Garden & Greenhouse

Bath Middle School

Brooksville Elementary School

Bath Middle School revived a struggling orchard by purchasing a new wheelbarrow to deliver several yards of wood chips to the base of the fruit trees, a garden sprayer to organically treat the trees to increase the yields, educational signage that will be on display in the orchard and lumber for student-built birdhouses that will be placed in the orchard. Students have played a key role in renewing this space and encouraging wider engagement.

Teacher Brent Luchies talked about the impact this project has had: “While a healthier, more vibrant orchard has been good to see, what’s been even better is the number of students and community members spending time in the orchard. Whether hauling wood chips, constructing bird houses, or building simple structures to protect plants and trees, the BMS orchard has been an active place this spring. Students, teachers and community members have come together to make small contributions to the orchard.”

In addition, “At the end of a long day in the classroom, sometimes all one needs is a short time in the orchard with friends; sunshine on our faces, fingers in the dirt, and the feel of a warm spring breeze moving up the hillside. With the work that’s been done and the plans for the future, I’m hopeful the orchard and the people who spend time in it will continue to be restored.”

These funds were used to purchase supplies for the garden classroom at Brooksville Elementary. These tools have added a diversity of accessible activities and created hands on learning opportunities for more students. One great thing that has happened with the acquisition of these materials is the reduction in class time meltdowns due to jealousy from not getting to use a particular tool - now there are plenty to go around! Most of these tools will continue to be used throughout the summer season during the free Garden Camp program.

Teacher Anna Wind shares about the way the students are learning in the garden, “After a math lesson in which we tried to estimate how many peas were in each pod & add up their totals, the pods became snacks and we took a bag of snap pea seeds outside for planting! Mathematical thinking gave way to scientific thinking. They compared their fresh, snacking peas with the dried and shriveled planting ones. One child wanted to set up an experiment to see if the fresh ones would grow, too. Another started building a trellis with found string.

The students worked as a team to do something meaningful – there were no behavior issues, no checking out, and students just extended the lesson and its many points of connection of their own. `Students love learning when your teaching functions to support their natural sense of wonder.”

Capt. Albert Stevens School

At Captain Albert Stevens School in Belfast, grant funds were used to purchase a mobile cart, cooking supplies, and maple syruping tools. Teacher Danee Voss says, “Outdoor learning has had a profound and vast impact on our students. Most recently students have been helping to support our annual community meal. The community meal is an opportunity for students, staff, and their families to come together to share a meal made with local ingredients outdoors. In preparation for the meal students have been cleaning our school spaces, planting seeds, and harvesting spinach. Each grade plays a crucial and specific role in engaging with the garden space to learn more about themselves and their surrounding environment.”

Students also used the garden to explore interconnectedness by planting a Three Sisters Garden and making Three Sisters soup.

Voss reports that in addition to the community meal and summer time activities, “outdoor learning is brought into the classroom space at all times of the year, but especially during syruping season. This past March grades 3-5 helped to tap a tree per class, collect sap, and make maple syrup. The lesson series concluded with grades 3 and 4 making maple syrup sundaes and 5th grade putting their culinary skills to the test by preparing pancakes to taste the homemade maple syrup on!”

Central Community Elementary School

Central Community Elementary School students raise and release butterflies each spring and fall, and needed flowers to help these important pollinators. Grant funds were used to purchase 2 wooden raised beds as well as dirt, gardening tools, a watering can and 4 butterfly bushes. These funds supported efforts to take indoor classroom learning to the next level.

With the help of custodial staff, the raised beds were assembled outside the classroom windows so that students could easily see them as they started seeds indoors.

When the weather was right students planted their seedlings in the new beds- along with colorful perennial plants, learning both how to plant and care for a garden (many had not done it before) and why flowers are so important to pollinators. Watching the progress as the flowers grow and new types of insects visit them is also an important part of the project and extremely engaging to students.

