One thing to know about me is that I love cooking. I love the salty smell of sautéed kale on the stove. I love the sweet smell of the fresh cookies coming out of the oven. I love sharing my baked goods with everyone. So when I found out about the cookbook project, I was super excited. I immediately knew what recipe I wanted to publish in the book, and I really wanted to make it for the entire grade because it’s so delicious. It’s a classic in my family, and it’s an Italian pasta dish with pesto. I was enjoying this unit more and more each class. 

Now, it’s winter time and the garden has gone dormant. It’s around 20℉ each day, and going no higher than the high thirties. I anticipate the spring and the re-opening of the garden beds when we get to spend Academy Block outside. This project gave everyone in the grade a way to connect with each other in a familiar outdoor environment, but also try new things. I couldn’t think of a single person who hasn’t learned from building and keeping up the garden. 

Mrs.Yim

Malvern Chapters

1/26/18

My name is Sumant. I’m am an eighth grader at Malvern Prep. In the first half of the school year my grade and I started to create a garden. I did not know what to expect. In all honesty it is quite a mediocre garden idea. With some intuition, we made it unique. The basic build was a wooden box filled with soil. The first day was hectic. Nobody knew what would happen or how we would build. We built the wooden frame. Next time was my favorite. We filled up the boxes with soil. My friend Tyler and I would fill buckets with shovels and the other two in our group would walk it to the wooden box. It was hard work. It was nice though since Tyler and I manipulated the system and had the people walk the buckets all day while we hunted for soil. We claimed our land and mined it, or so we thought. It may have looked pretty ridiculous, but we thought it was pretty awesome. This went on for an hour and sparks flew. People wanted that soil. There was the massive soil shortage of ‘17. Only two boxes got full and mine was not one of them. I was desperate. Friends became enemies so I made a move. I stole a full bucket to increase productivity. In the midst of all chaos I snuck behind the enemy’s lines along with Tyler, stealing soil from the full garden. In the end only two boxes came out satisfied. After cleaning up our mess, we went home tired. This wasn’t the end of the soil obsession. We lived by one quote, soil is power. The teacher took my group prospecting for natural soil.  We were on a mission. Then we hit the jackpot. A pile of natural compost. We may have gotten distracted with using sticks as javelins and taking a hike to the malvern pond. We hiked to the pond. Then we saw some leftover bread in the pond. We started a minnow feeding frenzy. We ran back to our soil, and little by little, we used up all of it to fill the box leaving everyone else hungry for more. At this point the soil industry crashed. There was a new frontier to explore, lumber, pvc, and plastic covering. Me,Tyler and the original soil pioneers ventured to ancient ruins. The high school garden that had been built three years ago. It was overrun by weeds. We took what we could before the vines absorbed us. We made a second trip, and escaped victorious. We grabbed all the materials and covered the tops of the gardens with a frame and plastic covering. Winter is coming. We had run out of time to plant. We needed to clean up our tools. There was no hope, until a teacher found an old shed that was movable. We ran to carry it over, but what we saw terrified us. There was a mighty mouse  who had made the shed his home. We scared him off and the shed took twenty people to move. The shed was moved and renovated. The tools were put in the shed. We had finished our garden. It took eight classes. All in all it was an amazing project. 

When I think of the garden, my mind recounts numerous memories. When I learned I would be participating in creating a garden, I was a bit hesitant. I had no experience with a garden. I did not know how to sow seeds or tend to plants. However, I hoped to be proven wrong and have a great experience. 

On the first day of building the garden, I was paired with my friends Alex and John. I was very happy because both of those kids and I worked very well together. We first had to get supplies from the truck. John got the brittle wood from the truck, and Alex got the silver screws and screwdriver. I got the soil from the truck, and it was very heavy. We then measured the wood and put it out on the ground to make an outline of the box. We then took turns drilling the box together. Then, we filled the box with the moist soil. 

Another day, Travis and I were assigned to get hay from the hay stash. It was a very hard job, as the hay was very heavy. Travis told me how to properly carry a bale of hay, and we successfully got the hay back to the garden.

Also, I remember making a cover for the boxes with Marshall. It was a very fun experience but it was challenging at first to think of a good system. Marshall and I worked together to measure the plastic, white pipes and create a durable system to protect the plants during the winter cold. I was very happy that we could accomplish such a task.

