A.D. After moving to Central Ohio with her family in 2016, Amber Keller was attending a PTA meeting at the Front School.
“Everyone was so happy,” Keller said. I suggested a process that we could use to design and install the garden (to Granby Principal Patty Schlagel) and she boarded it.
Keller: Franklin County chief gardener, whose two children were educated at Granby at the time – and other volunteers began working with the school’s yard-gardening staff to build a Granby school garden.
The team estimates the resources of staff and students in what they want and use in the garden.
“Our goal is for all stakeholders to own space and for us to create a learning environment,” Keller said.
Approximately 7,500 square feet of gardening cost $ 37,000, Keller said. She said she received $ 11,440 from the Warwrington Education Foundation, the Scottish Miracle-Gro Foundation, the Finly Smile Foundation, the Franklin County Community Gardening and GPP Group Workers Foundation, and the rest came from the Columbus Foundation’s online fundraising event. Donate, Granby PTA and donations from local businesses.
The garden has been growing for approximately three years, and observers say it has become a favorite feature of the school.
“Such values have been added to our building and to our education program,” said Shelagel.
“This was our ultimate goal to give children the opportunity to practice real teaching skills and to solve critical thinking and problems,” Keller said. And the garden is a great place for socio-emotional learning.
Keller is a family friend of Emily Hunt, a landscape architect and gardener Heidi Schaefer, with the Warner Larson Landscape Architects in Boston. According to Keller, Chae Ferfer and Karen Nicole are two volunteers who have made significant contributions to the project since its inception.
The garden has eight high-rise cedar beds, Keller said, adding that gardeners can use the type of soil they want and adjust it for optimal growth conditions. A variety of vegetables are grown in these beds, including pumpkins, tomatoes, eggs, and radishes.
According to Keller, the “lass method” was invented from a place where there was grass – to make grass grow in cardboard and to grow a variety of organic materials. This is an environmentally friendly method of gardening because it does not involve the use of pesticides.
The area is covered with wildflower seeds and grass, Keller said, and gardeners have created butterfly habitats with native Ohio. Finnie’s smile is called butterfly habitat.
Other features include a birdhouse space and a compact area. Two walkways stretch the length of the garden, a circular outdoor seating area in the middle and a nearby tent.
“It started with just a few high beds, and now it’s a wonderful place to learn,” said Granby Secondary teacher Paula Averesh. And then there’s an outdoor classroom that can be used for gardening or other activities. When we return to normal, this year I want to use it again in a wonderful place in our school.
Members of the Granby students and staff and about a network of about 150 volunteers own the garden, Keller said, and the work of these groups will be fully preserved.
Parents say they register to water and harvest the garden during the summer.
According to Keller, the garden is a master garden approved by Franklin County, and Franklin County’s top gardeners occasionally come to help with activities.
The Master Gardener Program is a national program administered by Extension Master Gardener and administered by local extension grant universities. Master gardeners are volunteers who have received 75 hours of gardening training and volunteered 50 hours on gardening projects. The program in Central Ohio is controlled by Ohio State University through the OSU extension.
Granby has “garden breaks” during the school year, during which time parent-volunteers work in the garden and students help with watering, weeding, inspecting insects, collecting vegetables and going to the compost heap, among other gardening activities.
“Our goal has always been to involve our school community as much as possible in this process, so they want to own the space and help take care of it,” Keller said.
Keller said she and other volunteers initially thought of gardening as a teaching tool. According to the study, the garden is primarily used in Ginbi’s natural sciences, but in all subjects, the program somehow included the garden.
“Teachers can teach their children about life, life cycle, insects, soil sampling, and so on,” says Schlagel.
Grantby’s fifth-grade teacher, Tina Suarez, said she and her student used the garden in every field of study. Due to the COVID-19 cholera virus, classes may not have volunteered with them, so it was not actually implemented last school year, but Swerring asked Granby students to visit the garden several times during the break.
“Some are going to read, others are going in to look for a variety of plants to grow in. If they grow any product, others are looking for bugs – they are looking to see who lives in the garden,” he said. It was a different experience for each child.
One of the things we often hear in the garden is Keller, who says, “My favorite thing about school is the garden.” During the gardening season, children always come to the water and just to surprise everyone. Things you can get. They’re really busy in the garden, it’s fun to see. ”
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