Sagamore Hills, Sagamore Hills, How Does Your S.T.E.M. Garden Grow?

It grows with an outpouring of loving support from enthusiastic students, dedicated volunteers, vested community members, and generous sponsors. This beautifully eclectic group makes for the best garden family…which I am so proud to be a member. Together we each played our parts in making the expected HUGE Spring Garden Planting more successful than imagined. It all began with having our tough, coarse soil freshly tilled into a loose, fine consistency. Mr. John Miller and Mrs. Lynn Douglas freed our Garden Club Member’s from this daunting task by taking care of it ahead of time. Then came an ENORMOUS herb, flower and vegetable plant donation from new Assistant Store Manager, Mr. Chad Meetre , and Store Manager, Mr. Shawn Brooks, at The Home Depot in Decatur. This gifting was enough to fill a vehicle trunk and cargo bed to capacity. Sagamore’s Head Custodian, Mr. Zellner, was kind enough to assist in the pickup and delivery process of these delectable items. We got beans, greens, potatoes, tomatoes…YOU NAME IT-we got it, and then some!

miller tilling, tilling, home depot donation, custodian zellner

But, the excitement didn’t stop there. The ASA students and morning bus riders, along with creative support from Paraprofessional-Mr. Gardner and Kitchen Staff Members-Ms. Leonard and Ms. Shade, custom designed extra-large paint sticks to label each plants place in the garden. During the actual planting, our 130 plus Jr. and Sr. S.T.E.M. Garden Club membership took care of the gardening business at hand. Students channeled their energy into digging deep holes, perfectly positioning, gently covering and snugly patting each plant into their nutrient rich new homes in the soil. Seeing all of our garden beds over flowing with new life was a sight to behold.

kitchen staff labels, planting, garden beds

To continuously meet the watering demands of our thriving garden program we “have stepped up our rainwater harvesting game”.  Or at least that is what Engineer and Georgia Tech alumnus, Mr. Richard Hanson, owner of Georgia Water Tanks and his assistant Eric said as they recently installed our 5,000-gallon Cistern. What is a CISTERN you may ask? It is a ginormous above ground rain barrel with pressurized pumping mechanisms. This amazing donation was made possible through our continued partnership with The Captain Planet Foundation and was funded by a grant from the Georgia Aquarium…we are taking High-Tech into the garden!

cistern

Having this Eco-friendly watering system totally aligns with the academic curriculum we teach (Ancient Greek and Roman History), S.T.E.M designs we create (Low-Flow Shower Heads) and environmental consciousness we foster (Reduce-Reuse-Recycle) in every grade-level at Sagamore Hills Elementary School. It didn’t take long for our inventive students to engineer a way to get the Cistern water to the more deprived areas beyond its reach…enter wagons and watering cans. Real-World S.T.E.M. application people!

wagons watering

Retired DCSD Teacher, Master Gardener and Sagamore Community Member, Mrs. Betsy Razza summed up the impactful experience best by paying this tremendous compliment to our program, “It was wonderful to see the enthusiasm of the children as they planted the vegetables. Sagamore Hills provides the children with a sense of accomplishment, ownership and an appreciation of nature.”

Many hands and hearts went into making this year’s Spring S.T.E.M. Garden planting an awe-inspiring success from start, finish and beyond.

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• Garden

“Look…I’m Making A Plant!”

This precious quote from Kindergartner, Levi Anderson, was one of the many delightful comments, gestures and playful learning experiences shared between members and volunteers during both our Jr. and Sr. March S.T.E.M. Garden Club activities. Our theme this month was “Seed Starting”. Each group experimented with making their own nutrient-rich soil by combining regular top soil with a 100% organic seed-starting mixture.  We had plenty of these magical ingredients to go around thanks to a surprise contribution of a few extra bags from the Karlowicz family. Biodegradable peat pots and toilette tissue rolls were then filled to capacity with this compound. Using their fingers or craft sticks, members dug tiny holes for an assortment of vegetable, herb and flower seeds to be gently placed in their cozy new homes. One inventive group thought totally outside the box and custom designed roll-out seed tape using toilette tissue. Another mother-son team prepped a weed ridden bed for removal of these pesky plants once and for all. Everyone was working with one common purpose in mind, getting ready for Spring.

Many of the seeds used were donated through our newly formed partnership with the Sow True Seed organization in North Carolina. “Sow, Germinate, Grow, Pollinate and Save,” are the five intentions that dictate their corporate behavior. The STEM-tastic gardening adventures happening inside and out of the building on these days not only supported their effort but ours as well. These certifiably viable, open pollinated, non-hybrid GMO-FREE, heirloom, organic and traditional seeds represent the best there is…in other words…we got the GOOD stuff baby! It’s no wonder that after just one week of tender loving care by the ASA (after school care) participant’s SPROUTS emerged! We will continue to care for these now delicate seedlings in the greenhouse until our big April: Spring Garden Planting. This also marks a wonderfully progressive first for our S.T.E.M. Garden Clubs as we are transplanting seedlings we grew from seeds with our very own hands.

In addition to the relationship we are fostering with the Sow True Seed organization; we must acknowledge our newly forged partnership with The Home Depot in Decatur and old favorite Bonnie Plants. The Home Depot has donated $200 in community improvement coupons for use towards the purchase of gardening plants and supplies. A meeting is scheduled with Operations Manager-Milia Murdock, over the summer to discuss ongoing contributions throughout the 2017-2018 school year…To Be Continued. Our 3rd Graders received their annual delivery of Bonnie cabbage plants to take home and potentially grow big enough to win a $1000 scholarship. The leftover cabbage plants were generously donated to our school gardens. Third grade ASA participants led the Fourth and Fifth graders in transplanting these hearty greens into our Captain Plant Project Learning Garden. As you can see, happy gardening is an authentic thing at Sagamore Hills Elementary School.