June 2, 2011 | Garden Works

Garden Works project with Leadership Prep!

 

It's official! This year's main Garden Works project is finalized and we can now dish the details. 

 

Starting in about a month, we'll be working with a truly amazing school based in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn called Leadership Prep. For anyone that's unfamiliar, Leadership Prep is a K-5 charter school that's part of the widely-recognized-for-extreme-excellence Uncommon network, and we are completely inspired by the place! Having sat in on a few classes there, we can personally attest to all of the incredible work that both the students and teachers put into their education, and we're thrilled to be able to work with such a very special group of people. 

 

So what's the plan exactly? A big ol' garden that incorporates some interesting urban agriculture features and green design!

 

We aim to completely transform an asphalt lot that wraps around the side of the school with themed planters that the kids will use as learning stations. Each one will focus on some aspect of the school's current curriculum, or something they’d like to explore in the future.  Some of the top ideas so far included plants used by early Americans, a flower and herb garden that regenerates quickly for frequent harvesting, a touch-focused garden for the kindergarteners to explore with their hands, and a soup kitchen plot of vegetables that the students can bring to a local organization in the neighborhood. 

 

We'll also be bringing in some of our experts to work with our student gardeners-in-training in regular after school workshops. These will be hands-on opportunities for the kids to learn about gardening, composting, urban agriculture and more (you know, all of that green-nerd stuff we're into around here).  Over the summer we'll have a few select students coming in once per week to really learn the ins and outs of keeping a garden beautiful and healthy – and we've already gotten some volunteers!

 

As you can probably tell, we're pretty darn excited to get started. 

 

We've been working with our friends Erik Rhey and Tiffany Mattula at Urban Acres to develop some of the ideas and logistics behind the project, and they'll be sticking with us throughout the process to make sure the plants thrive in the space.  The school already has a lovely lawn that they’ve been maintaining beautifully - thanks to Dave, their head custodian – so we’re pretty confident that anything we add will be well cared for.

 

We couldn't be more thrilled to be working with the students, faculty and administration at Leadership Prep, and we're looking forward to a pretty amazing summer!