On Tuesday, June 12^th Nelson Rural School hosted its First Annual Planting Party. This event kicked off a school wide garden project that has seen students growing seedlings in their classrooms and learning about the science behind gardening. With the help of local gardener Melanie Dickson, the planting party gave students the opportunity to transplant their carefully cultivated crops from their classrooms into the school’s recently built garden beds. In the evening, members of the newly formed Nelson Rural School Gardening Club, comprised of students, community members, school staff, and parents went to work weeding, watering, planting the pumpkin patch, and tending to the garden beds.

It was incredible to see all the students getting their hands dirty, using math to plan and plot the garden beds, and learning the science behind planting and growing pumpkins, beans, tomatoes, dill, potatoes and more.  While weeding, one student even exclaimed, “This is fun! I’m going to see if my parents will let me stay after school every day to make sure no weeds get in our garden.”

Going forward, The Nelson Rural School Garden Club plans to meet on a regular basis throughout the summer to tend to the garden. In the fall, we will announce our First Annual Harvest Festival where the school will be selling Halloween pumpkins from our very own pumpkin patch, fresh vegetables picked from our garden, and canned preserves made with the help of local seniors who will teach our students the art and science of preserving food.

If you would like to become involved in the Nelson Rural School Garden Club, the next meeting will take place on Monday, June 18^th at 6:30pm at the school. We will meet briefly in the cafeteria before going outside to plant our tomatoes and peppers and do some watering and weeding.  For more information please email: carla.dickson@nbed.nb.ca

A special thank you to the following people, businesses and organizations for helping plant this seed and growing it into fruition:

-          Raymond Innes for supplying his tractor, building our garden beds and tilling the soil.

-          Buddy O’Toole for all his support and for trucking the peat moss from Baie St. Anne.

-          Melanie Dickson for planning the garden and sharing her expertise with the students of Nelson Rural School.

-          Gary Barrieau for tilling the pumpkin patch and providing the manure

-          Chelsea Waterfield for helping to plan the garden.

-          Matthew Trevors, Community Garden Coordinator, for his support, time and expertise.

-          Brilliant Labs for their grant to help with soil and water testing and materials.

-          The Government of New Brunswick Entrepreneurs in Schools Grant.

-          The 5210 Intergenerational Activity Grant .

-          Kirk and Tracy Shea of Cole’s Garden Patch for donating the soil, their time and expertise.

-          The Administration of Nelson Rural School, Todd Fitzpatrick and Amy Maloney, for their support.

-          Crystal Gulliver for assisting with the grant application process.

-          Theriault-Hachey Peat Moss for supplying the growing mix at a greatly reduced cost.

-          Mr. Danny King for generously donating land for our pumpkin patch.

-          To all the community members who have signed on to help with this worthwhile initiative to support our children.

To see pictures of the First Annual Planting Party visit the following link: http://nelsonrural.nbed.nb.ca/gallery/planting-party-nelson-rural-school-garden