At St. Pius V School, we foster respect and appreciation for God’s creation through teaching about the dignity of every human being as well as the beauty of the natural world. One engaging and fun way for students to be stewards of God’s creation and care for the environment is joining the Gardening Club, which is open to students from Grades 5 through 8.

At the beginning of each calendar year, the Gardening Club packages and delivers seeds and planting materials to classrooms so students in all grades can have the experience of planting and watering seedlings. The seedlings are tended by each classroom and are allowed to germinate there for about a month. At that time, the Gardening Club collects the plants and transfers them to the raised beds located in the parking lot adjacent to the school building.

During the Spring, the club meets weekly to learn about garden care and how to tend the plants. In the past, students have learned to care for a wide variety, including tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, basil, parsley, cotton, sesame, Swiss chard, cucumber, and squash. The produce is utilized by the school community and sold for various fundraising efforts. 

Gardening provides ample opportunity to incorporate STEM activities in the math classroom. The middle school math classes help care for three of the garden beds. Besides taking care of the plants and harvesting the produce, the students also grow a variety of herbs year-long. This year, students will be creating their own tea bags and dried spice mixes with the herbs. These hands-on activities reinforce relevant concepts such as ratios, proportions, percentages, and graphing and help nourish the students’ appreciation for how math is a part of everyday life. 

The initial funding for gardening tools and the six raised beds was provided through a grant from the New England Grassroots Environmental Fund. The construction of the raised beds was an impressive community effort made possible through volunteers from the school, Providence College’s FriarServe program, and the wider Elmhurst neighborhood. Each year, the University of Rhode Island’s Master Gardeners provide the club with seeds, as well as seedlings nurtured in their hothouse on campus. 

Our students love experiencing the many gifts of God by learning how to cultivate the good things of the earth.