Spring is around the corner and high school environmental science teacher Sue Mitchell is planning how to spend a new grant awarded to the CCHS Organic Garden Project by the National Gardening Association based in South Burlington, Vermont.
Mitchell, who created the organic garden on the grounds of the high school last spring with her science students and members of the environmental club, says she will use the $250 Home Depot gift certificate to purchase organic potting mix to start seedlings in her classroom this week. She also intends to involve kindergarteners from Cornwall-on-Hudson Elementary School in the garden project.
“I will be buying them potting mix and seeds,” Mitchell says. “They will be visiting the garden in
the spring to plant the seedlings that they start at school.”
A local landscaper will be doing some final construction work in the garden this month and Mitchell hopes to start planting outside at the end of March or the beginning of April, depending on the weather.
Mitchell’s students started the organic garden last spring with materials donated by local businesses and individuals. She says that they depend on grants and donations for the project and encourages anyone in the community wishing to volunteer in the garden over the summer to contact her at [email protected].
The new 2007 Youth Garden Grant comes with an assortment of gardening books and a plaque to hang in the garden. Food grown in the garden last season was sold to the school cafeteria and donated to local food banks.
