Garden volunteers ever vigilant

Some people fight with their tomatoes.

No, really.

It's often a battle just to keep them alive.

This is not the case for 400 students who planted their garden this spring at Woodland Elementary West School in Gages Lake. They can't seem to kill the little buggers fast enough.

Generally, you don't think of gardeners wanting to commit planticide, but when you consider the fact that seeds from last year's plants are strewn about this year's garden, the scene takes on an entirely new dimension.

They're everywhere.

At first, the parent and student volunteers caring for the garden this summer felt some measure of shame over pulling the "volunteers" who happened to show up in unexpected places.

Now, they exhibit no mercy.

They're coming out by the handful, chief gardening parent Anne Nagro said.

If only the school's broccoli and cauliflower was growing as prodigiously, she lamented.

Alas, very little of that dynamic duo will wind up on the plates of food pantry clients this year.

We wrote about the garden this spring and the school's efforts to deliver more than 450 pounds of produce to the Warren Township food pantry this year. We thought you'd like to know how they're garden's going so far and we'll update you periodically on their work throughout the campaign, which ends Oct. 1.