Students and teachers at the Williston Northampton School recently relocated the school’s garden, housing many different greens planted by students over the years, from the residential quad to behind Logan House, in order to make room for a new dorm to be built over the summer. The garden has been moved several times now, but an alumnus of Williston’s High School states that this one looks more permanent. The Middle School’s Life Science teacher, Jane Lucia, is introducing a new way of gardening to the school, along with newly raised beds. John Jeavon’s Bio-Intensive method is a more environmentally sustainable way of farming and gardening, which she is passing on to her seventh graders. The method uses off-set spacing of the seeds so that each plant is equally spaced. This conserves space and makes it so that it is possible to have more than ten-percent more plants per bed than a regularly spaced garden. However, the plants are closer together, so that when they grow, a micro-climate will be created, providing shade for the soil, making it healthier. This approach will conserve space, water, and tim. Students in the seventh-grade report of the fun they are having and seem to wish they could have more time in the garden, shoveling dirt into the beds and planting seedlings using the off-set method.
Pictured: The Class of 2024 filling the new deep raised bed, preparing to plant potatoes.
