InTucker Magazine

Growing the Next Generation

_{Building a Community Through Gardening}

Gardening has long been a way to build community. From sharing tips to physically planting together, there are many opportunities for individuals to work as a group to create and maintain a garden.

Tucker’s residents have plenty of dedication to gardening. The Henderson Park Community Garden, founded in 2010, has consistently seen every one of their plots rented. The Butterfly Garden in front of Tucker Recreation Center was established in 2008 and is continuously maintained by local master gardener volunteers. Many of our Tucker cluster schools have gardens on their grounds, including Brockett Elementary.

Brockett Elementary’s garden has certainly been a group effort. Students’ parents and community members have given much of their time and energy to building and maintaining the garden, united in their support for the value of the garden as a learning experience. Volunteer groups continue to contribute, with many groups often earning community service hours by working in the garden.

Recently, Georgia organization Roots Down collaborated with the local Friends of Tucker Parks to create a planting plan for the season. The garden’s newest layout includes the classic three sisters grouping, which draws upon Native American agricultural tradition in planting corn, beans, and squash together to form a symbiotic relationship. According to various sources through the United States Department of Agriculture, this method maximizes both crop yield and quality. As these are planted as seeds, students will see them grow through the entire process.

“Elementary school students and parents are able to see seedlings grow into vegetables to harvest,” says Councilmember Cara Schroeder, who joined parents and students this past March in a volunteer opportunity for a planting day in the garden, setting up raised beds for each grade level. “There are some steps there in environmental education that are really important for students to understand and experience so they know where food comes from.”

Environmental education is far from the only type of learning these gardens promote. From counting seeds to classifying sprouts, there are many opportunities to use math, reading, and other academic skills. In addition, gardening is an incredibly hands-on activity, promoting tactile learning and serving as a way to engage the scientific concepts students are learning in the classroom on a practical level.

Importantly, gardening with a group engages a variety of communicative skills students cannot learn on their own. Sharing tools, listening to instructions, and taking turns are all just examples of the many abilities students have the opportunity to practice in a group setting. All are necessary for students to grow into well-rounded, considerate community members.

As the three sisters grow in harmony, so too does the Tucker community. We give our time and energy to the next generations with the knowledge that they will do the same for those who come after. The Brockett Elementary garden is just one way to see it in action.