We are sharing our love for gardening with the kids at Smith Elementary!

Over a year ago Smith Elementary partnered with YardFarm to recreate a garden plot that had been abandoned for over 10 years. We built a 6,400 ft² garden complete with irrigation and it was planted out during last June’s ACE sponsored Summer Program. Throughout last school year we worked with the staff at Smith Elementary – providing garden assistance, leading volunteer days and supplying plant starts. We began doing that very regularly in the Spring,and then Smith hired Dare Lamberson of the YardFarm crew to conduct this Summer’s ACE Summer Program.

Smith decided to contract with YardFarm this school year and now we are providing all of the garden programming through a class called Green It!. We have 6 classes which each meet twice a week for an hour. Mr. Dare teaches half the time while Mr. Zach teaches the other half.

Each day we meet under the pergola and jobs are distributed to each child. Jobs consist of weeding, watering, harvesting, bug hunt, clean up, fertilizing and pruning. We have established regular routine and the kids love it. After job time we have a short lesson – seeds, weeds, pollinators, compost, work ethics, flowers and insects have all been covered thus far – and then plant plants, eat garden fresh delicacies like pumpkin smoothies or peppers, or we might give plants compost treats.

Smith Elementary recently received an AgriLife grant to install a butterfly garden. On June 24th, YardFarm led a successful volunteer day, and we all worked together to put the garden in. It was great to see so many folks from the Smith community out working together to improve their garden. Check out the pictures of the Smith Elementary Butterfly Garden Install.

Here is Mr. Dare’s description of his short but sweet time directing the ACE Summer Program…

The ACE Summer Program started on May 31st, which was also the last day of my other job as an Afterschool teacher at Clayton Elementary. So the title of “Mr. Dare” would stick for one more month!

With only a month together, our time was short and sweet! Most every day the kids would get to pick a number of squash, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, banana peppers, and whatever else they could find. They got to see all the stages of a flower setting fruit and then growing into something that they could eat. We even saw a birds nest with two recently hatched chicks.

Most days were similar, we would start out with a teacher led discussion about various topics related to gardening. The kids got to learn some facts and decide how they felt about it on their own. We touched on everything from water consumption/conservation, to the particles that make up soil, to the power of the sun. Next we would head out to the garden. Most of the time there was a demonstration outside. This usually involved doing something like making mud balls, digging a hole in search of underground life, or a demonstration of a Solar Powered Boom box. Then, if there was time a quick trip by the playground for a game of tag. On our way back inside I would quiz the kids on what they had learned that day.

Two weeks into the program we were having such a bounty of produce that I decided we would cook some up. Each class got to learn how to sauté squash and zucchini in a pan with fresh herbs and peppers from the garden. All 50+ kids got all they could eat plus enough to share with all of the kids’ favorite teachers (This was a real treat although the kids always loved to eat anything raw too, even okra!). With all the squash that I sent home with kids, I knew that they were putting what they had learned to good use.

The last day of the program there was an exhibition from all the different summer programs. Gardening class got to present a day’s harvest: 5lbs Tomatoes, 3 lbs. Peppers, 4 Yellow Straightneck Squash, 3 Black Beauty Zucchini, and 1 Watermelon. We even had gluten free Pumpkin Pie with pumpkin planted and harvested by the kids at Smith Elementary.
-Dare Lamberson