Great Neck School Plants A Seed And Watches It Grow

Sometimes, grandmothers have the best ideas. 

Marcia Benvenuti, an avid gardener and proud grandmother of a student at Great Neck Elementary School, thought it might be a nice idea to start a garden at the school. As a former teacher, she also recognized that a school garden could be a terrific way for kids to learn about everything from biology and math, to history and nutrition. 

What started out as an idea last Thanksgiving began to germinate when Benvenuti applied for and received a $1,000 grant from Waterford's Education Foundation and $2,000 from the Great Neck PTO. The garden grew to fruition thanks to a lot of sweat equity from staff, parents, and help from local businesses. 

It Takes a Village to Raise a Garden

The school garden was officially opened with a song on Wednesday. It features raised beds, each of which has been planted by a different grade and by the Daisies (the precursor to girl scouts). Each bed has a different theme. The Daisies planted an herb garden;  the fifth graders plan to plant a Colonial garden.  

Miller Fencing gave the school a discount to enclose the area. Monsanto provided seeds for the bargain basement price of $20, all of which were planted first in the classroom and carefully nurtured by students. Jordan Brook Nursery provided the soil. The beds are filled with a three inch layer of gravel, an 18 inch layer of top soil, and three inches of organic compost.

The garden was designed by Benvenuti and the beds built by school staff and parents. Great Neck teacher Kay Parulis and her husband Doug Parulis, also a teacher, helped with the build, along with Peg Genung, school secretary, Pat Fedor, school principal, and Kathleen Ward, another teacher at Great Neck School. 

When Great Neck parent Mark Costa saw them struggling to fill the finished boxes with soil, one bucket at a time, he returned with friends and a backhoe to help. 

"If he hadn't come that day, we'd still be here!" said Fedor. "It was like elves during the night!"

Benvenuti and Kay Parulis helped the different classrooms with the planting, and Parulis's students have been volunteering for weeding and watering duties.

"They volunteer to come out in recess and water and to do the weeding. They're really into it, which is great to see," said Parulis. 

The original plan was to plant crops that would be self-maintaining until they could be harvested in the fall, said Benvenuti. But a number of classes "got very ambitious," Benvenuti said. 

Some of the more tender plants will need to be nurtured through the summer. Fedor said she'll be around to make sure they are watered and weeded and she's optimistic that the counselors and kids at the summer camp which is based at the school will help out. Then, in the fall, the students should be able to reap the sweet rewards. 

"Our cafeteria person is very excited to use the vegetables," said Parulis.