by Megan Carson
BHS English Teacher / Garden Club Advisor
Tucked between the new 100 building at Bainbridge High School and Memorial Stadium, and bordered by a parking lot, a once-overlooked patch of lawn has been transformed into a garden teeming with life. Just last fall, this narrow strip of land was nothing more than regularly mowed grass--offering little value to pollinators or people. Today, thanks to the generosity of our community and the dedication of many young hands, it has become a habitat for pollinators and an outdoor classroom where students gain hands-on experience in horticulture.
The idea of a school garden took root several years ago, during those first few awkward months of the Covid ‘hybrid schedule’. Students were physically back to school, but only for a couple of hours each day, and we were all feeling the collective trauma of pandemic isolation. A small group of students decided that we needed a Garden Club as a way to begin bringing some literal and metaphorical life back to our campus. And though the club did bring students together, and succeeded in building two pollinator gardens, hosting school-wide sunflower plantings and introducing mason bees on campus, it wasn’t until this past year that we were able to realize that early dream of building a vegetable garden.
Why did it take a few years? And how did we finally come to realize this dream? The answer to both questions lies in community. First, our club began this recent school year with a small, but hardworking group of students who dedicated themselves to this project. And second, we became a part of something bigger! Through the leadership of Elaine Krogfoss (BISD’s former Food Service Supervisor), and our district’s connection to the national Farm to School Institute, a collection of teachers and administrators met monthly to coordinate school gardens and farm-to-table food programs at all of our schools. At BHS, our Culinary Arts teacher Meloni Courtway, joined our garden efforts, and was instrumental in helping us get started. Suddenly, our small group was well connected and rolling!
BHS Garden Club members (faculty sponsor Megan Carson below, center) with their goldmine of cardboard for mulching
For our Garden Club, this has meant that we’ve been met with support all year! In September we were given the green-light to begin building the garden. And so we made a plan. Phase One was our school-wide ‘Clean Cardboard Drive’. We set up multiple locations on campus for students to drop off cardboard, which the Garden Club then ‘cleaned’ of tape and other non-biodegradable bits. We procured a lot of cardboard this way, but after two weeks Al Davis, one of our amazing custodians, showed us the cardboard recycle bin behind the school; in other words, the cardboard jackpot!
By early November we had a mountain of clean cardboard and were ready to prepare our garden site by sheet mulching--a process of laying down thick cardboard and then covering it with mulch. Moving 12 yards of mulch is a heavy job! But our students showed up to work on a cold Saturday morning, armed with gloves and shovels and excited for ‘Phase Two’ of our garden.
BHS Garden Club members laying down mulch on top of cardboard
Knowing that PNW winter rains and cardboard were now working together for the common purpose of suppressing the grass, we began our indoor work of fundraising and planning. And for this phase, the path was a bit more challenging. Gardens need soil (good soil), access to water, tools, plants and structures. Our Garden Club has worked with Deb Rudnick, chair of the Bainbridge Island Watershed Council, a program of Sustainable Bainbridge, on fundraising for projects for several years now; and, because of grants the Watershed Council procured from the National Wildlife Federation from their Schoolyard Habitat program, we had money to get started. Additional money came from the Bainbridge Rotary Club and the Eagle Harbor Congregational Church Pea Patch. For these funds students wrote grant proposals, presented at a Rotary luncheon and have regular work parties with the elder gardeners at EHCC garden. All of these efforts happen during our Friday morning club meetings and on weekends.
Assembling the raised beds
On the morning of Saturday, April 27th, accompanied by the melodious notes of Chappell Roan’s ‘Pink Pony Club’, students happily built, installed and filled raised metal beds with garden soil. This was the first of several garden bed-building work parties, but was probably the most exciting day in Garden Club history. We finally had a garden!
As I mentioned earlier, none of this would have been possible without community support. So often this support has been from our maintenance and custodial team at BHS. For example, we needed a better and closer place for our garden tools (my classroom isn’t an ideal location for storing shovels, hand tools, etc.). Our need was quickly met as we were given access to an outdoor storage area. We needed more accessible water, and Dane Fenwick, Director of Facilities and Operations, arranged for the installation of a water hydrant. We needed some help with our irrigation system. Bernie Mejia, Maintenance Lead, offered assistance and needed parts. And then, just because he was excited to see our progress, he dropped off a donated greenhouse for our club to use. His team is currently getting the greenhouse leveled and cleaned for us.
Those of us who garden know that gardens have a unique way of bringing people together. And that they can be this delightful collaboration of humans, plants and insects. This collaboration is indeed happening at BHS. But even now, after nearly a full year of working on this vegetable garden project with our student team, I remain in awe of just how many community members have helped to bring this dream to fruition. So many more people than those I have named have contributed in ways both big and small, and it’s already been an incredible learning experience for our students. I am filled with gratitude. What is most exciting though is that though we have already completed several project ‘phases’, we feel that we are actually just getting started.
The finished beds with their first plants!....
Just a few months later, the plants are thriving under the garden club's care!