Teacher Ginna Marsh reports, “The learning will continue for years to come as we start planting earlier in the Spring and then are able to transplant their seedlings later in the Spring. The screams of laughter as they got their hands dirty and filled their buckets with water were unforgettable. Thank you for giving us this great outdoor learning opportunity! “

Freeport Middle School Gartley Street School

Freeport Middle School used their grant funds to purchase 2 large benches specifically designed to fit the greenhouse being constructed. Beginning in the Fall of 2022, the greenhouse at Freeport Middle School will be used year round as a school garden and outdoor learning classroom.

The three main goals of this project are: - to get students outside and better connected to the Maine environment, - to enhance general nutrition, food and cooking knowledge and to enhance the food provided through the school backpack program, and - to develop and implement on-going lessons connected to school gardening.

Over the past several months, the Freeport Middle School science department has met to discuss and develop the greenhouse curriculum for in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades. Teachers are eager to get students outside and engaged!

The grant from the Maine Environmental Education Association was used to increase the number of raised garden beds at Gartley Street School in Lisbon. Three 8’ x 4’ raised beds and two 4’ x 4’ beds to make 9 in total. The school also purchased 2 greenhouses to start seedlings as well as other gardening supplies and a Maine State Parks pass.

This project has been a school wide one. The Alternative Education kids helped fill the new raised beds and weed the older ones. One elementary school classroom watched the progress as the perennials grew and eventually bloomed. Another elementary school classroom took over the planting process from seeds and seedlings in their classroom to transplanting the plants bought. The high school classroom earned volunteer time for helping work in the garden.

Program Director Barbara Morris shares, “Many of our students are food insecure and their experience with non-processed food is limited for a variety of reasons. This garden has helped them explore where food comes from and how it is grown. Their teacher, Ms. Dow, has worked with them all year about the process of growing food. The students are excited to see and eat the fresh food. Luckily, we run a summer school program so they will be able to see the “fruits of their labor”. Seeing their enthusiasm has made me so thankful for this grant.”

Harrison Elementary School Holbrook Middle School

The funds from the MEEA mini grant were used to purchase 3 raised beds and supplemental supplies. This project allowed science, math, and English to be taught in an authentic way including exploring plants and their adaptations as well as learning about the importance of pollinators. Students practiced math skills by measuring the perimeter of each bed. They used either centimeters or inches and they checked their results against the bed next to them. Students also divided up the beds into fractions and then they had to find the unit fraction.Once the seeds were planted students examined them to look at the different adaptations over time and then taste test for their different tastes.

Teacher Samantha Geer shares how this project has engaged students in a really positive way: “Since we have planted all of the plants we have made many trips up to water them and watch them grow. We have already been able to make many different observations and they can’t wait to try the lettuce that they have grown from seeds! These beds have been a wonderful addition to our classroom and we look forward to growing a variety of plants in the future.”

At Holbrook Middle School, the grant funds went towards improving vegetable and pollinator gardens. The supplies included landscaping fabric, edging material, flagstones, bird bath, materials to make pollinator hotels (including multi-purpose paint for decorating), and annual and perennial plants.

The garden is an important part of hands-on learning, but also a way to bring joy to the entire school community.

Teacher Ashley Allen shared about how much students gained ownership of the space because they were included in nearly every aspect of building the garden. She said, “I went out to see if anyone wanted to help during their recess with the garden. I didn’t think I would have many takers, but as I approached a group of students, they just looked at me and without me even saying a word they said, “do you want us to come to the garden?!” and started jumping for joy.”

Students learned about conservation, environmental responsibility, and sustainability as well as completing service learning such as donating produce to the school cafeteria and food pantry. The garden was also a great place to study pollinators and learn about how to support them.

Allen says, “My students are incredibly hard working, passionate individuals, and we are grateful to have the opportunity to be working on these projects. I am grateful for seeing their joy.”

