Greenport school garden gets glow up for year-round learning

Though the frost has come and the beds are fallow, there is still much to be done in the Greenport elementary school garden. The space is quiet, but the learning hasn’t stopped.

When Shannon Silverman, the art and STEAM teacher at Greenport Elementary, took over management of the garden three years ago, she took it upon herself to ensure that it would be beautiful and beneficial all year round.

“I tried to sort of revamp it, make it a much more welcoming atmosphere, a lot more streamlined to let the kids want to enjoy and eat and be out there. I really tried to make it our garden, a community garden, the school’s. Everybody’s welcome to it,” said Ms. Silverman.

The first step was overhaul the whole garden. They put new wood chips down, installed new picnic tables, planted an exterior border of perennials, and added a mix of evergreens and pollinating plants, so there would be a year-round interest.

“Everything needs to look nicer in the parking lot all year round when we’re here, not just when everything’s in bloom in the summer and nobody’s here. So that was the main goal of mine, getting the sign up, the flowers up front. I wanted to make it not a brown eyesore for most of the year when everybody’s here, but something that people want to look at year round,” Ms. Silverman said.

The garden is integrated into the school’s STEAM lessons, so the children are learning about the different things in the garden and what purpose they serve in the food web, good and bad. The children raise and release butterflies and ladybugs, and have worms in the compost.

“During the times that we can be outside, we’re outside,” Ms. Silverman said. “They’re either working, harvesting, planting, doing some sort of activity out there, and then eating, most importantly. So, learning where their food comes from, and then also how to prepare it.”

Through grant money, Ms. Silverman was able to buy crock pots, electric muffin makers, all baking equipment, bowls, spoons and mixers. They cook and prepare everything they don’t eat fresh from the garden, often discovering new foods in the process.

“The parents will think that I’m lying. The kids will have never eaten the vegetable or even known what that vegetable was and then all of a sudden, they’re bringing bags of it home and eating it and sharing it,” said Ms. Silverman.

Elizabeth Doyle, the superintendent of the Greenport schools, appreciates the effort Ms. Silverman has put in to update the garden space.

“There’s an outdoor classroom where we sit on tree stumps, but there’s a chalkboard and it’s just a magical place where you can decompress. Not only … a place that’s growing vegetables and flowers, it’s also just a tranquil space that everyone can enjoy,” Ms. Doyle said.

While the garden is targeted at the elementary ages, everyone is welcome there. Older students sometimes join the younger grades when they can.

“Band often gets displaced when there’s assemblies or concerts, things going on, so they would hold their lessons out there, sitting on the stumps. It was so cool, to have five kids sitting out there playing saxophone while the class is there, planting tomatoes,” Ms. Silverman said. 

Another time, some high schoolers were preparing to play an event in town. Ms. Silverman invited them to practice in the garden while the kindergartners were having class.

“I said, why don’t you come practice in the garden?” said Ms. Silverman. “So they brought their guitars, their amps, and they were playing, and all of the kindergarteners are sitting on the stumps, dancing, rocking in their seats.”

Ms. Doyle is thrilled with how the children have responded to the garden. “I know they enjoy their time out there. I know they’re proud of their creations. It’s just all positive.”