The Johnson Park garden is a courtyard garden, seen by all who enter the school’s main entrance. The Garden Club, JP’s garden program, is held twice a week during recess hours – children are invited to visit the garden during that time.
The garden’s main focus this spring was the JP Salsa Project, in which each grade was responsible for growing seedlings for a different ingredient to be used in salsa. The seedlings were grown indoors beginning in February, and transplanted in the spring. Two varieties of tomatoes along with jalapeno peppers, cilantro and spring onions were planted and are currently thriving in the garden. The produce will be harvested over the summer, made into salsa and then canned. Students and their families will get a chance to taste their final product at the school’s fall picnic.
Another highlight from this spring was the kindergarten project: The youngest students in the school planted rose geraniums and harvested the leaves for the bent spoon. At the end of the school year, they enjoyed an ice cream party in the garden. For more on this exciting project:
Princeton Patch: Kindergartners team-up with the Bent Spoon to make ice cream
Town Topics coverage
Also growing in the Johnson Park garden this summer are pole beans, swiss chard, carrots, peas, pumpkins, squash, lettuce, radishes, corn, strawberries, watermelon, potatoes, sunflowers and various herbs. Parent volunteers are tending the garden two or three times a week. Food that is harvested is being preserved – frozen, dried or canned – for the fall picnic.
— Contibuted by Tory Hamilton, Elizabeth White and Tina van der Scharr