DECATUR -- When driving down Stadium Drive in southeast Decatur, it is not unusual to see sheep and goats grazing in the field near Bulldog Stadium. But motorists driving down that route on March 28 were greeted with a somewhat different sight just east of the pasture.
Fifteen Decatur Middle and High School students donning pickaxes, rakes, shovels and a very large wheelbarrow, worked on a new project supervised by Jayme Burden, an agriculture teacher and librarian at Decatur High School.
Burden hatched an idea to teach her students, mainly seventh through 10th graders, the fine art of gardening by building a community garden.
Her students began by squaring off a piece of land near the barn next to the access road to the stadium and gym. The industrious farmers started the project by enclosing the plot with old four-by-four landscape timbers. Then a load of topsoil was brought in by truck and dumped on the pad.
Carefully, the students used the equipment at their disposal to move the dirt around and till it until it was loose and easy to work.
Eventually, the group of future farmers worked the mess into a plantable piece of land ready for a crop of vegetables and other garden variety plants.
It will take a few months of sunshine and a few April showers to get their crops growing to maturity. Then the students will harvest the fruits of their labor for a nice salad and a bouquet of flowers to decorate the center of the dinner table.
General News on 04/10/2019