All is not lost for Maryville's Jen School garden due to pandemic
Maryville's Jen School garden is a big part of student and staff learning year-round. Starting in January, students and staff do gardening activities that include composting, planting seeds, nurturing baby plants in the garden's greenhouse and transplanting them to the garden.
They learn about organic pest control, how to build garden sheds, conservation of native plants, birds, pollination and butterflies, where food comes from, and landscaping and maintaining lawn mowers.
To ensure that plants grow in time for harvest season in the summer, they are tended by following a prepping schedule of watering, weeding and pruning.
Harvesting means students and staff would pick, wash and prepare delicious salads for the school lunch, and sell their produce at the weekly farmers market that Jen School sponsors at the Des Plaines campus.
"It is such a great learning experience for our students," Kathleen "KT" Petersen, social worker and gardener extraordinaire said. " Students use their math skills when they are measuring plots, and their customer service and English skills when they are dealing with customers at the farmers market."
Jen School was excited to start their planting season this year. Prep work would have started in late winter for a bountiful harvest, but the COVID-19 pandemic changed all that.
With mandated school closings taking into effect on March 17, Jen School students, staff and volunteers were not able to work in the garden. There was no prepping of the soil, no weeding and definitely no planting that could happen.
In the meantime, plants in the Jen School greenhouse were growing and were ready to be planted. Strong, healthy and sturdy plants were looking for homes.
This is where Miss KT came in. She spearheaded a "foster-a-plant" event last weekend and Maryville staff came and picked up plants to take home to plant in their own home gardens. There were tomatoes, eggplants, yellow, red and green peppers, basil, cucumbers, rhubarbs, flowers, and so much more.
Staff will lovingly care for the plants, harvest them later in the season, and share the bounty with Jen School that will become part of the weekly care packages staff will deliver to their students while observing the mandated shelter-in-place order.
For years, the garden has inspired students and staff to cook elegant and sustainable meals while embracing the concept of farm-to-table dining. Eggplants, for example, were harvested from the garden and prepared for the very popular Eggplant Parmesan by Jen School Chef Antoinette "Toni" Tomasello, and sold at the Jammin' with Jen, an annual late summer fundraising event.
The University of Illinois-Extension is the garden's primary sponsor. Its master gardeners volunteered thousands of hours and worked with Jen School students and staff to create a flourishing garden.
"We would not have a garden without them," Jen School Principal Anne Craig said. "They have worked with our staff since the very beginning."
Rivers Casino, one of the garden's sponsors, participates in the Des Plaines Friday Nights Live! events, and Jen School supplied their chefs with produce from the garden for the said events.
Pesche's in Des Plaines is a generous donor of seeds and soil and provided Jen School students and staff many opportunities to tour their greenhouse.
"We are so sad about the garden this year, but maybe it is good for the dirt to rest," Miss KT said. "Next year's garden will be the best we ever had for sure!"