It took a team effort to turn Boyce Middle School’s courtyard, which the principal described as a “jungle,” into a garden complete with raised beds for vegetables and fruits, flowers and butterfly bushes.
The transformation occurred over the summer, thanks to the efforts of four girls from Girl Scout Troop 53680, school nurse Holly Fisher, and student and parent volunteers.
The scouts are Olivia Cuba, Kate Robbins, Anna McElligott and Kara Fisher. The four, who now are freshmen at Upper St. Clair High School, all attended Boyce Middle School last year and used the garden project to earn their Silver Award, which is the highest award a Girl Scout Cadette can earn.
Ms. Fisher helped lead the project, which cost about $2,000. It was funded by the Upper St. Clair School District, the Boyce Parent Teacher Organization and the Girl Scouts.
“We’ve been talking about it for about three years,” Boyce Middle School Principal Dan O’Rourke said about turning the school’s courtyard into a garden.
“As soon as we started working together — that’s when it came together,” he said of the team effort it took to get the garden finished.
Mr. O’Rourke said the school’s landscape company cleared out the majority of the garden, and on one hot summer day, the Girl Scouts, along with Ms. Fisher and student and parent volunteers, transformed the “jungle” into a garden.
“It’s a passion of mine,” Ms. Fisher said of helping kids learn about gardening and growing healthy food. “I truly think to take care of kids at school you have to have a whole wellness approach.”
Now growing in the garden are tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins and flowers. The students also planted strawberries earlier in the summer.
Olivia said she’s surprised at how well the vegetables they planted over the summer are doing. “I didn’t think a lot was going to grow,” she said.
Also incorporated into the courtyard is a rock garden started last year by Boyce Student Council, in which sixth grade students wrote their names and graduation year on rocks.
Mr. O’Rourke said he would like to incorporate the garden space into the curriculum as sixth graders focus on plants as part of their science class and, in the future, possibly have students in family and consumer science classes utilize the garden.
“It’s about having another learning spot,” Mr. O’Rourke said.
“I’m excited for all the kids there because the teachers want to incorporate it into their learning,” Kara said.
Kate added, “I would have liked to have it when I was in middle school.”
She said her brother now attends Boyce, and she’s happy he will get to enjoy the new courtyard.
Mr. O’Rourke said there are plans to expand the garden next year by growing herbs and installing trellises to grow things like beans, and possibly adding window boxes. There’s also an unused fountain at the center of the courtyard that will either be fixed or filled in with dirt to be used as another raised garden bed.
The garden will be maintained by a student club at Boyce.
Deana Carpenter, freelance writer: suburbanliving@post-gazette.com.
First Published: September 26, 2019, 5:32 p.m.
