KES students help grow garden; learn composting

Houlton Pioneer Times photograph/Gloria Austin
GROWING GARDEN — Ralph Vetter, garden coordinator, and students Serrennah Smith and Journey Guiggey stand in the Katahdin Elementary School garden. The garden produce is being grown by the students and used in the cafeteria.
By Gloria Austin
Staff Writer
    “Inch by inch and row by row, gonna make this garden grow” … the words and music of Dave Mallett ring through the halls of Katahdin Elementary School in Stacyville.
    Outside of their school is their very own vegetable garden.
    Known as the worm-wrangler, Ralph Vetter (Ed Tech and garden coordinator) started the garden during summer school, and the hard work is paying off as the students reap the harvest.
    “My long-range goal was to establish an organic garden,” said Vetter. “The vegetable crops we produce would be secondary to starting a composting system so we could start composting the mountains of food waste we generate here every year.”
    The garden literally was going to be planted for one student.
    “Our guidance counselor told me at the end of the school year she had a student interested in planting corn,” Vetter explained. “She asked if I knew a little bit about gardening and if I would be willing to work with this student during the summer school program.”
     As a matter of fact, Vetter does know his way around seeds and soil.
    “I do know quite a bit about gardening,” he said. “But, I got to thinking, this might be a ‘golden opportunity’ to change the philosophy and attitude at the school about composting and gardening. We could incorporate both so that not just one student could benefit, but the entire school.”
    Though it is still at the beginning of the school year, Vetter has composting buckets in place and students are aware of the composting and how it works with the garden.
    “We are trying to get everyone on board,” he said. “Each class will be receiving a compost bucket twice a week. When the kids have their snack, which is usually a fruit or vegetable, instead of throwing it in the garbage, it is going to be going into a compost bucket.”
    Elementary student Journey Guiggey said, “I’ve learned that when you have to take your lunch and you don’t like your veggies, put them into bucket and throw them in garden, then it will help the garden grow.”
    Vetter, along with children in the After-School program, will be collecting the waste in the compost buckets, as well as kitchen scraps from the cafeteria and adding that to the compost pile in the far end of the garden spot, which is a small plot behind the school.
    “Another thing we are starting to teach the kids is vermiculture, which is the cultivation and production of red worms,” explained Vetter.
    The Katahdin Elementary School garden compost area has over 1,000 worms in it.
    “I also have two indoor worm bins that I have been working on for several months,” added Vetter.
    Each classroom has the opportunity to adopt a worm farm for a month, while they are doing the composting project.
    “If  any of the classes are interested, I can go in and talk to the kids about the composting and about worms,” Vetter said. “Kids love worms.”
    The Katahdin Elementary School garden has everything from cabbage and tomatoes to pumpkins — most of the items grown in many local gardens.
    “The kids were really interested in the garden this summer during summer school program,” Vetter said. “I started the composting project and if I forgot to bring the green bucket down to the cafeteria. The kids were all asking ‘Where’s the compost bucket?’ We are really trying to get people thinking about how we can make a small change in what we do that can make a big impact on the environment and save fossil fuel, which is the main thing we are doing.”
    Gayle Glidden, head of the school cafeteria, is allowing the students to incorporate what they grow in the garden into the cafeteria.
    “Several heads of red cabbage were ready to pick,” said Vetter. “After they are picked, we deliver them to the cafeteria to go into our salad bar.”
    Vetter is thinking about expanding the garden spot.
    “When you grow a really healthy garden, it will start growing out of your garden,” said student Serrennah Smith.
    And, that is just what is happening to the students’ garden.