Over here at the KCCG headquarters we are already getting ready for spring. We are putting spring workshops on the calendar, labeling seed packets and cleaning up the greenhouse. In Schoolyard Gardens, we are busy getting new garden beds built at schools! We always try to stay a season ahead, and build new garden beds during non-growing seasons. This way we can plant with schools as soon as the spring growing season begins.

Last week we headed over to Oakwood Manor, an elementary school in the North Kansas City School District. We met Farmer John and Farmer Walt, as the kids affectionately call them, at the garden. John and Walt are community volunteers who have been working in this garden since 2015.  John and Walt took over the garden after longtime Oakwood Manor staff member, Lindell Sconce, retired from the district.  Schoolyard Gardens began working with Lindell and Oakwood Manor in 2010.  During his tenure, Lindell coordinated 8 raised beds for the students as well as supported a large ground plot that was utilized by the community.

As John, Walt and the students began overseeing the ground plot in 2015, there was a need to turn the plot into raised beds.  Raised beds are a great option for Schoolyard Gardens.  They allow students to focus on the growing space, are more accessible in the early season, and are aesthetically pleasing.  On Friday December 8th, we got to work and constructed 15 new raised beds. Thanks to the help of parents and community volunteers, the Kansas City Centurions, and the 3rd-5th grade students at Oakwood Manor, we turned the entire ground plot into a raised bed space.

The new beds, in combination with the 8 raised beds that were already there, brought Oakwood Manor’s garden bed total to 23! John and Walt plan to give each class at Oakwood Manor their own garden bed so that everyone can get involved in gardening and help vegetables grow.

Are you ready to try out schoolyard gardening? Contact us to set up a meeting between now and the end of February.