Garden Club: Bulbs & pine cone bird feeders

Students making Thank-You cards for miss Peggy

This Garden Club, we had sad news for the kids. One of the founders of the Garden, a big-hearted woman named Miss Peggy, was recently admitted to hospice. Some of the kids knew her, some of them hadn’t. Everyone participated in making Thank You cards to her, thanking her for her work in the garden and her generosity there. We were in awe that even students who didn’t know her and had never met her were committed to making a beautiful card for her. While making cards, a lot of questions and concerns came up: what is hospice? is cancer contagious? Does everything die?

Even though these cards, and the discussions that followed, didn’t involve gardening, how we handle these types of situations can help define us as role models and educators. This is apart of the “hidden curriculum” of teaching any subject: how do we offer a place of reflection and assurance to students who may not have not had another opportunity to ask tricky, challenging questions? We did our best as a team to answer questions honestly and in a way that was understandable. Later, the teens remarked that, though death was a harrowing topic, it was somewhat fulfilling to be able to answer questions, put minds at ease, and create a safe space for students.

After we made thank you cards and made sure everyone’s questions were answered, we carefully transitioned into potting up flower bulbs to take home, chatting easily with students about why they thought bulbs were planted before it got really cold outside. Don’t things die in the cold? Why do some plants, like garlic or flower bulbs, need the cold in order to grow?

After potting flower bulbs and decorating flower pots, students made “pine cone birdseed feeders,” using pine cones, peanut butter, and birdseed to make all-natural bird-feeders. When the days get colder and shorter, sometimes it can feel like the world is life-less and without color outside. But at a closer glance, we can still see so much life: worms crawling through the soil, birds chirping in the trees, squirrels gathering nuts for the winter. Some students hung their feeders in the garden, while others brought them home to hang. Students who had time and were interested in bundling up went outside to the High Tunnel to harvest cabbage to take home.

The following week, the last Garden Club before winter break, we had fewer students than normal (presumably because of the approaching break). Students read a book about Winter Solstice, talked about why winter solstice was important to gardeners and farmers especially, and decorated glass jars with tissue paper and glue to create little tealight candle holders, a symbol of offering light during the darkest days of the year. Though students were eager to be on break, they were excited about their candle-holder parting gift, and expressed their excitement to return to Garden Club in the new year.