Turners tots to eat (very) local as preschool plants its own garden
By ARN ALBERTINI Recorder Staff
TUNERS FALLS — Preschool children in ”The Patch” neighborhood will soon be getting fresh vegetables from a garden just a few feet away from their playground.
The G Street Preschool, with the help of the several area gardening experts and local businesses, is building a garden.
Besides learning to care for the garden and getting fresh vegetables, which encourages good nutrition and healthy eating habits, children will also learn about scientific methods like the process of designing and building a garden, watching plants grow and seeing how the environment affects plant growth, said Marianne Bouthilette, education site supervisor for the G Street Preschool, which is part of Community Action’s Parent Child Development Center preschool program.
For now, the garden plots will just be for students at the school, but eventually, parents will also have the chance to farm their own plots, she said. If the project is a success, community members may also get to have a plot, Bouthilette said.
”We hope in the future to extend this to the community.”
With the price of food on the rise, learning how to produce your own food is becoming more desirable, said David K. Jacke, who lives on H Street, a few blocks from the school, and is helping with the garden.
”The (garden) can help change the culture of families so they can have healthy, local food. There’s such a need for people to start growing food because of what we’re doing with climate change.”
Jacke, a graduate of Conway Landscape School, runs Dynamics Ecological Design where he designs and installs ecological landscaping and gardens. He’s currently focusing on teaching permaculture, the practice of applying the principles of ecology to designing sustainable human habitats.
Students, parents and some community members gathered on Saturday to begin work on the garden.
The first section of garden will be a 13-by-8-foot section of raised vegetables beds along the fence behind the playground.
Behind the fence, in an overgrown field with a few saplings, there will be blueberry and gooseberry bushes and eventually fruit trees.
The beds will be built in the shape of a keyhole so children will be able to walk in the middle of the beds and be surrounded by garden, said Jacke.
There will also be a compost bin, which will collect scraps from breakfast and lunch at the school.
”Our world is wasteful,” said Bouthilette. ”This is teaching children how to recycle. It’s teaching children how to care for the earth and the world.”
A student from the Conway Landscape School designed the garden.
Besides Jacke, several other professionals in the garden and landscaping field are helping with the garden, including Kate Kerivan a Conway School alum, Tom Sullivan a current student and Holly Westcott, a compost consultant.
Rugg Lumber, Greenfield Farmers Cooperative Exchange, Wancyzk’s Nursery, Smith Vocational School and Communities Involved Sustaining Agriculture also donated to the project.
If the garden program is a success, it could be expanded to Community Action’s other preschool sites, said Bouthilette.
”Hopefully, this will be like a plant and the seeds will spread,” said Jacke.
You can reach Arn Albertini at: aalberti@recorder.com or (413) 772-0261 Ext. 264
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