Growing Up Green
Students and adults taking part in the “Growing Up Green” project at Joy, Edgewood, Knapp, and Lake Hills Elementary conducted garden tours for members of the media and public on September 18th.
Growing Up Green is teaching Safe Harbor after-school students how to develop a healthy hobby that not only provides food and beautiful gardens, but gives students a way to de-stress. It teaches them that gardens can exist in all types of environments, from raised beds and vertical pockets to hydroponic systems.
The initiative brings adult gardeners in the community together with students – connecting children with fresh food and ornamental plantings. Partners involved in the project include:
Michigan City Area Schools
LaPorte County Convention and Visitors Bureau
Safe Harbor Afterschool Program
Purdue Cooperative Extension Office
H&H Sunkissed Flowers Organics
Green Spirit Farms
Beachside Gardens Nursery
Porter & LaPorte Master Gardeners
During the tour on September 18, guests traveled to four elementary buildings to view very different projects:
Vegetable gardens at Joy Elementary’s award-winning courtyard garden, involving raised beds and “wooly pockets” (this stop on the tour featured home grown salsa!)
Cultural gardens at Edgewood, featuring displays of native plants, trees, and decorations in a European garden, an Asian garden, and a Latin American garden
Knapp’s amazing “Enchanted Fairy Garden” (who wouldn’t want to read a book here?!) and “Hero’s Rose Garden”
Lake Hills’ STEM Magnet School’s hydroponic gardening wheel, which operates in the center of the school near the library (food grown on this wheel has been used in school lunches!)
Special thanks to the Growing Up Green Committee, and especially master gardener John Tiedeman , for his work on this outstanding project. The work will continue this school year at these and other locations…including Marsh Elementary and Barker Middle School!
Below are some photos taken at the Edgewood Elementary School’s gardens during the tour: