Community Garden: Rooted in Curriculum
Community Garden: Rooted in Curriculum
Much like the tale of renewal in Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden, Foote’s Community Garden has seen full flower, ruin, and lately, resurrection.
Margy Lamere, first-grade teacher, said it was COVID that brought down the garden they had tended for more than a decade. “We couldn’t be on campus after March 13, 2020, so the poor garden fell to wrack and ruin because no one was weeding or watering. It became a mass of weeds, the likes of which I have never seen,” she lamented.
Those dormant years weren’t completely devoid of oversight or of growth. The Foote facilities team kept an eye on the space, and former faculty member Jenny Byers maintained a flower garden, often sharing her beautiful bouquets with Foote faculty. One summer Kindergarten Associate Teacher Lynne Banta (and her husband) planted rows of corn for the younger grades to explore in the fall.
However, these individual efforts weren’t enough to keep up with the needs of a “community” garden, and limited time and other pressing priorities allowed the garden to do what gardens do on their own, and sneaky weeds found prominence in the existing plots. Gradually, the space had fallen out of step with the community and the curriculum.
But it turns out, the seeds of sustainability were still there, they were simply waiting to emerge when the conditions were just right.
REGROWTH
In 2024, Katie Axt (P ’25 & ’32) — then a new Foote parent — eyed the tall weeds as she walked her children to school each day; she recognized a garden in need of some TLC.
“I’m a gardener from a family of gardeners, and I worked at botanical gardens. I love soil, plants, and specifically how gardens are places for community and connection. That’s why I noticed,” she explained.
Eleanor Evins, Foote Learning Specialist — and passionate gardener — also noticed. It sparked some ideas about how to start rehabbing the fertile space; when she discovered that Foote Head Librarian Jennifer Friedman had grow lights, those ideas began to take on a physical form.
“Gardeners seek each other out,” she laughed. “Jennifer and I began planting tomatoes and basil in the middle of the library!”
The trio of Katie, Eleanor, and Jennifer met weekly to plot the garden’s rejuvenation. Katie oversaw planting plans; Jennifer consulted teachers on curricular tie-ins and managed purchasing; and Eleanor “knows everything from weed suppression to ‘how to do’ garlic,” according to Jennifer.
SEED STARTERS
From the outset, the garden was always intended to center on student experience; it was always meant to be a part of the curriculum. Margy was a believer from the start. She remembered Science Teacher Pam Harmon, in 2010, presenting the original idea for the newly purchased space on Highland Street. The proposal for “a community garden with a butterfly nursery … to serve as a place of inquiry and a source of fresh produce and flowers for faculty,” was backed by Pam, Margy, Lynne, Sarah Heath, Angela Giannella, and others. The community rallied to get the garden up and running.
“Twelve of us gathered,” Margy recalled, “with the help of Peter Cox and his mechanized tools and carved into the very heavy clay soil that was next to what had been a basketball court. The intent was always to get the children outside to connect with the earth.”
That first year the school reported: “Plots — cultivated by more than a dozen faculty members and their families — share space with a butterfly garden thick with bee balm, thistle and echinacea. Language classes are found practicing garden vocabulary as they stroll amid the sunflowers.”
TAKING ROOT
Today’s space still includes a butterfly garden, and now features a bird garden and raised beds (see p. 28). Within the raised beds are vegetables and fruits, including a “kitchen garden” section to complement the third-grade unit on 1800s Connecticut life.
Amanda Diffley, third-grade teacher, has watched garden enthusiasm spread throughout the school. Her students utilized the garden in the fall — not just for planting a traditional “kitchen garden,” and learning about local flora in science class, but also as inspiration for original artwork. It has also had applications in math class, as they measured space for their plots.
This year when the third-graders first visited the garden, they got to work right away. Guided by Jennifer, the classes “were assigned two plots and learned about the square gardening method. We talked about the kitchen garden and how every farmhouse used to have one. These kids have now experienced planting and harvesting. I’ve seen them eating little spinach leaves just because they picked them.”
Just as the garden has grown, so too have its applications across the school-wide curriculum. Many grades participate in planting and weeding; Middle School science students root out and document invasives; first-grade mathematicians measure plots; Latin classes research the etymology of the plantings; art classes in every grade sit in the space seeking inspiration in the surrounding vegetables, flowers, insects, and birds.
Violet Lloyd, current seventh grader, leads the school’s Environmental Action Group, and is thrilled about the ability to utilize the Community Garden. EAG regularly hosts its meeting there, and recently planted 450 tulips and daffodils.
“My hope is simply to get more people out there,” she said. “I like planting. It’s relaxing to be in the garden because you’re still at school, but it feels homey.”
Katie is glad that the space has been so rewarding for students in unexpected ways. “This fall, one of the kids came with me to check on the compost. We pulled back the tarp, and it was steaming. He and I checked the temperature and watered it. He thought it was the coolest thing. I realized even if a student isn’t into flowers, you can engage with the garden through science, or soil, or the study of the circular economy,” she said.
What happens to the space in the summer? Rashana Graham, Director of Horizons at Foote (a summer enrichment program for New Haven students) knew exactly how it could fit in with their own curriculum.
She explained: “Our Horizons second graders tended to the plants last summer. They harvested garlic and planted carrots for the Foote students to find when they came back in the fall. It was a small act of community, but it meant a lot.”
This fall, when Amanda’s class went to work in the garden, they were delighted to discover the carrots Horizons had planted over the summer. (Of course, the delicious vegetables made it back to the classroom for snack!)
Jennifer said, “It’s all about hope and optimism and planting seeds, and the skills these kids take with them into the world. In the garden you have to be looking at the soil with your hands in front of you, and you’re focused. It’s such a win. There’s something about focusing on what you’re smelling, tasting, and doing. And it’s collaborative.”
Outdoor education is an integral part of a Foote education, and this particular Foote tradition has strong roots. Despite dormancy in less hospitable times, this perennial tradition will continue to bloom and grow. Jennifer already has plans for signage, and hopes to plant a pumpkin patch in the future.
And it continues to inspire and educate us. “Students get out there and they might not be having a great day, but they’re in the garden, and it’s relaxing, and their imagination sparks,” Eleanor remarked.