JAY — Spruce Mountain Middle School students joked and laughed as they dug their hands into potting soil in a wheelbarrow to fill Jiffy pots Tuesday afternoon in front of the school.
The next step was to plant cucumber seeds in the degradable pots and tomato seeds in small plastic pots in a tray. Cucumber plants do not like to have their roots disturbed, student coordinator Trevor Doiron said. Tomato plants are heartier and they can withstand being transplanted, he said.
In six to eight weeks students are hoping to plant them in a raised-bed garden on school grounds. Pitching in to help Doiron on Tuesday were fellow seventh-graders Nate Steele, Cameron Mitchell, Evelyn Castonguay and Mallory Doiron, and sixth-grader Allison Acritelli.
Doiron developed the idea to make the Tri-Town Community Gardens and donate the harvest to the Tri-Town Ministerial Food Cupboard. He made plans and sought grants to help support the project. So far, he has received $150 from Cabot Cheese and $100 from Franklin Savings Bank. That is enough to pay for about one bed.
“Our goal is $800,” Doiron said. In all, students want to plant four raised beds with the bounty from three of them benefiting the food cupboard and the last benefiting a garden for next year.
A tentative date to construct the beds is Saturday, May 19, Doiron said. Once the seeds were planted, they were to be taken to the greenhouse attached to the school.
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