9/18/08

(previous)
The initial idea for our project started after one of our teachers talked about providing for yourself with your own food. We were really excited about the idea and wanted to grow our own garden. We entered a raffle for a plot of land at Milton’s community garden and got half a plot. At one of our meetings we decided to give all the proceeds to Father Bill’s, a homeless shelter in Quincy. We called them and they recommended we deliver the vegetables as we harvested them.
At first, we didn’t think all the vegetables that we planted would even grow, but they did. Some of the veggies were potatoes, summer squash, zucchini, corn, green beans, tomatoes, carrots, leafy greens and herbs.
As a group we weeded so the plants had oxygen to grow. We put down fresh soil, made long mounds, and put black plastic over them to block the weeds. We planted, watered and finally harvested the vegetables. We used the Internet a lot to find out how to pick the leafy greens and herbs, especially the kale, because most of us were unfamiliar with harvesting. Once the vegetables were ready to be picked, we were excited to bring them to Father Bill’s. When we started gardening we wanted to eat some of the vegetables that we grew, but after visiting Father Bill’s, we decided that they needed them more than we did. We also thought that the guests at Father Bill’s could use more food, so we put out a donation basket and sign at the garden so that other gardeners could also contribute.
In order to coordinate the garden maintenance, we set up a schedule. We used communication skills when brainstorming with each other about which plants to use for the garden, and when to visit or ask for help at the garden. We used our muscles and gardening talents when planting and tending to the garden during our individual weeks of weeding and harvesting. Some additional skills, talents and abilities we put into action were: hoeing, math through calculating the weight of the vegetables, and tracking the amount of our harvest. We needed to be patient in waiting for our plants to begin to grow. We had to be responsible for our assigned weeks at the garden and we learned great teamwork skills. And most importantly, we learned about friendship. This project brought us all together in a way that we never expected. Gardening is fun!
If we could change anything about our garden it would be to change how we set it up, because once the plants started growing it was hard to walk through the garden. And, next time we will plant more of our best growers.
We grew a bountiful garden. All the gardeners helped us to donate over 500 pounds of vegetables! Bringing the food to Father Bill’s Place and seeing the guests so happy has made us want to help more by serving them dinner, perhaps over the winter.
Because we worked as a team throughout the whole project it didn’t seem as much work as it would have, if only one person worked on it, and it wouldn’t be nearly as fun. We learned that giving to someone else can be better than receiving. We accomplished a beautiful garden and filled someone else’s plate. What could be more rewarding than that?