This spring, kindergartners from the Harvard Kent Elementary School teamed up for their first full year of gardening with the Gardens for Charlestown ‘Tend and Tell’ program.
Kindergartners from the school used a science curriculum in the classroom to learn about plants, and then joined Cathy Shanks of the Garden’s Tend and Tell program to grow peas, beets and so many more fun things.
“Tend and Tell started a couple of years ago and it’s the Garden’s educational umbrella,” said Shanks. “We’ve don a few classes for adults, but this was the first full, organized year for the Harvard Kent kindergartners.”
In 2014, the Garden started Tend & Tell. It’s goals are to create more educational opportunities and raise the visibility of the organization as a resource for both the Charlestown neighborhood as well as the urban gardening community. Initial funding included grants from the Charlestown Neighborhood Council Spaulding Mitigation Fund, New England Grass Roots Environmental Fund and additional private donations. Some of this was put to the “tending”, in small improvements in the irrigation and soil of our border gardens as well new plants which satisfied one or more of the following criteria: native plants, plants with multi-season interest, plants which attract beneficial wildlife and plants with a practical purpose such as aromatics or edibles. We also built an information board where free handouts on garden topics are available to all visitors. This piece crosses over to the “tell” element of Tend & Tell, which is education.
The program has offered free