School Gardens

Grow VI is partnered with Fintrac and the UVI agriculture extension to support school gardens.

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The majority of school children in St. Thomas will have had limited exposure to farming and the growing of plants. School gardens are a fun, educative way of introducing them to the importance of growing food. It gives them an opportunity to understand how plants grow and how important the soil, water and surrounding environment are. It is also a perfect place for demonstrating ‘real world’ examples of what they are learning in the classroom, from science and biology to math to art and music. It also gives the children an environment to develop skills such as scientific investigation, critical thinking, creativity, team work and appreciation of the interconnectivity of the world around them.

Caring for a school garden also gets the kids outside of the classroom, giving them a break from their indoor routine. From experience, many enjoy the responsibility of caring for a garden and working with their hands. The garden and its produce also becomes a point of contact between the students, their teachers, family and the wider community. Being able to take harvested produce home or sell it to the public, or talk about it on the radio are self-affirming activities.

For longer term impacts, school gardens influence children’s opinions on agriculture and the production of food. St. Thomas is largely an urban environment that has lost much of its ability to feed itself. The children can be the vanguard of a renewed ability and interest in supplementing local diets with local foods.

For more info please contact Chloe at chloe@growvi.org

Local School Gardens

There are a number of schools in the territory that have a garden or are in the process of establishing a garden. For a closer look at where the gardens are, cut and paste the coordinates into the Google Maps search bar.

St. Thomas

Gladys A. Abraham Elementary School
Coordinates: N 18 20’ 38” W 64 58’ 05”

This school garden has really taken off in the last few years and has generated a lot of interest from the community including a spread in the Daily News and a spot on Face 2 Face. The school garden display won an award at the Food Fair during carnival in 2009. There has been a lot of effort put into the garden from the students, the staff and the wide community. You can find healthy plants growing in plant boxes, tire gardens and in all manner of recycled containers. Thing are going so well that they are looking to expand and use the garden in a number of innovative ways. The only problems they face are the iguanas who sit in the trees waiting for a free lunch.

Jane E. Tuitt Elementary School
Coordinates: N 18 20’ 39.96” W 64 56’ 09.40”

This garden is a great example of making the most with what you have. On first glance, there’s no place to grow plants at the school. Then you’ll see, tucked behind the buildings on the basketball side of the school, a small, L-shaped area thriving with vegetables, fruit and herbs. The neighborhood keeps a friendly eye on the garden. This garden has a great future and there is already a second area on the school campus identified for the expansion project!

Cancryn Junior High School
the turn off to the docks.
Coordinates: N 18 20’ 10” W 64 56’ 45”

The sky’s the limit with this school. Not only is there enough land to fit a farm into but it’s also flat and now, thanks to the Cooperative Extension Service at the University of the Virgin Islands, there’s water (in the form of a donated 1,000 gallon tank!) Ally that with willing students, dedicated teachers and lots of community support and this garden is going to be something.

Started in 2008/9, the garden is presently being established with tire gardens, plant boxes, a shade house and an area for fruit trees. GrowVI helped getting the tires to the garden (at the risk of nearly getting arrested by DPNR agents thinking we were involved in illegal tire dumping).

Lockhart Elementary School
Coordinates: N 18 20’ 31.31” W 64 55’ 03.25”

The school garden idea was so popular at this school that they didn’t stop at one. Thanks to the layout of the school with large flower beds between the classrooms, there’s been an explosion of interest and a proliferation of vegetables and herbs in most of the beds. One of the most productive gardens is being run by the Emerald Thumb Garden Club run by Juelis Hodge. Possible ideas for individual gardens include a recycling garden, an art garden and an herb & bush tea garden.

Joseph Sibilly Elementary School
Coordinates: N 18 21’ 07.85” W 64 55’ 58.52”

This garden is on the edge of a leafy glade in a beautiful spot on St. Thomas. Things are just kicking off here and they’ve already received a composter from the First Lady (which in itself was donated to the First Lady by The Environmental Association of St. Thomas-St. John, EAST). This is the perfect time for GrowVI volunteers to step in and help out. It looks like there’ll be a battle royal with the iguanas.

Montessori School
Coordinates: N 18 19’ 16.16” W 64 51’ 08.07”

The Montessori School garden was established close to the upper school building so that it could get the attention it needs. The gardening group concentrated on growing hot pepper so that they could make and sell their own hot pepper sauce. From personal experience, I can tell you that their sauce rocks! Once again, this garden is prime real estate for iguanas.