David Emanuel Academy has recently revitalized its greenhouse and garden area by implementing an agriculture program that focuses on producing plants and vegetables.
Dianne Lawson, third grade teacher, noticed a need for academy students to become more exposed to agriculture and learning how to grow plants and vegetables.
"A lot of kids think you just buy food in the stores and they don't know where it comes from. I feel that if taught how to grow food, the experience will stick with them for a lifetime," Lawson stated.
With the academy already having a greenhouse and garden area on campus, Lawson and her third grade students went to gardening.
Lawson signed her class up for the Bonnie Plants Cabbage Program and the company shipped the plants in April. Third grade students Bentley Brinson, Rayleigh Faircloth, Blaine Fordham, Bethany Henry, Eli Hackle, Jake Lewis, Charlie McRae and Lawton Wiggins got the school's garden area ready quickly by adding topsoil and fertilizer and planted the cabbages.
Garden supplies for the class project was obtained through a $200 grant received from Tractor Supply. With the funds, Lawson purchased soil, fertilizer, a garden hose, seeds and buckets to help get the garden started.
"The former manager of Swainsboro Tractor Supply, Tyler, signed us up for the grant. Tyler and Tractor Supply were instrumental in helping us get started. We also planted spinach and a variety of lettuce in the garden," Lawson stated. "We were gifted three blueberry bushes , a fig tree and a lime tree from the Tad and Beth Wiggins family. Their younger son, Lawton is in my class. The trees and bushes have really added to the beauty and atmosphere of the greenhouse and garden."
DEA students in Lindsey Howell's and Kristy Hood's K-5 class painted rocks for the third graders to build a rock garden in a shady area of the greenhouse where vegetables are hard to grow.
Lawson’s third grade class looks forward to caring to the garden. They water, weed, fertilize the plants and eliminate harmful insects each day. When the cabbages are fully grown, Lawson and her students will harvest and weigh them and turn in results to Bonnie Plants to compete for state winner and national winner titles for biggest plants. The students will take the cabbages home to cook and eat together with their families.
"The kids and parents love the program that we have put together. They say the kids talk about working in the garden and greenhouse all the time," Lawson stated.
Head of School Haylee Free is excited over the program too and has complimented that it motivates the school's appearance by QUOTING....
Lawson is eager to start next year's garden and has plans to grow vegetables in the greenhouse during winter, and, possibly, grow flowers to sale to create a self-sustained greenhouse.
