THOMASTON — Lynn Snow teaches science to Thomaston Grammar School’s fifth grade, which includes 55 students, and treats them to a hands-on experience in the garden. They get to spend time preparing and growing vegetables in a garden on the school grounds. The garden has been part of the class curriculum since 2009.

The garden’s official name is the Thomaston Grammar School Fifth Grade Common Ground Garden and Outdoor Classroom. The students even have their own Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TGS-5th-Grade-Common-Ground-Garden-and-Outdoor-Classroom-378898225546467/?fref=ts

The garden is 60 feet by 80 feet in size. Snow said originally there were four people involved in the garden project.

“Three teachers and a guidance counselor were the original four,” she said. “We were an expeditionary learning school at the time. Every grade had to come up with a project that you could integrate many subject areas through. And we decided we would like to have a garden.”

Snow said they chose an area that was used as a dumping ground for old soccer goals. It was overgrown to the point that the gate could not even be opened. That’s when it was decided to turn the space into a school garden.

“We try to grow a lot of root vegetables that we can harvest in the fall,” said Snow. “The next fifth grade coming in has the benefit of those vegetables, so we pay it forward.”

Snow said the garden originally started out with just two raised beds.

“We actually had a team of horses come from St. George, Duke Ellis’s team, and we fell trees outback and dragged the trees up,” she said. “That was our first two raised beds. They have long rotted out now because that was in 2009.”

The garden now has 13 raised beds made from hemlock.

“We used to have to lug water to the garden and we had no storage for our tools,” said Snow. “We did that until we were the recipient of the Lowe’s Hero’s Award, from which we built a stage and roof for rainwater collection.”

Snow said once they get a little more rain it will fill two 50-gallon barrels.

“The shed was an effort through student fundraising about three years ago,” she said. “And Lowe’s gave us a hefty discount on that, as well, so Lowe’s is one of our good friends in the garden, although many area businesses and individuals have been good friends to the garden, as well.”

Small animals have taken up residence in the past and heartbreaking as it is, vandals have caused damage, too.

“We had a gopher living in our compost bin last year,” Snow said. “”We do have a few problems with vandals, which is unfortunate. We had the window in our shed broken twice until my dad came and fixed it with Lexan.  One year, we had these beautiful onions growing and somebody came in and just ripped them out of the ground and just left them.”

The students plant both annual and perennial flowers, as well as vegetables. The students do composting, but Snow said it’s hard to do with the cafeteria because everything has to be lugged out in buckets and it’s quite a walk from the school. However, Snow said she is considering it again because it’s a good skill for the students to have.

Snow said she could really use a cart with wheels and was hoping someone would see this article and donate one.

“This is not school funded,” she said. “It’s all done through student, area businesses and some generous individuals. We do a seed packet fundraiser each spring where kids design their own seed packets in art class. We vote on the winning designs and then we buy bulk seeds and repackage them. It becomes an entire unit on design and sales and delivery.”

Snow said even the math department gets involved by measuring and laying out the beds in the allotted space.

Snow said that since 2009, hundreds of students have participated in the garden project.

“We try to do a spring mix and hopefully we will all have a salad of lettuce, spinach and radishes,” she said. “Those are coming up now. We put out an application form for families that don’t have a home garden to be our caretakers during the summer. We usually choose two and they’re expected to mow and weed and then they harvest and use whatever they like. And as you can see there is plenty of space here to take care of two families.”

Snow said her plan for next year is to do some cooking with the vegetables from the garden.

“Fall vegetables are beets, carrots, garlic, some turnips and we’ll have some squash that will be harvested in the fall,” she said. “We’re going to do a large area of potatoes that we’ll harvest in the fall. Some of the vegetables will go for the school lunch program and we have an herb garden, too.”

Snow said her father, husband and daughter all help her with the garden, so it’s kind of a family affair.

“They are my workforce,” she said.

Snow is from Warren. She started as a physical education teacher at Lura Libby school and has taught fifth grade at TGS for eight years.

“Here’s a unique piece of history,” Snow began. “Lura Libby was my grandmother. She was my mother’s mother, though I never knew her. She died at a very young age at 43. It’s a real honor to work in a school district where your grandmother has a school named after her.”

Lara Libby School will close at the end of this year. Snow said the town will take it over and with a town vote, associate the name with it in some way because a lot of people have been through that school.