The garden next to the cafeteria has been sitting untouched for months after the pandemic took hold. Feeling inspired, freshman Nicholas Farber and junior Jack McDonald started a project in the garden.
Since then, it became their purpose to restore the garden to its original state. On Oct. 6, Farber, McDonald, and freshman Max Millar spent the morning clearing out the weeds in the ground. Although they got stickers in their hands, they managed to clear about 25% of the garden’s weeds that day. Because of their dedication and perseverance, Oct. 6 became known as the “Three Amigos” Garden Day.
After several days, the students removed all the weeds and began the next step: covering up the garden with cardboard.
In the same few months, Social Cognition teacher Sean Louderback and his students planted pumpkin, mint, and thyme plants into small pots for a project.
“One of the students said, ‘I want to do stuff outside,’” Louderback said. “And then someone said, ‘oh, we can help with the garden,’ and I was like, ‘okay.’”
The Social Cognition class plans to work with Faber, McDonald, and Miller on the garden by watering and composting the garden sometime this spring.
However, Science teachers Melissa Havel and Michelle Lafevre-Bernt have also supported this project, hoping that the new plants will attract wildlife for students to study.
“They started the whole process of it,” Louderback said. “They wanted plants that will attract insects so that kids for science classes would go out and observe them.”
Some of the Social Cognition students don’t have a lot of experience when it comes to gardening. Nonetheless, they are excited to learn more about gardening and gain hands-on experience.
