The next two weeks will be the culmination of planting by the students of  Paul Banks last spring in our school greenhouse and garden. Volunteers watered and tended to the flowers and vegetables over the summer and now it is time for the harvest. Students will harvest carrots, sugar snap peas, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, kohlrabi, swiss chard, zucchini, basil, dill and thyme to sample as a part of our Healthy Snack program. 

Our community has been very generous from the start and continues to provide support to the school greenhouse and garden. We would like to thank Liberty Electric and B&C Raingutters for their generous contribution of construction improvements over the summer. We would also like to thank the Homer Garden Club for their gracious invitation to sell some of our flower and plant starts at their annual plant sale this last spring. Our student cashiers enjoyed being a part of the sale and took pride in the plants they had started from seed and cared for. 

During the last two years, it has been inspiring for me personally to see the interest for gardening sparked in young minds and continue to flourish with each consecutive year’s plantings. Here’s to a future that’s both brighter and greener.

Vanessa Fefelov

PTA president and garden co-coordinator

Paul Banks Elementary School