Academy Block

Miss Sheets

1/26/18

Ryan

Our garden. Our garden created many vivid memories. I remember the first day we worked on the garden. Lawson, D’angelo, James, Aiden, and I measuring and cutting the work to make sure the measurements are correctly placed. When I first started drilling the wood, I could smell the burning as the nail went into the wood. I can remember the countless times that we wood rake the soil to make sure it was fresh. The drilling sound of the nail going into the wood was so loud it sounded as if I honked inside of a tunnel. I can remember when a couple of us guys tried to get the water for the plants, but we couldn’t move it. We had filled it up so much to the point where it felt like we were trying to pick up an elephant. We had to dump some out before tried to make another attempt to pick it up. We had eventually picked it up and realized that we had used the whole period just to move the water tank. Reading seedfolks before/after fixing up the garden made me realize that we connected to the book in many ways. The garden had connected us to become more of friends. People, like myself, are new to the school and created bonds even before sports or learning everything. I didn’t know that many people, but when we had worked on the garden, it made each other become closer and create a bond. The main point I took out of this is that the garden has the power to bring people closer. We may not have the same interests but we put that to the side and realized something. Although one may not like sports, or the other doesn’t like school, we had brung out personalities that people never even seen in themselves. So, the days got shorter, and the nights got colder, we slowing started shying away from the garden. We had realized that we planted too late. The crops could never withstand the temperatures that were on the way. We’d decided that it was best to not continue with the garden, and wait until the spring. The garden brought the personalities out that we can only see again until the spring. As I leave the campus everyday, I see the garden where we created happy memories, even though the nights are cold and we can no longer work in it. I can’t wait until we see the plants that we grow, and to feed people that are in need. But one thing will always stick with me. This was our garden. 

Mrs. Sheets

Carrier 1

1.26.18

                                                                    Chris Corrielus 

I never worked in a garden before so I did not know what to expect. Was working in the garden going to be fun or was it going to be exhausting, dirty, and boring? However, it turned out to be so much fun. The first time I went to the garden we had to build boxes of wood. I got to drill in the screws. Then I got to use a wheelbarrow to bring dirt into the boxes. That was really fun the next time we planted the plants there were so many plants some looked different and some look different. The most memorable time was when Jayln,Jack, Gabe and I had to get a tarp to cover the plants because it was getting cold and to protect the plants from animals. When we went to get the tarp we saw a mouse or that is what we think it was it was huge, fast and disgusting I screamed so loud I think that people could hear me from California and Jayln ran away. I was both startled and laughing. That was the first time I saw a wild rat or mouse whatever it was. 

Ms. Sheets

Academy Block

1/26/18

It was our first day starting the garden and I didn’t really know what to expect. I’ve never done anything like this before, planting a garden with many plants and many responsibilities. The first day we walked to the place where we were building the garden. We took all of the gardening supplies like shovels and wood to build the garden rectangles. This is when disaster struck. It was a race to build the garden rectangles. I was in a group with Connell, Zach, and Travis. The Chester County Food Bank taught us how to build the rectangles, but at this point that was in the rearview. We started in the lead putting in all of our pilot holes in the wood and we were ready for the next step. Then another problem came to light, the lady from The Chester County Food Bank said “This is not a race, don’t rush.” We agreed with her and kept the same pace as the class, until crunch time. When we were coming down to the final nails we couldn’t help but look at the other groups in front of us. My groups lackluster performance at nailing in nails made us fall behind. Then a hero arose, it was I. I realized that day that I was an above average hammer man. I brought our group back into the game, but sadly our late game push was not enough. We lost. Even though we lost we learned a lot about building a garden, and had fun. It was very exciting because it was the beginning of our 8th Grade Garden.

At first, I was hesitant about the garden. I had never been part of a garden before and I also doubted the outcome that the garden would produce. I worked with Cole and John to create one of the beds. It was a fun and interactive experience. We had to work together to remove the wood from the truck and bring it to our station. We then had to align the sides with the other sides. We took turns drilling holes and screws into the side to connect the 4 pieces of wood. Another day,  I fixed up the shed with Andrew and John. The old rickety shed was held together with old pieces of wood. We would later store supplies and tools in this newly formed shed. We removed the old wood and added new wood to the shed. Again, I would work alongside Cole. We filled the beds with soil and started to plants seeds. Putting the soil in the beds was a laborious and hard job. It took most of the class period to fill the 6 beds. This was the most laborious job. We planted radishes, lettuce, and broccoli. The radishes reminded me of a previous science experiment where we planted radishes in petri dishes. The garden was way different than this experiment. The experiment required no water and the radishes had a tiny space to grow. In the garden, the radishes had vast amounts of space to grow and lots of water. Throughout the whole process of building the garden we learned about gardens and growing. We learned about how community gardens can bring people of all different backgrounds together. We also learned about why gardening is important and how it can support low income families. Finally, we learned that gardening is important. It is important in many different aspects. Gardening removes stress and worry off of gardeners, produces happiness and positive emotions, brings people together, and helps the environment.

