Mary, Queen of Apostles : Learning blooms in garden club

By Maria Guzzo
Contributing Writer

NEW KENSINGTON – Students in the Mary Queen of Apostles School garden club are cultivating not only zucchini, zinnia, bees and butterflies, but also their academic and social skills.

Parent advisor Kristy Ondriezek said students in fourth through eighth grade have been meeting after school, on Saturdays and during the summer to prepare, plant and harvest vegetables and flowers in raised beds in an outdoor classroom on school grounds.

This past summer, student gardeners cut their garden flowers and took them to a local personal care home, creating bouquets to decorate their rooms and dining area.

“There were lots of smiles and laughs,” Ondriezek said. “The residents enjoyed reminiscing about their own gardens and shared valuable gardening tips. It was wonderful to witness the students’ faith in action.” 

Ondriezek said much of what the students are learning at garden club transfers to the classroom and beyond.

“We really focus on the science aspects of the interdependent relationship of plants, insects, weather and soil, and how they are so important to our food supply,” Ondriezek said. “Our students are at all different grade and skill levels, so we challenge students at their learning level. They are having fun though, so they have no idea they are learning.”

Students utilize math skills when reading soil sample reports and calculating soil amendments, and again in the kitchen after school while measuring ingredients and multiplying recipes to cook enough for everyone present. They’ve tasted vegetables they’d never had before, and have donated some of their harvest to the school cafeteria, including lettuce, green beans and zucchini. 

“For social studies, we compare and contrast commercially grown food versus home- and locally grown food,” Ondriezek said. “Students understand that home-grown not only offers more nutrition but reduces packaging waste, as well as the fossil fuel utilization needed to transport the produce.” 

She said students have studied companion planting, added milkweed plants to the garden to expand the monarch butterfly environment, and examined how to draw bees into the garden to ensure plant pollination.

“The kids built their own bee hotels to place at their homes and in our school garden to help support our pollinator friends’ population,” Ondriezek said.

Fifth-grader August Roberts is particularly interested in the club’s new hydroponic system, which was set up in December and partially funded with a $3,000 grant from Whole Foods’ Whole Kids Foundation. MQA’s School Community Group covered the remaining costs.

“I learned how to test and calculate the pH and the nutrients in the hydroponic unit, and how to adjust them by adding more water or pH Down or nutrients,” Roberts said. “We’re growing lettuce, basil and carrots. The sprouts are getting a lot bigger already.”

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