Kid-to-kid: GW students gain a garden mentor for summer
29 Jun
Talk to anyone about youth gardens in Durham, and eventually the name “SEEDS” will be uttered. It’s simply one of the best programs going, when it comes to youth-oriented urban gardening.
So I’m thrilled that the George Watts PTA is collaborating with SEEDS on the school’s summer “Garden Giveaway Day” project, in which we harvest the George Watts garden and send produce home with families.
Today we welcomed Vianey Martinez of SEEDS to the George Watts garden.
Vianay is one of six go-get-’em teens hand-picked by SEEDS leadership to work year-round in their gardens. And now she’s coming to the George Watts garden twice a week to harvest with students and run our farmers’ market-style “Garden Giveaway” veggie stand.
Ranked third in her class, Vianey is a rising junior at Southern High School. She’s involved in her school’s garden club and Future Business Leaders of America, is bilingual and completely fluent in all things planty. Today, as we harvested, she shared English and Spanish gardening vocabulary words with the students enrolled in GROW.
We were floored by the number of ripe vegetables in the garden this week — the most squash yet (including the giant one pictured below), a mass of cucumbers, basil and tomatoes, which we tasted right on the spot.
Picked today: One giant squash, dubbed "Monster Squash."
We have so many cucumbers growing, they form "patches."
Vianey’s goal is to one day combine her love of math (economics) with her love of agriculture. Her future looks bright. Vianey, thanks for sharing a little bit of your knowledge and passion with our students!
Three more garden views: Bumblebees pollinate...
Bell peppers begin to emerge...
... and the hibiscus is in full bloom.
The trail helps the kids so if the kids don’t want to play on the playgrond thay don’t have to instead thay can walk the trail.
it looks beautiful. i like it. The playground looks better.