It Took A Village To Build A Garden

A new community garden sprouted in four hours at Dr. Reginald Mayo Early Learning School, with help from students at the other end of New Haven’s public school age range.

For the past three years, Mayo Principal Monique Brunson has been talking with United Way and green-themed Common Ground about enhancing the school’s outdoor spaces.

The partners joined forces Tuesday to create a community garden for the school and surrounding community with the help of 20 volunteers.

This year United Way expanded its annual day of caring to a week of caring. Its volunteers will spend each day this week working on a different project throughout the state. On Tuesday the team made a stop in New Haven to assist its longtime partner, Dr. Mayo School.

“We mobilize people to get involved to make the community a better place,” said United Way of Greater New Haven President Jennifer Heath.

The schoolyards program helps New Haven Public Schools design outdoor learning spaces for students, offers professional development for school staff to get comfortable with outdoor learning, and provides maintenance to outdoor areas at schools. This year the program is working with nine schools.

The team built six eight-by-four raised garden beds for the Mayo pre-school to increase its outdoor activities and to engage more with students, parents and the community.

Schoolyards Program Manager Robyn Stewart will also be partnering with the school to renovate its enclosed back playground area to include more outdoor classroom resources in the near future.

“Outdoor learning has so many benefits. Students get social emotional learning, tangible connections to the real world, and can get together with their friends while socially distanced,” Stewart said.

The work Tuesday began with seven dozen wood boards, a waist-high pile of dirt, and an empty plot of grass near the school’s entrance.

The group began with dividing into teams to tackle the many tasks like sawing wood, shoveling soil, and drilling.

Brunson said she hopes the garden will encourage teachers to get the kids hands dirty for future lessons. Green-thumbed school staff members have already expressed interest in using the garden. Brunson said she plans to work with the students and parents to decide on what will be grown in the garden.

“I’m thinking at least tomatoes and pumpkins,” she said.

Three beds were built low to the ground to be ​“kid-height.” Three were given more height to accommodate those who may not be able to bend very low into the garden.

The garden built Tuesday is an extension of the school’s outdoor learning plans. ​“We want to bring the excitement to the neighborhood. Why not bring a pumpkin patch to them?” Brunson said.

Common Ground plans to build a mud kitchen, sensory path, and music wall in the school’s back playground area.

Since the start of the school year, Mayo has been using its outdoor spaces for recess, mask breaks, and all physical education lessons. The school has also formed an agreement with Common Ground to have each class at the school make four visits to Common Ground throughout the academic year.

“It’s all about showing that there are ways of learning outside the four classroom walls,” Stewart said. ​“So much learning can happen outside.”

Once the cutting team finished measuring and cutting, the arranging team stepped in to begin drilling the rectangular boxes together. The team leveled the beds out and added extra support to the corners to hold the structure together.

Each bed was arranged at least six feet from the school parking lot to keep kids from getting too close to the road or parking lot.

Before moving on to filling the beds with soil, the group debated on how best to create a barrier between the lawn grass and the new soil for the garden. The group could use weedblock fabric, dig up the grass, or put recycled cardboard down.

The winner: cardboard.

A school staff member filled up a recycling bin with cardboard to use for the project. The team put layers of cardboard at the bottom of the beds then began filling them in with soil.

The team also build a multi-chamber compost bin for the garden.

Livable City Initiative (LCI) Acting Executive Director Arlevia Samuel from City Hall got a slightly greener thumb Tuesday as a volunteer with the group. Samuel has been volunteering with United Way’s Women United program for about five years.

Tuesday was Samuel’s first encounter with a DeWalt rolling saw stand. Once she got the hang of it, she was able to let some steam off by cutting the wooden boards.

“I love supporting women and children,” she said. ​“This can make a huge difference in families lives with fresh food right from their kids’ school.”

The Hillhouse alum recalled going to the University of New Haven on a full basketball scholarship. The only expense not covered by her scholarship were her school books. ​“I had no way to get them without help,” she said.

Samuel’s guidance counselor purchased her books for her, which later motivated Samuel to give back to her community. ​“I’d like to see my impact where I’m from,” she said.

In addition to United Way volunteers, eight members of the Dimeo Construction Company joined the group Tuesday.

UNH senior, Nicole Bibeau, 21, volunteered Tuesday after a year-long volunteering hiatus. While starting her senior year as criminal justice major with two minors, Bibeau had less and less time to volunteer lately.

Tuesday was her one day off from morning classes. It fit just right in her busy schedule.

Bibeau, who was raised in Lebanon, Connecticut said she most enjoys volunteer projects that involve building. She also wanted to get to know New Haven better. Four hours into the day Tuesday, Bibeau had completed her first-ever volunteer project in New Haven.

“Team work makes the dream work,” she said.

By 1 p.m. the dirt pile was no more, and the team used the extra dirt to mulch the nearby school trees.

The team of volunteers finished the Tuesday project just in time for the end of the school day. Students being picked up by parents got a glimpse of the new school space.