Growing Young Gardeners at St. Francis International School

“I like to garden,” proclaimed Joseph Gomes, a third-grader at Saint Francis International School near New Hampshire Avenue in Silver Spring. He was weeding out a bed of radish seedlings along with a few other members of his class on a recent, unseasonably hot spring morning. “I garden at home too,” he explained.“My family grows cucumbers, peppers, potatoes.Those are my favorites. 

“It is not at all hard,” chimed Maryl Leaglois. She was thinning out seedlings. “I’m not really scared of bugs and I like to eat lettuce and Swiss Chard.”

Guiding the weeding session was Franciscan Father Mike Johnson, pastor of St. Camillus Church, which is one of three parishes associated with the school. Father Johnson started the new garden in May with the third graders. An avid gardener himself, he wanted to share that enthusiasm with the school children. On the campus grounds, he has also added native gardens, edibles for wildlife, rain barrels, shade gardens, butterfly gardens, and much more. The Saint Francis edible school garden was trialed last year.

“We did it as a straw-bale garden,” said Father Johnson.“It was great for some things, but it was tough for the tomatoes.”

This spring they installed eight 4-foot-by-4-foot raised beds with wooden frames for the edible teaching garden. They have also planted several fruit trees and blueberry shrubs. It is all located within an enclosed courtyard so that the young gardeners do not have to worry about deer or other garden intruders. Saint Francis International School’s Principal Toby Harkleroad said the garden will be used for the upcoming summer camps as well through-out the school year.

“We plan on integrating the garden into many subject areas,” said Harkleroad. Adding, that “the garden is fairly low-cost [and] we do want to be able to expand the number of raised beds as well as needing more garden-unit teaching materials, so we are looking for donations.” The public is welcome to donate to the project. 

Thanks to a $2,000 grant from the Province of the Holy Name of the Franciscan Friars, the school is adding a small greenhouse this winter where the students can get an early start on the growing season by starting their own seeds indoors. The hope is that they will have enough extra seedlings the students can take home with them to share.

“We want everyone in the parish involved as well,” said Father Johnson. “At the annual church fair, we made seed tapes and that was a big success. The idea is to get them connected to nature and to bring that connection home with them.” 

Author:

Kathy is working her way through her own long garden to-do list including adding a new beds to grow more flowers from seed for cutting this year. She is the editor of Washington Gardener magazine, and a long-time D.C. area gardening enthusiast. Kathy can be reached at washingtongardener@rcn.com and welcomes your gardening questions.