The Boston Latin School Garden!
Why We Believe in School Gardens
It used to be common sense that you didn't eat something if you were unsure about where it came from or how it came to be on a plate in front of you. Not anymore though, with fast-food places on every corner, the advent of food to-go, and the rise of our gigantic food industry, it's much more common in thought and practice to eat a meal filled with additives and who knows what else, than it is to eat something grown locally, organically, or even more rare, something that youve actually grown yourself.
Boston Latin School Youth Climate Action Network is a student-run, student-led, afterschool group dedicated to educating for and promoting sustainability. An outgrowth of this has been the creation and growth of a school garden. The garden itself is an educational tool both directly implementable by interested teachers at our own school and is able to be shared with other schools and community groups through outreach programs. One such program that we hope to run this coming summer is a Summer Garden Camp at which elementary school students would help care for the garden at our school on a weekly basis, and in the process gain the tools they might need to start their own garden. The garden is also representative of our ongoing efforts to green BLS from the ground-up -- beginning with the grounds and facilities. Other improvements have included energy audits and a 75 k lighting retrofit. As part of our larger and ultimate end of getting a green roof on the school, the garden is a concrete highly-visible example or our continued interest and investment on that front.
ABOUT US
​ The Beginning
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Our interest in getting a school garden really began when we visited the Moore School's garden in Cambridge at the end of the 2009-2010 school year. After seeing their amazing garden we were sure that we wanted a ground-level garden at our own school, in addition to the one we eventually hope to put on our roof. We then had to plan and design what the site would look like as well as get the approval of the school administration and the BPS Facilities Department. From there we could purchase the necessary materials and plan an event to involve the community and assemble everything.
Spring
​2011
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We picked up the garden again in the spring, this time in conjunction with Green City Growers, who helped us remove the salt hay, and plant strategically the spring crops so as to maximize yield and diversity.
Now
In the summer (2011) we ran, with Green City Growers our first summer garden program where three interns worked to take care of the garden this summer. Next year (2012) we hope to expand the program to involve a group of elementary school students from the Philbrick School who'd be taught how to garden and how to start a school garden.
​Autumn
October 10, 2010
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​We hosted an event at our school, as part of 350.org's international day of action, at which students worked with the help of parent volunteers to put together the three raised beds that comprise our garden. Each bed is 8'L x 4'W x 17"H and we first had to dig into the ground to stabilize the re-bar that would eventually hold each of the beds together. Then we could place the smart timbers on top of each other in the holes, staggering them, to build the beds. The rebar then had to be hammered into place, and the crossbeams secured. Once the beds were finished being built, we filled them in with the soil that we'd bought. and could finally plant them afterwards. Initially we planted lots of lettuce and mixed greens, but also garlic, bok choy, and kale.
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Program Statement
In the summer of 2011 we ran our first summer garden program with Green City Growers, in which three interns from Boston Latin School worked to take care of the garden. This summer 2012, we have expanded the program to involve a group of younger students in elementary grades from various Boston Public Schools, who are taught how to garden and its impacts on the environment, economy, and human health.
​Winter
December 6, 2010
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We braved the cold to harvest the majority of the produce from our garden. We mainly had lettuce/ mixed greens and kale to show for our efforts, an astonishing amount of greenery. We secured the beds for the winter as well, covering them with salt hay and disassembling the hoop-houses Although, we did leave the garlic over the winter, and we were able to successfully harvest it in the spring.
December 7, 2010 What were we to do with all of the foliage from the day before - give it away of course. After school we set up a salad-sale of sorts (though everything was free) and gave away the produce to BLS students and faculty, as well as kale chips that had been made with the harvested kale. We even out-competed a cupcake sale.