finished. At this point, with the students gone for the day, in the following 30 minutes the staff flew into action building the remaining three beds and with the help of Piper, Marlow, Ian and Emery we quickly filled two of the three beds with soil.
Thursday's classes had slightly better time management as the students worked together in their smaller teams to mathematically and seasonally plan out their garden plots, calculating number of plants, time to maturity and maximum yield before the first frost. After the planning challenge the individual teams planted their plots with a selection of quick fall crop seeds including Arugula, a Gourmet Lettuce Mix, Cilantro and Easter Egg Radishes. With luck the students will have a full crop of produce to begin their businesses with before winter sets in. What became clear as I watched the students and staff work, is that the success or failure of the crop is only one small facet of the Planting Seeds experience. The more important "seeds" that were planted in the garden this past week were the seeds of collaboration, team-work, pride in the results of hard work and a new and hopefully more profound connection with the earth and our food chain.
A special thank you to Andrea and Kansas City Community Gardens and a heart-felt thank you to Phillip, Benita, Jeff and Emily for your extra time and effort.
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