by Madie Murray

Special to the Islands’ Sounder

Vicki Bartram’s grandson, Jordan, made a flag for soccer camp last year. That keepsake gleefully wafted and waved in her garden all summer long and ultimately planted another seed in the school garden.

Vicki brought her idea to Jordan’s mom, Mandy Randolph, as a project for Mandy’s Farm to Classroom kids. It was a great idea for several reasons: it provided an independent project for the kids to do while in the garden, the flags might act as a deterrent against birds that always try to invade the strawberry patch, and they just look fun and playful. Needless to say, the kids took this project on with great enthusiasm.

Old sheets torn into squares, a quick lesson about the attributes of flags, and some brainstorming of garden objects (veggies, fruits, sun, water, soil, worms, even rabbits, to name a few) formed the elements of the project. Over the course of a few weeks, the kids were sent into the garden to create their own special flags. As they did so, they made a positive wish for the school and its garden.

During their last session in the garden, Farm to Cafeteria Garden Keeper, Chelsea Cates, strung some the flags across the garden using a stapler and baling wire. Others flags were given as gifts to friends and family as a symbol of thanks for Vicki and her idea, and Vicki herself received some which now hang in her garden as another remembrance of the original idea from her grandson. The grateful school garden has again given back.

Have some garden tools lying around?

Tools are always needed in the school garden. If you have some garden tools (spades and hoes of all kinds, rakes, digging and weeding hand tools, sprinklers, etc.) you can part with or don’t need or use any more, please feel free to take them to the school garden and leave them by the wooden shed. They will be deeply appreciated!

Madie Murray is the Farm to Cafeteria committee chair.