Common Ground High Schoolers get an Early Spring Start in the Ivy Street Garden

On Wednesday, March 2nd, first-year students from the Common Ground School joined NHS at the Ivy Street Garden in New Haven to help rake leaves, plant bulbs, and bring some life back to the garden!

We thank the students for all their help. View more photos of their hard work on our facebook page.

Solar Youth at The Ivy Street Garden

The Ivy Street Garden Welcomes Solar Youth

Connecting community groups is one of the Community Building & Organizing team’s favorite ways of contributing to New Haven’s neighborhoods. In Newhallville, we were able to introduce program coordinators and participants of Solar Youth, Inc. to the resident gardeners of the Ivy Street Community Garden. This introduction proved to be rewarding in many ways for everyone involved. The friendship provided welcome help and energy to the gardeners as they began to prepare the garden for new plantings, and gave the young Solar Youthers a space and opportunity to get their hands (and clothing) a little bit dirty. 

Throughout April and May, this particular Solar Youth crew, whose home base is located at King-Robinson Magnet School, walked over to the Ivy Street Community Garden to spend an hour and a half facilitating the garden’s upkeep. Along the way, students had a chance to learn about composting and healthy soil, planting seeds and seedlings, the purpose of a greenhouse, the nurturing process and working together to complete tasks. One occasion even allowed students an opportunity to work alongside two of Newhallville's beat cops. Time was also spent having engaging and fun conversations with the students. We learned that a great way to keep attention was to pass around a daisy as a pretend microphone to allow one speaker at a time. So clever! We’re so appreciative of the great work that Solar Youth does, all around New Haven. We look forward to continuing this collaboration!  

Lincoln-Bassett School Joins the Ivy Street Garden

In the Garden with Lincoln-Bassett School

CB&O staff, alongside Ivy Street gardeners, experienced one of the busiest volunteer events to date! On Tuesday, May 12 and Wednesday, May 13 we had the pleasure of hosting ten different classes of Lincoln-Bassett students, ranging from Kindergarten to 6^th grade. Teachers were a big help as we spent 45 minutes with each class, exploring various activities at the Ivy Street Garden. 

Students were able to rotate through four stations. The first was set up to have the students gather soil from the compost bin and fill up small seedling trays. At the next station students made use of the newly soiled trays and carefully planted carrots, peppers and tomatoes. Others were able to plant seeds directly into a raised bed that has been designated for school students. 

Another station allowed an opportunity for younger students to sit and enjoy story-time as we listened to the timeless tale of “Jack and the Beanstalk.” 

The third station gave older students a chance to show off their raking and teamwork skills as they worked in pairs to gather left-over leaves around the garden, bag them up, and carry the big bags over to the sidewalk curb. 

The fourth and final work station mobilized the students to run around the garden and pick up weeds. This station proved to be surprisingly exciting and fun for all of the students who loved the opportunity to find weeds all over the garden!

It was a pleasure to work alongside students and teachers of Lincoln-Bassett, and we hope to have another fun Day in the Garden again soon! 

 

Thank you to these participating classes: Ms. Stopka's 2nd grade class, Ms. Forsa's 2nd grade class, Ms. Perone's 1st grade class, Ms. Dumont's 3rd grade class, Ms. Clark's Kindergarten class, Ms. Petersen's 6th grade class, Ms. Liguz's 1st grade class, Ms. Slivinski's 1st grade class, Ms. Magalhaes' 5th grade class, and Mr. Messina's 5th grade class!