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East Jessamine Middle School community garden takes root

May 30, 2012|By Jonathan Kleppinger | jkleppinger@jessaminejournal.com

A community garden just planted at East Jessamine Middle School has already sprung to life, with 45 central Kentuckians purchasing shares that will dress their dinner tables over the summer and fall.

The idea came up in conversations between first-year teacher Ashley Puckett and her resource teacher this spring.

“Since I’m an agriculture teacher, we wanted to look more at the production aspect rather than like a flower garden, and so that’s where the idea got started,” Puckett said.

The garden was designed to be a resource the community could invest in as well as a way to help feed students in need over the summer.

“Our administration really liked the idea of that being here at our school and also being able to provide food for kids who are on free and reduced lunch during the summer, having some of them come out and work with us, and in exchange for working, they got a share of the garden to take home,” Puckett said.

Puckett and her students got to work on the garden behind the school in April after obtaining approval for the project from the Jessamine County Board of Education.

She said all the different aspects of running the garden reinforce concepts from the classroom.

“They’re going through the whole process, from starting the seedlings in class and then working through transplanting them outside, doing the fertilizer, all that good stuff, to harvesting and then doing the marketing aspect of everything,” Puckett said.

The garden has already sold out of shares for this year, with 45 people from Nicholasville, Wilmore and Lexington purchasing half-time or full-time shares that entitle them to weekly pickups for the whole season.

Half-time shares that include table mainstays like corn and tomatoes were $20; full-time shares designed for a family of four were $45.

“We try to offer at a full-time level at least enough to where you’ll get your basics, like your tomatoes, your peppers, your onions, that type of stuff, but you’ll also get some other things, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower,” Puckett said.

As the garden begins to produce and make its way to dining-room tables, Puckett is grateful for the support and eyeing expansion of the program for next year.

“The turnout we’ve had from the community — just having that backing of the community, 45 people who were willing to support a middle-school agriculture program,” she said. “We haven’t had a great agriculture program here in the past; it’s kind of fizzled out and been brought back.”

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