Window of Opportunity Grant Project

San Lee Middle School

2301 Tramway Road, Sanford, NC

Lee County

Project: San Lee Garden Patch Project

Application Request/Project Summary:

San Lee Middle School

Project: San Lee Garden Patch Project

Narrative / Scope of Work

Our school already has an established garden club. We have a small greenhouse but lack an organized and easy-to-maintain space for planting. Receiving funds to allow us to build a garden area would be an amazing opportunity for our students!

During this garden creation project, students will design a layout for the garden area, construct the beds, and fill them with soil. The site has been determined and approved by administration. The site would be suitable for 4 raised beds and has space for expansion if possible. Soil test kits will be used to determine amendments to the soil. Students will conduct research to determine which seasonal herbs, vegetables, and fruits to plant during our growing seasons. (If time allows, students will start seedlings using our school’s small greenhouse; we have some seed-starting materials already).

Students will work to maintain the plants, including weeding and watering, and learning about organic pest control/disease control. We have the potential to have a 3-season rotation of crops. If funds allowed for additional purchases, I would love to plant some fruiting plants such as blueberry bushes, a fig tree, and some blackberry canes.

This opportunity would not only allow students to experience the joy of learning how to garden and growing their own food, but it would also allow them to take home healthy foods to share with their families.

As the sponsor of the garden club, I feel comfortable in my ability to guide students through the processes needed to complete this project. I am an experienced gardener and have completed many projects at my own home. We have several other adults at school who would love to help and are directly across the street from our local NC Agriculture Extension office (and have already built a partnership with them).

Having raised beds and a garden area would allow for expansion in curriculum connections for all students at San Lee. I have previously built curriculum to connect 8th grade core classes to a school garden at another school (Wendell Middle School in WCPSS). A school garden could connect to ELA reading informational text standards and writing and research standards. Students in 7th grade science study soil and water conditions. We also have an FFA chapter that could participate in gardening standards as well.