LET IT GROW
City’s Tracey Magnet students plant school garden for Earth Day
NORWALK — In honor of Earth Day, spread into a weeklong celebration at Tracey Magnet School, students filled the school’s community garden with vegetable seedlings on Tuesday.
More than 450 seed kits were sent home with in-person students or available for pickup by remote students in March in preparation for the planting event, FoodCorps Service Member for Tracey Magnet School Meghan Hadley said.
Hadley has been with Tracey Magnet since the beginning of last school year, working to create a farm-to-school program, of which the 460 seedlings were part.
The seed starter kits sent home with students in March served as the official launch of the farm-toschool program, Hadley said. The kits included a packet of seeds,
“It gives the kids real-life, hands-on opportunity to put the character education into practice.”
Meghan Hadley, FoodCorps service member for Tracey Magnet School
popsicle sticks for identifying each plant, four compostable pots for planting and an instruction sheet in Spanish and English.
After about a month, administrators decided the week of Earth Day was the right time to return the plants and place them in their permanent homes in the six garden beds on the school’s grounds.
“They grew their seedlings and did such a good job. Now would be good time to bring the seedlings back,” Hadley said. “It gives the kids real-life, hands-on opportunity to put the character education into practice.”
Hardy, cold-resistant plants were chosen for the project, including kale, lettuce, carrots, celery, cilantro and beets.
Hadley plans to harvest the veggies likely to be ready in the coming weeks with her classes and either eat raw or incorporate into a meal cooked together. Throughout the summer, as the rest of the plants are ready for harvesting, Hadley said she hopes to have Tracey families sign up to tend and harvest the garden, using the produce as they choose.
For the students whose starters did not flourish or otherwise did not have a seedling to plant, Hadley brought extra seeds for the students to sow and, in some cases, those with multiple healthy seedlings offered some for others to plant.
“Some came back with no seedlings and some who came back with all four of their little pots,” Hadley said. “They were very sweet and a lot were willing to share with friends in their class who did not have them.”
In addition to the vegetable plants, the garden has a small library which will be stocked with books on loan from the Norwalk Public Library Children’s Department, Hadley said.
The kits took about $1,000 to put together, with the funds coming from the school’s magnet funding.