Even though the garden never produced food or any results,  I will always remember the memories from the garden. I will remember the teamwork and interaction with others required to create this garden and this fun experience. As the year closes, I hope the upcoming 8th graders will use this garden to their full advantage. I hope they will experience the same feelings that myself and my other classmates experienced. 

Miss Sheets

Academy Block

1/26/18

Tyler B.

It was our first day working on the garden at it turned out to be my favorite. Our task was too fill the wooden boxes with soil. I was put in a group with my friends Sumant, Travis and Gabe. We started filling the boxes by individually putting the soil in the bucket and than carrying it over and putting it in the box. We realized that this process was slow and not efficient. So we decided to come up with a new strategy, Sumant and I would fill the buckets and Travis and Gabe would carry the buckets to the wooden boxes and fill them. We started filling them up so quick but then disaster struck, the soil was almost out. All Chaos broke loose, people were scrambling to grab the remaining dirt to fill their boxes. My friend Sumant and I had to resort to the dishonorable deed of stealing . At the end only two wood boxes were victorious and sadly my box was not one of them. The garden group knew it needed more soil so it sent out a group of students to find more soil and I was part of the group. We found the soil but we got off track and fed some minnows but in the end we safely returned back to the garden with the soil. We were heroes, but the garden needed more. We needed a shack. So we went on a journey to a garden made in ancient times garden by the fearsome weeds and vines. We took a risk and grabbed the shack but what was inside frightened us all, A mouse!We scrambled away from the shed frightened but we regained our courage and narrowly managed to get the mouse out of the shed. It then took a total of fifteen men to lift the shed up and carry it back to the safe and sacred land of the garden. Another issue arrived, wildlife. We had to prepare for wildlife to come, so we got pvc pipes and built them up from the wood posts. We then covered up the posts with a netting which would protect the plants from any dear or other animals trying to eat the plants. Finally we felt our garden was ready so we planted our seeds and watched them grow up.

Mrs. Sheets 

Social Studies

1/26/17

Kody Kolar

We left the Mod Space, an went to the garden, I wasn't happy. We were given instructions and I knew it would be fun. My name is Kody Kolar, I am a middle schooler in 8th grade that lives in the Suburbs of Philadelphia. Malvern Prep introduced the 8th grade and me a project about building garden outside. Previously, I haven’t had that much of an experience with gardening.  I do have a small garden at my house, but it isn't that good and usually my dad takes care of the garden. When we started building the garden, we had to get all the wood for the garden beds we were building. We carried them in groups of two. The instructor showed us how to build the beds. It look somewhat challenging. Next, we got into groups of four and started lining up the wood to build the beds. It turned out that it was easier than we thought it would be.

Once we built them, class had ended and the first day of my gardening experience as not what I thought it would be. The next day we went out, the next thing we had to do for the garden was put in the soil. Everyone had different jobs. Some people were shoveling the soil into wheelbarrows, others were pushing the wheel barrows and dumping them into the beds, and some were flattening the soil so it would be good conditions for the seeds to sit in. After we used all of the soil, there were more beds to be filled and we didn't have enough soil. We had to wait two days for the next batch of soil. The next day we came back and finished putting the soil in. At this point, it was little better than I thought it would be, at first I thought this project would be really boring. So after we were done putting the soil in, We had to build the covers for the garden beds because winter was coming and the seeds would of died without the covers keeping the heat in. While some were building the covers with the pvc pipes, others were filling up a huge bucket for water, and others were building the shed to keep all of our garden supplies in. I was part of building the covers and it wasn't working at first, the pvc wasn't bending that well. Eventually we got it to work. That was the end of the preparation for the garden, when everyone worked together, it turned out to be pretty good. So basically, I went into the project, and i was like wow this is going to very boring, but now I think gardening is very interesting and I want to do this again. This project was a very cool experience for me. I hope to do this again sometime later in my life. Coming out of this project, I learned a lot. Now I know how to build a basic garden and how to plant things. Now, all I’m going to do is wait and see how the plants turn out. Now from now on, I will not judge a project before I actually start doing it. My garden experience was a great experience and very fun for me and others.

