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Check Out Our New School Garden!

Parent and student volunteers planting native species in the MS915 garden.

Bridges|MS 915 is thrilled to be able to welcome families for the 2021-22 school year in our new school garden. A project conceived of by members of the Class of 2019 and pursued by subsequent students, parents, teachers, and administrators, we will be using the garden for small school gatherings, as an “outdoor classroom” in which students can learn about urban ecosystems and plants native to this part of the United States, and as a space to support community-building among the other school communities in our building.

Thank You to All of Our Volunteers, Funders, and Supporters!

We couldn’t have done it without the passion of our community and the support of volunteers and funders alike. Our in-person students last year helped build raised beds and plant native plants in two separate side “north” and “south” garden areas, and parents helped build benches and convertible picnic tables for seating. 

The garden came to life in June under the guidance of Rebecca McMackin, lead horticulturist from Brooklyn Bridge Park, and Farmer Fred of Nature Based. Summer school students and local daycare students continued the work, planting and maintaining vegetables and herbs over the summer months..

And all of this work was made possible by generous grants from the NYC Department of Education (DOE) Office of Sustainability, the NYC DOE Office of School Wellness, GrowNYC, NY’s Agriculture in the Classroom program at Cornell University, and the Kids Gardening/Klorane Foundation Budding Botanist program. 

The “north garden” stretches along the sidewalk that runs from Tillary Street to our building’s side entrance and boasts several species of native plants —  smooth and two types of oak leaf hydrangeas, Fothergilia, Summersweet Clethra, and American holly. 

 

Our “south garden” runs south along the sidewalk from the side building entrance to Johnson Street at the entrance to Metrotech Plaza/Brooklyn Commons and is home to convertible seating/picnic tables, an ornamental entrance archway/pergola, and 8 raised beds that support multiple perennial herbs and a variety of organic vegetables.

Looking Forward

We hope to build on our garden successes in the 2021-22 school year. We hope to work with the culinary program at Westinghouse High School to have them use garden produce in their kitchen and have begun brainstorming with their electrical engineering faculty about the potential for solar powered lights and automated watering. City Poly High School’s student council has supported the idea of student community service projects to support the space. We also plan to add compost and wood chip pathways and potentially limited seating options to the north garden and to engage our broader community in plans for a sculptural element in the south garden. Please don’t hesitate to contact pta@ms915brooklyn.org to learn more or to help!