5th grader, Sami Amanthakrishnan’s Overview of the TMA Garden

Tended by classes of all grades, the school garden has flourished and developed from the very beginning, when it was just it was just a mound of dirt and weeds, ready for fertilization to grow vegetables, fruits, flowers, all of different varieties. Soon as helping hands including the upper and lower grades joined in, the garden started to bloom as ideas combined, and slowly made the many sections of plants we’ve seen in the recent years. These sections consist of a handful of flowering buds of fruit, vegetables assorted in neat rows including rose red strawberries, and just flowers in general. But out of all those masses of greenery, the best place in the T.M.A garden in my opinion would be the touch and smell piece, where you can really get a feel of plants, and the unique traits each individual flower or leaf carries. This section is tucked in a corner of the garden, and is a place for all those who wish to have a depth of understanding of plants, using all four senses to learn about specific varieties of flowers, and simply just things like Rosemary.
Scattered all over the garden and quite near to the touch and feel plants, are the most noticeable vegetables and fruits in the garden, all which are in the expanse of little planters and spaces, meant for students to experience the joy of having a green thumb. But because students get to pluck and pull what they planted to bring home, the garden as you might have noticed is always different, for classes always plant new things in the space provided for them. Even if being in the garden is always plenty of fun for everyone, it’s still even better when you start exploring, for things are absolutely never the same. With things including small trees and bushes, some of which have interlocking flowers in their branches, there is always much to water. So where exactly do we get the water? This question was solved with brothern and cistern, and in some places, a network of chains to lead rainwater to the soil. This network let the volunteers who wanted to tend to the garden, the advantage of not having to water some parts whenever it rained. Also, with the two cylinder shaped bins, (brothern and “sistern”) when the need of water arises, those two bins always happen to be filled to the brim from previous rainstorms and drizzles. This brilliant system helped to manage maintaining the garden, along with the effort from classes and volunteers, and not to mention good fertilizer from composters like earthworms. So finally with all that hard work focused entirely on the garden, it’s no surprise that it created the environment for all, butterflies, bees and students alike.
By Sami