Katahdin Elementary School Montello Elementary School

At Katahdin Elementary School, the grant helped purchase gloves, watering cans, and hand tools for students to use in the new Garden Classroom. The gloves allow students with sensory sensitivities to comfortably get their hands in the dirt. The watering cans present an opportunity for students to internalize one of the key needs for all plants: water. They’ve also allowed watering to become a ritual that entire classes get to participate in. The hand tools make tasks like transplanting, weeding, and exploring the soil less frustrating and more satisfying. Teacher Gail Pocock explains what the garden means to the school, “As we settle into our Garden Classroom the KES community is continuously discovering new ways that the space can connect to both our regular curricula and our students’ social-emotional learning. As the seasons change, as we steward plants through their lifecycles, as food webs churn and nutrients cycle. The mechanics of pollination click when a student dissects a tulip and observes its pistil and stamen, and the importance of the process is driven home when a squash flower loses its petals and swells into a fruit. Classmates have to work together to mix compost into the soil, to carry heavy loads, and to weed the beds. They solve problems cooperatively and feel mutually responsible for the garden’s wellbeing.”

Grant money at Montello school went towards improving the garden as an outdoor learning space.This included purchasing a compost system in the school garden to be incorporated into summer lessons and then school-wide sustainability programming in the Fall. Teacher Ellie Vance reports about the impact of this space on students, “During my time as an outdoor educator, I’ve realized that my favorite part of doing lessons in the garden is when students who have a hard time in a classroom setting can really shine in an alternative situation. In April, I led a leaf observation lesson, where we we learn how to draw leaves like scientists and then see if we can distinguish them when they are all jumbled in a pile together. I had students find a spot on the ground and use their foam squares and clipboards to draw their leaves. I was shocked to see that one student, who had enormous difficulties sitting still at this desk, was completely zoned into his drawing, focusing immense concentration on getting every edge correct. He even drew a zoomed in portion so he could count the speckles on his leaf! I loved realizing that my student got an opportunity to be at his best and enjoy learning.”

Mount Ararat High School

Project GROW at Mt. Ararat High School purchased a garden hose and reel, hand tools (shovels and rakes), fencing and posts, weed barriers, a wheel barrow, and 5 hand-made raised beds, two of which will be made specific to ADA accessibility standards. Youth have been able to contribute to the garden in many ways, gaining a sense of accomplishment and purpose as they also gain healing and community.

At a community garden day in spring, Darcy Baggett, LCSW, shared what was happening when the principal came out to be a part of it: “On Friday, he came out to check on the garden team to find us smiling, laughing, working hard on common goals, feeling the warmth of the sunshine and getting dirty. We became empowered by the project and renewed by nature. Educators and students alike were working together to bring a new garden to life — a future source of learning outdoors that will be available to all students at Mt. Ararat High School. Project GROW - Garden Roots and Outdoor Wellness - while just an empty field of soil a day earlier, was already serving our community. Without the MEEA grant, our project wouldn’t be possible. Thank you for supporting school gardens across the state. Ours will surely continue to fulfill the needs of our staff and students.”

Mount Desert Elementary

At Mount Desert Elementary, the MEEA grant funds were used to buy seeds, plant pots, potting soil, new hoses, organic fertilizers, tools, posts/stakes, organic bug deterrent, twines, fencing and general supplies.

Located in Northeast Harbor, the Mount Desert Elementary School’s, ’Growing Gardens, Growing Minds,’ garden program is an outdoor classroom committed to a vision of engaging authentic learning for students from kindergarten to eighth grade. The school has a garden where the students plant seeds, dig in the ground, grow vegetables organically and learn about garden maintenance.

In the greenhouse, the students plant seeds during March and April, and later, plant the seedlings in the garden when the warm weather arrives. Teaching children to grow their own food, in a very large outdoor garden, opens young minds to environmental awareness, sustainability, and to have respect for nature.

