Garden Classrooms

Historically, Highland County residents grew and preserved all their own produce from home gardens; now these traditions are dying out with an aging population. With a full-service grocery store over an hour away, 37% of residents have limited access to healthy foods. Our goal is to revive homegrown traditions by using our recently renovated greenhouse and raised-bed garden to provide healthy foods for students and an environmental outlet for classroom instruction.

The Altamont School realizes the importance of educating students on global issues because they will most likely be the ones trying to solve them. This school year, every teacher at Altamont must incorporate the study of water into their curriculum. The School plans to adopt one global issue each year, and the garden will be a natural fit for several of the issues.

Our garden's number one goal is to educate students about how food is grown. Many of our children spend a lot of time indoors, and many of them were amazed that carrots and potatoes grow under the ground. They were astounded that worms lived in the dirt in our garden. Some of the students eat few fruits and vegetables, and yet when they've grown their own veggies, they are eager to taste and enjoy what they've grown. Our gardening students learn from one another and teach new members what they have learned. From a science standpoint, learning to garden teaches students about life cycles.

Our students would like to grow a larger variety of vegetables. Currently, we have only grown greens, short carrots and radishes due to the depth of our soil, which is roughly 4-5 inches. In addition, due to the limited space, we are not able to accommodate all the classes that are interested in participating in the garden. We would like to expand and enhance our vegetable gardens by creating raised bed, which will give us better soil, as well as a much deeper base. Along with the raised beds, we would like to build a three bin composting system to continue to enhance our soil.