Holton Project FOCUS plants away!

When Lexi Freed, the Project FOCUS Site Coordinator at Holton Middle School, presented the idea of buying a raised bed and starting a garden with the students in her program, one of them suggested approaching Mr. Kamrowski, the woodshop and geometry teacher about getting his help with building their own garden beds from scratch.

Kamrowski was happy to get involved and within a few days of receiving the supplies, he and his students in his Geometry and Construction class were hard at work building what would end up being two, roughly, 3’ x 4’ raised wooden garden beds.

“As our garden plan progressed, we had our participants research what types of plants pair well together and how we should go about planting them,” said Freed. “Students made ‘garden graphs’ based on what they found and started adding in plants that were not on our initial list! Everyone was shocked to see how quickly our plants germinated. Our squash had gotten so big that we had no choice but to transplant them into small pots until they were able to survive outside.” 

Freed and her students filled the beds with topsoil and planted seeds in late May. The garden project will include some potted plants and an herb tower as well. The plan, for now, is to transplant the seedlings into the garden beds, tower, and pots, when they resume programming for Summer Learning. Participants will continue to tend to the garden over the summer and have the opportunity to bring fresh herbs, fruits, and vegetables home to their families.