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It's the great pumpkin, Natoma Station
A simple act grew into a far bigger lesson than these students at Natoma Station could have bargained far.
Ted Bosque, the school’s principal, purchased pumpkin seeds for the school’s garden more than a year ago. The school’s Green Team, made up of intermediate students who take care of the garden and learn about agriculture, decided to plant just one and see what happened.
Planting the seed last April was quite the occasion. The school’s Green Team passed it around and each student made a wish before putting it in the ground.
Over the summer, the pumpkin steadily grew. Every week, a family from the community came in to take care of the pumpkin and the other plants in the garden. When the new school year began, the pumpkin was already the size of a volleyball – and it kept growing from there.
By the time it was picked in October, it weighed around 100 pounds.
Soon, it became a campus centerpiece, with Natoma Station’s logo carved into it. At the end of the month, the pumpkin was raffled off so the winner could have the spirited pumpkin in time for Halloween.
It’s just one of many examples of how the school’s garden keeps kids engaged on campus. Many classes use the space to learn about bugs, plants, and agriculture. The students explore how the garden works and watch many plants grow throughout the year.
“[The students] see a living garden,” Bosque said.
The grant-funded garden was built several years ago, and it quickly became a community effort as families volunteered their time and services to make it the best it could be.
The garden is self-sustaining. Students in every class plant seeds and let them grow. When they’re big enough, the seeds are either planted in the garden or sold to people in the community to transplant into their own gardens.