Soil still caked underneath her fingernails and clinging to her sleeves, Ecker Hill Middle School French teacher Annie Wallace retired to an old wooden bench overlooking the school’s community garden.
A year after work to create the garden began in earnest, Wallace, who has spearheaded the project for the school, is finally able to sit down, relax and see the fruits — or, rather, the produce — of her labor. She and students have begun harvesting the first group of crops to come from the garden, which include zucchini, potatoes and carrots.
Wallace, who spends much of her time gardening at home, worked hard to get the garden up and running. But as she sat and look out over it, she said that what has really made the project a success is how quickly the students have embraced it.
She estimates that there are 30 to 40 students in the newly formed Renew Crew and Garden Club. Others have helped with the garden to fulfill school-mandated community service hours — and many of those returned even after their hours were completed.
“It became their garden very quickly, with a great amount of enthusiasm,” Wallace said. “It’s funny because there are times in class, and I’ve got a lesson plan, but they just want to come out to the garden. It’s hard because I want to come out to the garden, too, but I’m like, ‘No, I have this lesson plan. We need to do this.'”
Wallace had long had the idea for a garden at the school but figured it wouldn’t happen for several years. That changed after she attended a meeting with the group Eat Awesome Things at School Park City, and a plan for the garden was created. The project got off the ground last fall with a groundswell of support.
“The long story short is that my three- to five-year plan of having a garden became a four-month plan,” Wallace said, laughing.
One of the reasons Wallace was eager to create the garden was to teach students the benefits of healthy, locally grown food. Too often, she said, even in a health-conscious town like Park City, students are unaware of where their food comes from.
“There’s that (health food) movement right now, but you have populations that don’t get that,” Wallace said. “I think we’re lucky in Park City because we have farmer’s markets and local farms, but we still have students who didn’t know you could grow potatoes in the ground or lettuce and do all of these kinds of things.”
Seventh grader Taytum Burbidge said she didn’t have much experience gardening before signing up for the Renew Crew and Garden Club but was enthusiastic about rolling up her sleeves and getting dirty in the garden.
“(Wallace) told us in French class about it and brought us here,” she said. “We were just like, ‘We want to do this.’ Because it was so pretty and seems fun. I don’t really know how to garden but it would be cool to learn.”
While students in the garden club and community service volunteers are the ones most involved in the garden, Wallace has found a way to include many more students at the school. Ecker Hill’s Career and Technical Education class — which is mandatory for all students — will be building a shed for the garden, and any teacher is welcome to use the garden for their classes.
She hopes that will further increase excitement for the project and make even more students give gardening a shot.
“Even if they only come out once or twice, they know about it and know it’s here,” she said. “I let students know that this is your garden. While I will take care of it as long as I’m here, and I’m happy to be in charge of it, I do hope that it becomes kind of an integral part in students’ lives.”