The children’s garden at the Robert Adams Middle School has a new grow tent!
“It’s daunting for the kids to do it during the summer,” says Lisa Zais, who has worked with 7th and 8th graders on the Kids Community Harvest Garden for the past 10 years. Zais says she would encourage the students to work on the garden during the school year, having them do research on vegetables and plants they wanted to grow.
“Then it comes the spring, and it’s a challenge cleaning up the plots,” says Zais, who would usually end up getting the plants for the kids to tend.
The group, which began behind the Pinecrest Golf Club in the community garden plots there, has since moved to the community garden plots over at the Holliston Community Farm, at 35 Rogers Road.
“We now have plots off Lowland and Jeffries Streets,” says Zais, who works with Brooke Doire at Robert Adams Middle School.
Zais was looking for a way to get the young teens more invested in planting the garden.
“I thought of freight farms, to convert storage containers, but it’s very expensive. If we had the money, we’d take it and put it on school grounds, and it could be part of the curriculum,” says Zais. As an alternative, Zais found a growing tent at a nearby hydroponics store – Matts Hydroponics of Milford, – which was happy to give her a discount for the school project.
“The school approved it,” says Zais. “It has lighting inside, and I bought it and installed it in the teacher’s lounge at the middle school. (The students) can start things from seed and watch them grow, and by spring, they can plant them on the field at the Holliston Community Garden.”
Zais feels very strongly about young people learning to eat nutritious foods.
“I just think it’s important. I think, if I can rescue people and get them to eat healthy, it’s worth it,” says Zais. “If I could get a dozen kids (in whom) it would resonate, eating healthy and learn where it comes from, I would have succeeded.”