I have never gardened before and before this experience, I never wanted to. I always thought that gardens were for farmers and not for backyards or schools. One day at the end of school, a teacher came to my classmates and I and told us that we would be making a garden. At first I thought this garden was a bad idea and would not work. I thought to make a garden actually grow plants, you'd need to be a farmer. 

A couple days later, we headed out to a grassy area of campus, where we meet a lady who worked at the Chester County food bank. She told us that the food we’d be growing would be helping people who can't afford food. I was very excited to be able to help out the hungry. Next we all started to build our beds which would hold the plants. I had worked with wood and tools before so this was not very hard for me. My group had finished our bed and it was almost perfect. I was very proud of my accomplishment of building this bed and already was feeling connected to the garden. Since my group finished building our bed so quickly, we were able to help other groups build theirs. The whole grade was using a lot of teamwork to build these beds. We used teamwork again when we had to lay all of the soil in the beds. Everyone seemed to have a role and a place to be to help the garden get built. A couple of days later all the beds were built and filled with soil, it was time to plant the vegetables. 

The seeds were so tiny, and I was amazed at how such a tiny thing could impact someone's life. We planted the seeds and watered them. We watched them grow and become healthy plants. These plants would help so many people, and I was so happy to be apart of it. The whole grade showed teamwork and I learned that it takes a team to solve a problem. 

  

When we went into the garden for the first time, it was intriguing to see what the project what look like and how we were going to do it. We started off with a lady from the chester county food bank showing us how to build grow boxes. It was cool to see a bunch of pieces of wood turn into grow boxes. Everyone worked together to finish the grow boxes on time. We really came together to help each other. After we finished building the grow boxes, we put the soil in the grow boxes. This step was relatively easy compared to building the grow boxes, but we still had some struggles. This was a very messy step. We had a couple people with shovels loading each and every wheelbarrow. This step involved a lot of teamwork because we had to work as a team to fill the grown boxes as fast as we could. When I went into this garden I had no idea what to expect. I have never built a garden in my life, so I did not know if it was going to be hard, or easy. I think we all were really confused at the idea in the beginning, but we helped each other out. This was not only good for the community, but it brought us closer together, which is very important. After we put the soil in we had to plant the seeds and give them water. We had to adjust to the cold temperatures coming up in the winter, so we had to put plastic over the whole grow box because it would keep the heat in, this is called the greenhouse effect. One step that was really hard that no one expected was going to be hard so getting the water jug refilled. This was a challenging step because the jug was so heavy, and it was so hard to bring back to the garden spot. I think what made this project such a good one is that is was so new to each and every one of us. After we planted the seeds we just have to wait. This was a really fun and useful project because it can relate to real life skills. I definitely think we should do something like this again in the future.

 

Ms. Sheets

Academy

1/26/18

   Garden

I helped build a garden with my dad when I was 6 but, I wasn’t as big as I am now. I thought that garden would be a lot more interesting because I get to test my abilities building a garden. The project was hard at the beginning because no one had really build an official garden. I was a bit confused when we started building but then I found it fun playing with the soil and water. Kyle, Will and I were working together and we got the doors from the old garden and the water. We had so much fun getting the water that we spilled it. Kyle and I were holding the water and I slipped and all the water went on Kyle. Kyle had to go get changed and it made our job a lot harder but, we had a lot of fun with it.

The best part of the project was when we got to take the soil from the ground and put it in the wheelbarrow to take it to the garden area. We had fun doing this because we would often drop the soil and have to pick it back up. We dropped the soil in the road one time and I envisioned that a car would come and go right through all our soil. We had to pick up all the soil and put it in the garden area so we could plant the radishes. The radish seeds were small and we lost some of them. We ended up planting around 30 seeds and they grew pretty fast but, the snow killed most of the plants because it got below 32 degrees fahrenheit so they all froze. The garden was pretty fun to build but, the things that we did build did not last very long. I’m hoping we can do this again in the spring when it's warmer so we don’t kill all the plants.

 

Mrs.Sheets

Social studies 

Class 4

Marshall 

My first time in the garden was warm and sunny. Me and my brothers stood around and listened to the lady from chester county food bank. She told us what we were doing, and how to do it. We first took wood and lined it up in a rectangle. Then we drilled the wood together puting one nail in the bottom of the corner, and one nail in the top of the corner. Next we filled five rectangles to about one inch under the lip of the rectangles. The sixth and final rectangle we filled only half of it because we ran out of soil. The final thing we did was get the rain water barrel. This was a plastic barrel with the top slanting down to a hole for rain water to fill.

