RUMFORD — To help teachers and other community members have successful gardens, whether at school or job sites, the Oxford County Cooperative Extension will offer School Gardening 101: A Garden Primer.

Preregistration is under way for the free five-week course that starts Feb. 29. Classes will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesdays at RSU 10’s Mountain Valley High School in Rumford.

“This course is for people who either run school garden classes or community gardens, so it’s helping them have successful gardens,” Barbara Murphy, extension educator, said Thursday in Paris.

Gardening success depends on a basic understanding of soil, pests and diseases, and crop choices. But school and community gardens face the additional challenge of volunteer management, fundraising and keeping the garden growing through summer, Murphy said.

“This is more for the nuts and bolts of getting schools and community gardens over the hurdles, like the real challenges of having a school or community garden,” she said.

“So it’s to help them understand those challenges and to work through them. It wouldn’t be for schoolchildren unless they’re coordinators of a garden.”

With school and community gardens becoming more prolific across the state, many schools see this class as an opportunity to give students hands-on growing experience while reinforcing math, science and nutrition concepts, she said.

Course participants don’t have to live in Oxford County.

“I can take lots of folks,” Murphy said. “The high school said we can go to a larger room if we need to.”

To preregister, which is required, contact the extension office at 743-6329 or email Lesley Quick at lesley.quick@maine.edu.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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