Kids study gardening, eat the results

Working in the school garden is part of the curriculum at St. Mary Magdalen Catholic School. For kids in those classes, the extra benefit is they get to eat the results.

Allison Nickrent, Sandy Roy and Emily Miller. Sandy is holding a harvested eggplant.

Last month, 3^rd and 4^th graders started the 2003-04 school year by planting lettuce, carrot and radish seeds. Usually, September is a little late for starting a garden. But, those vegetables have a quick growing season.

The kids hope to have the makings of a salad before the fall frosts come.

Gardening is a year-round activity at St. Mary Magdalen.

Eight-year-old Allison Nickrent and 11-year-old Alexander McNeil were among kids who took part in the school's Summer Gardening Club.

Both of those kids said they liked planting and cultivating the best. Fifth-grader Alexander said, "I like to get my hands dirty." Third-grader Allison said one of her favorite parts of gardening was "digging the holes and planting potatoes."

But, 7-year-old Henry Doheny said, "I don't dig; my Mom does that job." He's more of a harvesting kind of guy.

Henry's mother, Sally Doheny, is one of the parents who help teachers and kids with gardening at St. Mary Magdalen.

Alexander McNeil (left) and Henry Doheny

The school garden is right on the campus. The kids plant vegetables with a variety of growing seasons. In addition to the quick-growing vegetables, they also plant vegetables that will mature later.

That's where the Summer Gardening Club comes in.

Students got to harvest some vegetables before the end of last school year. But, the slower-growing vegetables didn't mature until after school was out.

That left it to the club members in the summer to harvest such things as potatoes and cabbages. And some of plants such as tomatoes were still yielding when the current school year started.

For instance, Teacher Marianne Jorcke said the kids harvested both ripe and green tomatoes this fall. The green tomatoes are going to be made into green-tomato salsa to go along with Mexican foods.

Seven-year-old Emily Miller is one of the kids who work in the school garden and also one at home.

The 2^nd grader said, "My older sister, Maggie, and I are in charge of the tomatoes at home." However, she said the family is having trouble because animals are getting to the tomatoes before they ripen.

"We had more than 100 tomatoes at home but the squirrels are eating them. It's getting a little annoying that they get to them first," she said.

She said their home garden also has watermelon, flowers and a "bumper crop of carrots."

Nine-year-old Sandy Roy said her family also has had trouble with squirrels and rabbits getting into the tomatoes in their home garden. "We had to put up fences to keep them out." she said.

She said the family garden usually includes pumpkins. "But, this year, we planted tomatoes." She said this year the family probably will have to buy pumpkins to decorate at Halloween time.

While she was in the summer club, Sandy got to harvest a big cabbage from the school garden. "But, we gave it to one of our neighbors because we were going on vacation," she said.

All of the kids, except for Henry, said they like to eat vegetables. Henry said he eats vegetables "but I like fruits better."

Allison said she likes carrots and tomatoes best. She doesn't even dip the raw vegetables into any dressing before eating them.

She said her family garden includes tomatoes and green peppers. "And we have a raspberry bed behind the garage. It was there when we moved into the house," she said.

Alexander said he likes carrots raw. But, he dips them either into ranch dressing or French onion dip.

Teacher Jorcke said the gardening experience fits into a class unit on trees and plants. She said the school also uses the garden for some math exercises.

Kids measure the garden beds and then figure out the circumference and area of the planted areas.