The next time I visited the garden we went on a search for more soil. We visited

the compost pile in search of soil. As a group we poked through the composed and dug under the newest layer of waste to find soil underneath. We found some decent soil but never brought it back to fill the final rectangle. After we searched for soil a group went to fill the rain water barrel. This proved to be a difficult task, and it took the group the whole period. One of the carts broke, and the water jugs were too heavy to carry from the trainers of face to the garden. They are about 200 feet apart. The curb was a large obstacle and that is what the group spent most of the time trying to navigate. When they returned the main group was plantin the first seeds . planting took the most time. It took about three classes. From there on out when we went to the garden we would water and work on the tool shed that was falling apart and leaking. Some students also constructed, and plastic sheet greenhouse so when the weather got cold the plants would still grow. The garden was constructed to late and no plants grew because of the weather, but hopefully future classes can use it to grow fresh produce.      

I never really was the gardening type. That is, until I finished my experience with my own garden at my school. I remember specifically going out to the garden and immediately my nose filled up with the smell of dirt, and wood. My expectations were low, and my excitement was possibly lower. The first thing I saw was one gigantic pile of dirt, and at least 6 wooden boxes. I saw power tools, but was disappointed to find out that my group wouldn’t do much building, instead I would be finishing up the build and placing in our soil. I was assigned to the box with the least progress and knew I would be doing some building. My group assigned was a fun one. It was myself, Henry, Colin and Matt. Of course, as soon as we got the tools, Colin decided to give it a shot. I remember specifically that the first time attempting to screw in a block of wood, Colin ended up failing miserably. It took him nearly 2 minutes to get a metal screw 1 inch into wood. From there on we nearly forbid Colin from using the drill again. This took me back to 6th grade when we were building grow boxes, and I had the same problem as Colin. Everytime I tried to screw something in it would either strip, go above my target or decided to not enter the wood at all. After a very long hour or so of building our box, we finally got to place our soil in our box. To our disappointment, by the time we got to use the soil, it was nearly all gone. Almost every grow box had been filled up, yet no one would share a wheelbarrow. So, we ended up filling half of our growbox up, and would have to leave the rest for next time. We returned inside and would have to wait about a week for the next visit to our growbox. 

Finally, to all of our joy a week has passed by and we would be ready to go out and return to our boxes for a second time. This time we would not be building our boxes but instead finishing filling them and later planting them. I worked again with my group, and we worked really hard to transfer the soil into our box. But this was the fun part, we got to dig small holes and place plants in the box. As time passed, we would watch our plants grow up into big plants. This time was much shorter, and once we planted our plants, we had to return back inside. The next few times were the same, we would water our plants, then return inside. But, one specific day stood out from the others. On this day, we had to carry a shed from one part of the campus to another. To our surprise, when we lifted it up a rat ran out and scared us all. After we carried to the other side, our adventurous day was nearly done, as we only had watering the plants left. After this event, we had one more visit to the garden and it was nothing special. We put a tarp like material around our boxes, and hoped they would survive the winter. After one last watering, we said goodbye to our boxes. Overall, this was an amazing experience, and one I wouldn’t think twice about doing again.

I don’t really enjoy plants or caring about how they are made. Vegetables were never important to me until i was in 6th grade. I started to like salad and ate salad everyday and sometimes is would be the only thing i ate after school. I loved all the dressing, the croutons, the tomatos, and the lettuce. Everything about the salad I loved. Then one day at school, in 8th grade, we started to grow lettuce.

My brother had started to grow lettuce a couple of months before the start of 8th grade, the summertime. He grew lettuce and watered it every single day. In didn’t look easy, adjusting to taking care of a plant, from taking care of dogs before. He says it is not fun or exciting but he says it is cool to take care of something that cannot live without him. This made me want to grow lettuce because my brother ended up making good lettuce. I looked like lettuce that you would buy at the market, green and bright yellow on the stem

In the first couple weeks of school, we started to grow lettuce, radishes, and other plants of our own. It was all going to a local food collection. It was fun the help make the garden because i had never been part of a garden before. This day my hands were covered in soil, dirt, scrapes, and bruises from all of the work. All of the plants and the lettuce turned out very well, and it was nice to see the good quality good food go to people who needed the food more than me

Tyler Lauder

Mrs.Sheets

1/26/18

Academy block

Tyler Lauder

In my experiences at malvern prep in the garden this year one of my favorite parts was when we were building the frame and my classmates and I all build it together with each person doing one thing. Doing this really made me feel like I belonged in the malvern prep communitie and that I could help other people in that community by building a frame in which we got grow food in. Another great experience that I had was that almost every time we went out to the garden me and Kody and Evan and Max and Adam would take the water barrel and fill it up so that we could water the plants, this made me realize that I was helping out the community by watering the growing plants so that other people in my community who were in need of food could eat those plants that we were growing. This also made me feel like I was more involved with the malvern community by using teamwork with all of my classmates.   

