Shelton school dedicates community garden

Intermediate school starts garden club, composting program

One of the raised beds

Part of new 300-foot long split-rail fence

By Kenneth Saranich
Headmaster
Shelton Intermediate School  

SHELTON - The Shelton Intermediate School community garden is in its early stages.

We started last April vacation when the first five raised beds were built.  Students then spent the next couple of weeks placing, leveling, and filling the beds with garden soil.
The first tomato plants were transplanted from seeds grown in the classroom in late May. Over the summer, with the help of SIS faculty and community we installed 300 feet of split rail fence for two purposes. It will hopefully keep out any animals and it is also aesthetically pleasing.

Two smaller beds were planted on the fence line to accommodate climbing vegetables.

On Oct. 1 the school started the SIS Composting Program.  

The goal is to collect all compostable food waste, store it in compost bins that have been built on site by students, and then utilize the finished compost in the raised beds.
The entire school community including students, staff, and cafeteria workers will participate in the daily collecting of food waste through learned waste reduction techniques.

Growing will continue through winter
The SIS Garden Club will install an unheated hoop house over five raised beds this fall so that growing can continue throughout the winter months with cool season vegetable varieties.

The club will be responsible for weekly maintenance of the garden as well as decision making on crop rotations, harvesting times, planting dates, etc. 

The ultimate vision for the garden is to have approximately 30 raised beds that can be parceled out to individual teachers as desired for unique lessons/experiments.
The remaining beds will be dedicated to growing vegetables by the garden club for harvest and use in the school cafeteria as well as for sale at an on-site vegetable stand.

We are very excited about the community-building and learning opportunities that our new garden will provide to our students.
In such a short time, the garden has already had a very positive influence on our school community.

All are welcomed to stop by SIS anytime and see the work that we have done and plan to do.


And check out the school's community garden site for more information.