Volunteers work in the Toledo Learning Garden on Thursday morning.
Brenna Carver, Toledo Elementary School student plants squash in the Toledo Learning Garden on Thursday morning.
Rows of plants in the Toledo Learning Garden.
Toledo Learning Garden president Brooke Acosta, standing in the Toledo Learning Garden on Thursday morning.
Brooke Acosta, president of the Toledo Learning Garden, pulls some radishes from the dirt.
Starter plants wait to be planted in the Toledo Learning Garden on Thursday morning.
Volunteers and out-of-school students got their hands dirty and flexed their green thumbs in the Toledo Learning Garden on Thursday morning — planting several vegetables and tending to established plants.
Brooke Acosta, president of Toledo Learning Garden and state forester, organizes planting days, collects donations, and stays on top of the happenings in the garden. Most recently the Toledo Learning Garden, located right next to the Toledo Elementary School, was able to raise enough money to purchase a large 24 by 48-foot greenhouse that will be installed before the end of the summer.
The greenhouse will allow students at the Toledo Elementary School to observe the life cycle of plants and grow food all year round and grow more exotic plants and foods that wouldn’t normally grow in Washington.
“This truly is a community project. Businesses and families have renewable sponsorships with the garden. … The greenhouse is really going to be a gamechanger for this garden,” said Acosta.
Toledo Elementary School students in kindergarten through fifth grade, go out into the garden once a month for a garden science class taught by Master Gardener Bob Taylor. Taylor said he has been teaching the classes at the school for ten years, and his students really enjoy being out in the garden and watching plants grow.
Taylor said some of the things he teaches students in his garden science classes include soil testing to determine how much fertilizer to use, harvesting and planting seeds.
“Students get to see the whole cycle. They start the plant from seed they transplant into the ground, they grew it, they harvest it, then they sell it at the Toledo Farmers Market,” said Taylor.
Taylor teaches students about composting, water testing, fertilizing, harvesting, and how different foods nourish the body.
“It’s such a wide variety of hands-on learning that just not something they are able to do in the classroom,” said Acosta.
Taylor said when students were in school about 30 kids every day would choose to work in the garden during recess.
While the schools have been closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, planting days in the garden allow students to continue to learn, get outside, and witness the growth of the plants. Families and students can sign up for a day to work in the garden as the number of volunteers in the garden at once is limited in order to follow social distancing guidelines.
On Thursday, volunteers were planting pumpkins, squash, tomatoes, eggplants, basil and tending to the other plants such as raspberries, lettuce, garlic, artichokes, blueberries, melons, radishes, strawberries, lavender and many others.
“Gardening is a passion of mine and I just love being able to show kids everything that’s possible. There’s so much to it — being a steward of the environment and taking care of the place you live and then the nitty-gritty science of growing seeds,” said Acosta.
There is also a summer garden club for students who want to continue working in the garden after school lets out. Acosta said that the food that is grown gets taken home and eaten by the kids and their families as well taken to the Toledo Farmers Market.
“It’s a community garden so anyone can come and take what they want. The gates and fences are just for the deer,” she said.