During my time working in the garden I have felt like I was apart of a community but, not just a cununity a malvern brotherhood community. It has made me and my classmates feel like we are doing something more than just growing food for a school project. We are not just growing food for our school either we are growing foods for our community. 

So all in all this has brought the 8th grade of malvern prep together through growing food and helping out the community.

 

 The next time we went out into the garden was on a cloudy day where a couple of my pals and I were assigned to go get the water barrel and to fill it up at millsy’s office. The thing about this being so difficult was not filling it up or bringing it there it was trying to get it back to the garden when it was filled up because it was heavy! So the one time use when my group was assigned to go get the barrel of water and it was quite difficult getting it. So one time when we were bringing the water back it fell off the trolley and it spilled throughout the whole street, and all over Roman luckily we still had half of it left and we got it up and we were able to water the plants. In conclusion, building a garden is fun  and all but building it with friends is much better than alone.

Mrs. Sheets

Social Studies

1/26/18

Aadi Sharma

I had never worked in a garden before. At first I had a hard time fitting in like most of my peers. I didn’t really know what to expect. But later when we started building the garden, I got use to the feel. I had many different roles during this project. It was Sumant, Charlie, Christian, Marshall and I who had worked as group to complete many challenges. The first day we had went outside and we started to build a wooden frame. We used screws, hammers and power drills to make the frame. The next day we tried to deposit the soil inside the frame. But we noticed that there was not enough soil, so my group went searching in the woods for some fresh soil. Luckily we have found some and it was just the right amount. Couple days later we started working on the plants. We started to plant Radishes, a couple days later we found of that the plants were growing. The weather was starting to get cold and we needed to cover the plants. So we had thought of an idea to cover them with a strong tarp. So we attached it to each side of the wooden frame, so we could still see part of the plant. Finally we were done we had got what we wanted and it was a very unique and adventurous experience. Overall building the garden reminded me of unity and how we all came together and worked.

Growing up in a small town allowed me to know a lot of people in my area. Going to a school in 6th grade that only had 30 kids in the grade gave me a close bond with a lot of people. With that close bond, we always did things together, including planting plants and making grow boxes. It was the first time in my life that I felt like I was making food for myself. It all really came to life when we harvested the peas the we had planted and made soup with them. Recently this year, planting the radishes really took me back the time. With all of my teammates collaborating the way that we did really reminded me of that time with the peas. With Jalyn grabbing the soil, Quinn getting the wood, and Will, Charlie and I planting the seeds, it was like a big conveyor belt. The only two things I didn’t know about were that weren’t planting the seeds in the ground, and I didn’t know who the food banks gave the food to. I really look forward to the final product that we will get in the spring. I look forward to seeing the fully flourished radish and lettuce plants. 

Ms. Sheets

History

1/16/18

Day 1: On the first day of building the garden people came from chester county food bank came out and helped us start our garden. The first thing that we did was make the box. The box was confusing at first but once I learned how to do it I had a good time. So the things that we had was get all the supplies out of the truck. Once we got into our groups we had too start building the box the lady from the chester county food bank did a model first. Building the garden was pretty fun because it was a nice way to share our brotherly love.

Day 2: the second time that we went out to the garden we had to get dirt. Me and my small group went back to the compose spot in the woods and we found some dirt. It was around halloween time and we were in the woods and all of sudden we see some pumpkins laying on the ground. I was kind of scared but we had some tools to protect ourselves so we we're getting the dirt is the woods but then we heard some animal. We went to check it out and then we realized it was just a squirrel. After that we continued to get dirt. Than somebody is my group hit a pumpkin with a shovel and than we put that into compost pile. The dirt that was is the pile was really nice and soft and good growing dirt because of its rich materials. We all thought this was the miracle grow that we find in home depot. After all we had a nice day at the garden that day and I couldn't wait until the next.

Day 3: It was finally another day too go to the garden and I really excited. It was my turn to go get the water for the seeds that we just planted. I was kind of bum because I knew that it wouldn't be as fun as getting dirt. So we put the barrel onto the cart and we wheeled it over to the hose in duffy we got the water. Once we started wheeling it over the barrel was really heavy and than one of the wheels fell off. I was pretty mad because all of the water fell over. So we reattached the wheel and got more water once we put the barrel on and we got back to the garde we had too put it on this haystack the barrel was really heavy and hard to lift up off the ground. I turned out too have a lot of fun at the garden and even getting the water. 

