By Helene Welsing, Preschool Director
To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow” ~Audrey Hepburn
Our last study of the year is our Garden Study! We are lucky to have an enclosed garden (made possible through a grant from Lutheran Mission Support) on our outdoor classroom and playground with boxes that are just the right height for preschool gardeners! We cleaned out our garden beds, amended the soil, planned a garden, planted seeds and starter plants, and are looking forward to our harvest. We all worked together to be able to have a harvest of lettuce and herbs by the end of our school year.
Working on our garden is truly a school wide and community endeavor! One of our families, who owns Hartman Excavating, donated garden soil to refresh our garden. The students were able to move the soil by wheel barrows into the garden and build up the beds. Two more families pitched in to move the remaining soil into the garden and onto the bare spots on our lawn-now we are also growing grass and a beautiful garden! Some teachers brought in divided perennials to attract pollinators. Another teacher brought in her composting worms to illustrate “friends/helpers in the garden” while we studied beneficial and not so beneficial insects. We all took a field trip to our local family farm, Stokes Farm in old Tappan, where the two Farmer Ron’s showed us around their 150 year old farm so we could see how crops are grown in the field, lettuce is grown hydroponically in the green house, and get excited thinking about picking all of those strawberries! Thank you to everyone who made this year’s gardening study such a success.
Just as planting our school garden is an exercise in faith that our seeds and plants will bear fruit, running our preschool is also a labor of love for many individuals and organizations! We are truly providing a garden in which our future generations can learn, grow and thrive while experiencing God’s love and grace. We are blessed by the support of our pastor who is always on hand for wise counsel, problem solving (and even jumping in to spread mulch) , a congregation that supports and cheers us on, lifting us up in prayer, families who volunteer and pitch in most generously whenever we have a need, a volunteer preschool board that helps us steer the ship and organize our year and special events, subs who jump into action when we need them and teachers who go above and beyond their job descriptions. We are truly thankful for all the people that have helped our garden and our school grow, thrive and be fruitful, believing in tomorrow!
For more information about Prince of Peace Preschool, please visit princeofpeacenj.org, call 201 965-3354, or visit our fb page at Facebook.
