Beginnings

A school garden at Till Academy can be attributed to a package of seeds, a group of curious third grade students and a motivated art teacher named Greg Waggoner. Mr. Waggoner’s students expressed an interest in growing seeds in their classroom.  So Mr. Waggoner bought a seed starter set and soon hearty shoots began to grow.  The third graders were enjoying the process so much that Mr. Waggoner helped them plant their seedlings in an empty lot near the school.  The students tended their seedlings for the rest of the school year and a group of students taking summer guitar lessons ensured that plants were weeded and watered regularly with water provided by kind neighbors.  A small but memorable harvest was enjoyed by Till Academy students, staff and community members in the fall of 2009. 

During the 2009/2010 school year, Mr. Waggoner submitted numerous grants to foundations and other organizations to help the school garden grow.  He was successful at obtaining over $3,500 in funding, which ensured that each classroom in the school had an opportunity to grow their own seedlings.  The funding was also used to purchase plant material, soil amendments, tools and fencing materials.    In addition, he organized numerous workdays in the garden and recruited students, teachers as well as other volunteers to come out to the workdays.  Over the past two years Mr. Waggoner and some community volunteers have also been reaching out to various organizations to figure out ways to make the budding school garden sustainable.