Another reason why I liked this project was because I knew that the food we grew was going towards a good cause. This project gave fresh vegetables to homeless shelters which they are often lacking. When we built the boxes for the vegetables I thought that it was very easy because I have done things like this before. One of my least favorite memories was when we had to lift the water jug onto the hay bail.  One of the better memories was when we made building the boxes into a competition to see who was the best at building the boxes.

Something else that we did was we carried a shed over from the highschool garden but it was surprisingly light. One thing that happened which was hilarious was when jalyn saw a mouse and screamed. After we carried the shed over we had to nail the door back on the front and get water for the plants. It made me feel accomplished to see the shed which we carried over and fixed. After the garden was finished it felt good to see what came out of all of our hard work.

Whenever our shift was finished and we would read seedfolks it felt good just to sit down and read. It was always fun to watch what the other group was doing and to see how much progress they made. One thing I did not like was when I was working on something and the other group would come and finish it up. I did not like this because I wanted to finish it and not leave it uncompleted. 

It was the first day of the garden and I was wondering what I would do. I got outside to the area where the garden would be built. I saw two faces that I had never seen before. Then Mr. Buscaglia started talking and introducing the two faces I had never seen. They were two women from the chester county food bank. They were here to help my classmates and me build the garden and plant our plants. All of us split up into six groups of five. My group consisted of Sam, Kyle, Jay, Charlie. 

Our first task was to make the bed for the plants. Sam and I were told to make the side of the bed. Jaylen, Kyle, and Charlie were in charge of making sure the sides were tight so that none of the soil would get out and spill. Once the bed was made it was time to put the soil in. Charlie and Kyle were in charge of putting the soil from the large pile in the wheelbarrow. Jaylen was in charge of bringing the soil to the bed, and Sam and I were in charge of spreading the dirt and making it even. The dirt smelled like manure. Sam and I were cringing from the smell. It took a long 45 minutes but it was done. My group finished first so I decided to help my friends finish their soil bed. Once everyone was finished we started to plant the seeds. My bed had radishes and lettuce. It did not take very long to put the seeds. It was towards the end of the period so we started to clean up. I had to take the extra soil and put it in the wheelbarrow. I had to pick the soil up when it got to a small amount. It fell through my fingers and got stuck in  my fingernails. I finally finished and was wiped. As I was walking back to the mod space, I pondered how close I got to my fellow classmates.

Growing up in a small town allowed me to know a lot of people in my area. Going to a school in 6th grade that only had 30 kids in the grade gave me a close bond with a lot of people. With that close bond, we always did things together, including planting plants and making grow boxes. It was the first time in my life that I felt like I was making food for myself. It all really came to life when we harvested the peas the we had planted and made soup with them. Recently this year, planting the radishes really took me back the time. With all of my teammates collaborating the way that we did really reminded me of that time with the peas. With Jalyn grabbing the soil, Quinn getting the wood, and Will, Charlie and I planting the seeds, it was like a big conveyor belt. The only two things I didn’t know about were that weren’t planting the seeds in the ground, and I didn’t know who the food banks gave the food to. I really look forward to the final product that we will get in the spring. I look forward to seeing the fully flourished radish and lettuce plants. 

Mrs. Sheets

Academy block

 1/26/18

                                                                 Jack

 Before the garden, I had zero experience with building anything and stuff like that.  I thought that I was only gonna plant plants, but I actually did other stuff like building the grow boxes and donating to Chester County food bank.  The group that I  was assigned was very hardworking and we finished early.  With help from Mr. Buscaglia, I was able to fully understand what I was supposed to be doing and Different techniques on how to Finish the build of the Grow box.  When my class started the Project It was a beautiful day and dress down. A lady who worked at a nearby Chester County food bank explained to us what our task was, and what was planting. 

 Then, we started the build which was very tough but manageable for our group. It took us a couple classes to finish the grow box and put soil in it. After a couple weeks of working to finish the grow box, it began to get really cold out.  This made it difficult for my me to work because my hands felt like they were gonna fall off, and I needed them !! Also, some of my group members did not come to school because of colds caused by the temperature. Although the conditions were tough I think we came together as one and finished the grow box.  This project definitely helped me become a better learner and,  a better partner. 