When the students return to school after the summer, they have a magical, wonderland of a garden, full of greenery and wildlife. The garden is bursting with vegetables~as well as hundreds of flowers and sunflowers, grown for beauty, and for the important garden pollinators.

The vegetables are harvested by the young gardeners in early September. Potatoes are dug, carrots pulled, cucumbers, corn, sweet peppers, different squashes and a variety of other vegetables are picked and eaten off the vine or used by the cafeteria for school lunches.

Mt. Blue High School

Oceanside Middle School

The funds provided by the MEEA Mini-Grant were used by Mt. Blue HIgh School to purchase wood to build the 2 wheelchair accessible raised garden beds, gardening mix soil, and plants and seeds. Outdoor learning in the Life Skills program has included a sidewalk garden for about 4 years now. Students started out planting sunflowers seeds inside in little cups, then in May transplanted them in a newly created sidewalk garden. By fall they were thrilled to see how tall and beautiful the sunflowers had become! Additional bulbs, donated flowers and a hummingbird feeder add to the beautiful space.

Students and staff built the 2 raised garden beds. One side is built to accommodate a student who uses a wheelchair. The other side is for a student who can stand but has difficulty squatting or bending down safely to work in the ground garden. Now, students who need these accommodations have them. One raised garden bed was placed near the door of the Life Skills Program and the other was placed in the garden area that is used for health and gardening classes. Both special education and general education students who use a wheelchair will now have the opportunity to garden with everyone else. Teacher Lynda Szenes shares, “We are deeply grateful for the generous mini-grant that allowed us to add these two lovely additions.”

At Oceanside Middle School the grant funds were used to purchase six picnic tables, six umbrellas, and paint. The goal was to be able to offer students seating options outside to learn. Students built the tables themselves, painted them and determined where to put them. Seating improved the outdoor learning experience and was essential during the pandemic.

Teacher Catherine Sally shared this story: “One sixth grade teacher took her class outside to write poetry up in the garden. After being outside for a period (45 minutes) , she said: ‘We wrote more poetry in 20 minutes than we have in a week! They were totally into being outside, being comfortable, and writing!’”

Many people from the OMS community have used the new seating and it is a great addition to the school.

Sanford Pride Elementary School

Sanford Pride Elementary School used its grant to jump start use of the greenhouse and begin a composting program. The school purchased gardening materials, such as pots, soil, seeds, and fertilizer as well as 3 large eco compost bins that will be set up outside of the cafeteria. Students will learn how to compost as well as why it is beneficial to the environment.

Teacher Alexandra Smye reports, “With the addition of the greenhouse to the learning environment, it really kickstarted their interest in helping something else grow. They became invested in the flowers and plants, not only wanting to plant more and more, but also in the process of taking care of something other than yourself. The students and I had discussions surrounding sustainability, and why growing your own food is both good for the planet, but also good for your health. The students were also held accountable for watering the plants throughout the day. I could even count on the students to take care of the plants if I was ever absent.”

The school has plans to continue seeking opportunities to use the greenhouse for educational projects, including high school students in the project as well.

Windham Middle School

MEEA grant funds were used to purchase raised beds, soil, starter trays, and seeds for a school garden at Windham Middle School. Students took a lead role in nearly every step of the process. For most this project marked the first time designing and building raised beds, including researching the design, planting the seeds, and using power tools!

In discussing the impact one student shared, “I used to be afraid to go outside because of hornets and ticks and bugs, but building outside distracted me from my fear of bugs. It was exciting to use powertools, and I don’t even mind the bug bites I got.” Mason also remarked, “The grant got their money’s worth because this garden will last for a long time. I’m looking forward to coming to school to use the gardens over the summer, and it’ll be a pretty nice home for the worms.”

The beds have been offered for families to use over the summer, and several families living in apartments have responded positively to the offer. The harvest in the fall will be able to feed students during their snacks and lunches. This is the first community garden for the families at Windham Middle School, and students now have all the necessary skills and knowledge to go from the vision to execution of raised beds.