A little patience, some different equipment, and a whole lot of help later, a perfectly respectable garden has sprung up from the arid ground, and later this summer, the collaborative efforts of dozens of Ruskin students, local teenagers, neighbors and community organizers will bear fruit. Or, more precisely, vegetables.
Jenkins — a landscape designer who owns her own company, Breaking Ground — also serves as project manager for Seeds of Change, an advocacy group that helped organize the Ruskin community garden as a prototype they’d like to replicate at at least four other Dayton neighborhood schools. Edison School in Dayton is scheduled to join Ruskin with a community garden next year, Jenkins said, and a course of study that ties the garden in with state academic standards has been developed. Peter Benkendorf, who oversees Seeds of Change efforts in the Dayton area, said he is working to spread the community-garden idea to suburban schools.
The Ruskin prototype is a 40-feet-by-40-feet garden that contains tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, squash and other vegetables. Local kids involved with Street Peace, an after-school program overseen by Ruskin teacher Julie Mcglaun, donated $1,000 in seed money to get the project off — or into — the ground.
“We did a lot of the preparation — spreading compost and prepping the ground,” said 14-year-old Michael Rainey, a member of Street Peace who along with fellow group members and fellow students at the K-8 school helps keep the garden cultivated and watered. The harvest will be divvied up among the neighborhood residents and local meal programs, including one operated by Target Ministries and by the East End Community Church that offers meals to local families and to others in the community.
Local businesses and agencies donated tilling equipment, fencing, seeds and hoses, among other services, Jenkins said.
“We didn’t plant until Memorial Day, so the garden is a little behind,” Jenkins said. “I’m not sure what kind of harvest we’re going to get, but we’re delighted at the progress so far, especially for a startup program like this.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2258 or mfisher@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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