Mrs. Sheets

Academy Block

Due 1/31/18

Jack Davis Garden Experience

 The first time we visited the garden it was a sunny, fall day. Looking back on it, working on such a nice day was a luxury when compared to the weather we had ahead of us. When we arrived, all we saw was an empty patch of grass with some wood and tools. We all wondered how we would make this a garden. However, our questions were soon answered, as we broke up into brooks and started constructing small beds. By the end our session, we had finished about half of the beds. We were told that the groups coming in would finish anything we hadn’t. Even though we had a long road ahead of us, we were still enthusiastic. Our next visit was a couple days later. It was another nice, sunny day. When we arrived that day we were greeted very differently. A heap of moist soil almost as tall as me sat adjacent to the beds. It was very clear to us our job. We split into our groups and began to transport the fresh soil into the beds. That was easily the hardest session. Without a wheelbarrow. Our group had to rapidly transport soil with small buckets and then even it out. However, this session was also where we made the biggest impact. Once again, we finished about half of the necessary work. Our next visit did not come for a while, and many of us had forgotten about it. It was a cloudy day in the late fall. Contrary to the other sessions, everyone had a sweatshirt or quarter-zip. The jobs were mostly scattered this time. While most people did basic organization. Myself and 3 others were assigned the role around 4-5 wheelbarrows of soil from a patch 100 yards away to the beds. This was one of the most rewarding sessions. We worked extremely hard in the beginning, and in turn, were given the luxury of 20 minutes of time to relax. Out final visit came weeks later. It was freezing cold, and it was clear that this was our final shot at finishing. The goal was to cover ½ of the beds with a tarp and fortify the other beds with a plastic fence. On a nice day, this job would have been easy. However, on a cold day, the dexterity needed to zip tie was lost. Also, general building finesse was lost. However, we pushed through and were able to finish. We stepped back and looked at the result of our hard work. We were (and still are) confident that we built a fully functioning garden, but only time will tell. 

                                                                    D’Angelo

My time in the garden was a great experience for my Malvern brothers and I. We started out in academy block learning about the food banks in our area. I didn’t realise the severity of people who needed food and necessities to live. I realised that people that needed food didn’t just want cans. They wanted to live healthy just like us and many other people. We decided to create a garden with chester county food bank, and give all the food to them. A lady named Reina came in and helped us to build 6 boxes, build them with soil, and then to plant the seeds before winter came. The trask of building the boxes took about a day, and the next day to fill them with soil. It was great spending time with my brothers. We all were working together. In my group I was the driller. I would drill, Henry would hold the outer walls together, Joey would hold the inner walls, and it would all come together to make a great box. We kept doing this for a few hours and finally had completed it. We went home, and got ready for the next day of preparing. The next day, we started to put the soil in the box. This was hard work, and took a long time to fill up the box, because it was big. In the end, they box wasn’t even filled up all the way. So, then we had to go into the forest and dig up the soil, and then walk all the way back with the heavy wheelbarrow, to fill up the boxes. When the boxes were all finished, we were happy that all the work we had put in had come out with such great success. Next, we started to plant the seeds, we put many plants in each of the boxes, some being radishes, kale, lettuce, various spices, and many more greens. Now, we wait until spring so we can give the crops to the food bank. In conclusion, this garden helped me to become more of a malvern brother and a better person.

Mrs. sheets 

Section 2 

1/26/18

Quinn Dougherty 

In the mid-year of sixth grade, the class 0f  2022 made grow boxes. These were indoor systems that could grow plants for food. This helped out make growing fresh food from indoor your house where you don’t have a lot of space. Also these grow boxes help let food grow all year round so the food source will not stop. This is a very effective way for someone to spend less on buying food at a store, and to get healthy foods and knowing where they come from. This year we made an outside garden and we grew some vegetables. The plants that we grew were good in size, but they didn’t grow enough so we could harvest them before the first frost. That meant that we had to shut down the garden before the plants would die. It was very hard to see the garden go, just like the other garden. We all came to the garden to get things done, grow food for the other people, and along the way we learned things about each other. The things that we did weren’t for us, but for the people at the chester county food bank. I wouldn’t have thought that the people would want to eat the vegetables that these kids plant, but food is food no matter where it comes from and who harvests it. The seeds that were grown the best and had one of the best chances of surviving was the lettuce, the hedges stayed alive for one of the longest times, and it did look like it is going to be ripe, but it turns out it didn’t. In the spring, I am looking forward to having to plant more foods, and also to actually harvest plants through the spring and the summer. Also I hope that the plants can be given to the chester county food bank, and be enjoyed by all the people there. The garden is still continuing to grow today, and I hope that it still prospers in the future for the other classes that might embark on the journey that I have had.