About Our School Garden

As you may know, we have our very own school garden at Monroe Elementary School. Each spring every student contributes to our school garden by maintaining our raised beds, preparing the soil, planting seeds, watering or transplanting. It’s a wonderful learning experience and the children really look forward to and take pride in watching each plant progress through the various growing stages. Gardens take work, however. They need constant care from our young “stewards of the land”. 

Each year we ask for family support as the garden will need continued care during the summer months. We look for volunteers to water, weed, prune and re-stake. Volunteers will also have the opportunity to harvest and keep some of the crops! Absolutely no experience is required to volunteer and guidance is provided in our Volunteer Handbooks. Participation is seen as a learning opportunity where the children can take the lead, learning from any mistakes they may make. Volunteers should not fear that their lack of experience may harm the garden. 

In addition to caring for the garden we sell our crops at the Monroe Farmers Market. This opportunity gives the children a chance to experience the gratifying results of their hard work, not to mention they will be practicing their math skills, money concepts and even business acumen and charity! All profits will go back into the school garden for another year of fun and learning. Any unsold crops will be shared with volunteering families and the Monroe Food Pantry. What a wonderful way to involve your family in a charitable act that gives back to our community!

But we really need your help to make this work. If every family donated just an hour of their time the Farmers Market effort will be very successful!

Please show your interest by volunteering via Sign-Up Genius here: www.SignUpGenius.com/go/20F0B48A5AC2CA4FA7-farmers

If you have any questions please contact Kelly Pietro 203-954-8434 or [email protected].

We thank you again for your continued support of the school garden!

Chris Treat 4th Grade Teacher, Science Coach & School Garden Supervisor