“Every leaf that grows will tell you: what you sow will bear fruit.” — Rumi

We had the pleasure of teaching high school students how to start a food garden using permaculture principals. And why covering (mulching) and protecting the soil with a no dig/no till approach is so important.

As soon as we started, we discovered that some of the students had a background in gardening at home which we were thrilled about. These steudents were so excited to learn about mulching which they promised to use in their homegrown gardens. Similar to our primary students, some of the older kids put their own creative spin on planting and a couple kids stayed after the class to eagerly ask questions!

A lot of their eyes would light up with wonder each time we showed them a new seedling tray with hundreds of seedlings!

We were even inspired to leave some seedling trays with those who volunteered to watch over their new garden through all the school terms and seasons.

We invited a few of them to choose some seeds that they would like to plant and grow themselves. Inviting a sense of ownwership and responsibility!

This was our first High School Growing Hope Garden, and we will be doing more! Below you will see AFTER PLANTING photo with the mulched earth, with several beds, with student planted beds and with (invisible) yet to sprout - cover crop seeds! In 2-3 months this space will be radially transformed.

A special thank you to our sponsor for week 17 - Swiffy Technologies! We so appreciate you for supporting Growing Hope Mission 2022, because only through your support can we continue to expand our reach. Together we can cover more ground and grow more hope!