My Vision for Rosebud

This week, in a peaceful coup d’état and in anticipation of spring’s arrival, I took over Rosebud School’s garden site. Although the school has shown an interest in having students take on this project, no action has been taken in my nearly 6 months of lobbying, and I doubt anyone is eager to work outside this time of year.

Except me.

Thanks to a well-timed lunch with the shop class substitute teacher and Rosebud’s superintendent, I learned the specific dimensions of my garden site and actually heard the superintendent say, “Do whatever you want with it.” Yes, Sir! After being kept at my desk for months, I couldn’t have been more excited to layer up and march my way to the garden armed with work gloves, a rake, garbage bags and a radio.

There are two small greenhouses, neither of which is airtight, that sit behind the school. They are equipped with heaters, although a 100% fatality rate of our tomato plants demonstrated that they aren’t reliable. Cardboard and duct tape will make an adequate temporary fix for the small holes in the greenhouses, and with close supervision of the heaters we’ll hopefully be able to regulate the temperature despite Montana’s volatile weather.

I spent hours picking up garbage, sweeping out leaves and organizing potting containers and making a space that I can see students working in. With a little more TLC, these buildings will be ready to start our garden vegetables by spring!

The ground surrounding the greenhouses is littered with junk; the skeleton of an old play structure, including a curly slide; a barbeque; tires; large plastic waste containers; and a giant blue bus. All of this is blanketed with mountains of leaves, pieces of plywood and assorted garbage.

Surveying all of this, I can see why no one has really shown any interest in starting a garden before. It takes me hours to pick up garbage, rake leaves and stack all of the wood I uncover into a pile. How could this possibly turn into a space that the school can be proud of, let alone a successful vegetable garden?

This is my vision.

The garden will be a narrow strip of land to the east of the greenhouses between a high fence and the basketball court, where our compost bins currently sit. I plan on adorning the entire fence line with vines and climbing plants, since the small space necessitates we go vertical. This upcoming week, my supervisor and I will attempt to move the compost bins behind the greenhouse so that raised beds can go where the bins now sit.

I see the white-washed fronts of both of the greenhouses covered in murals painted by students of flowers, food, and sunshine, and I want a bright sign proclaiming this the Rosebud School Garden.

I envision raised beds of all different sizes and shapes built out of scrap wood bursting at the seams with produce. Lettuce, tomatoes, squash, maybe even kale, exploding out of soil fertilized with the compost we’re making now. Teepees of beans and peas will offer secret hideouts, while enterprising students can browse for strawberries along the garden edges. I even see the purple curly slide dissected to build planters full of flowers and herbs.

I want to use the old roof of the play structure to build a shed where we can safely lock up tools and gardening equipment, also decorated with student artwork. What is now an abandoned gravel site can become a wonderful place for students to learn about growing and eating healthy food, take class projects or simply enjoy during recess.

How exactly am I going to accomplish all of this, since the total number of volunteers I have on this project, including me, is one? Although there are some things I can’t do, like move the compost bins, there’s still a great deal I can accomplish on my own. Cleaning up the garbage makes it a little easier to envision a workspace. Tearing down the dead vines makes it possible to imagine vegetables growing here. Lining the site with something permanent makes a declaration, that “this land is committed to the garden.”