Students grow a club from the ground up

For East Tipp Middle School eighth grader Kyson Williamson, one of the best parts of a new afterschool club is taking home something he helped grow. Kyson and a group of eighth graders planted the seeds for the Garden Club.

“It feels great and it is honestly amazing that now I get to bring home food I personally got to grow,” Kyson says.

The group helped turn an empty patch of grass behind the school into a garden last year. They cleared the site, built raised beds and planted vegetables, learning along the way that gardening takes patience and trial and error. Club member Wells Cadwallader says he is proud of what they created: “It’s really cool to look at the garden and know that we helped get the whole thing started.”

The garden is now producing tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, cucumbers and many other things. Classmate Lauren Beimfohr was especially excited when the beets she planted grew successfully. “I originally thought I did it completely wrong, but it turns out they grew beautifully and ended up working out,” she says.

Xavier Burton says one of his biggest surprises was everything else that began living in the garden. “I couldn’t believe the number of bugs that live in the garden. I originally thought there would only be a few, but now the school has an ecosystem living in its backyard,” he says.

Now the students are ready to share what they learned with the next group of Garden Club members. As eighth graders, they will teach seventh graders how to care for the garden, which is expected to double in size with twice as many raised beds.