Community Corner
Teens Tend Somerville Growing Center, Schoolyard Gardens
A summer jobs program introduces teenagers to gardening, farmers markets, cycling in the city and eating healthy at home.
Patch Whiz Kids of the Week: The Urban Ag Crew, part of Groundwork Somerville's Green Team.
Schools: Full Circle Alternative High School, Prospect Hill Academy Charter School, St. Clement High School.
Accomplishment: The group of 14- to 18-year-old city kids has learned to build and maintain a garden, navigate the streets by bike, as well as beautify and feed their community.
Find out what's happening in Somervillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
How they do it: Three days a week, the group tends the plants at the Somerville Community Growing Center and the gardens at the city's public schools. They pull weeds, water beds, harvest plants and later sell them at the Saturday Union Square Farmers Market.
On a recent afternoon, the group arrived by bike to the Argenziano elementary school's garden, which looked "dry and dead," as one member described it.
Find out what's happening in Somervillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Still, the garden contained a medley of fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers, including garlic scapes, rainbow chard, raspberries and lavender.
The group walked through the beds on burlap sacks, and soon enough, Shelia Harris, 17, started looking for caterpillars. Harris, a student at Full Circle Alternative High, said she's been gardening since her middle school years at East Somerville Community School.
"Every since I was really young," Harris said, "I'd be outside in the dirt looking for crawling things. I'm made to be a gardener."
Meanwhile, Joas Lormil, 16, was soaking the soil. The Prospect Hill Academy student said he enjoyed working with his hands to improve the appearance of the Argenziano School and generally doing community service.
"I wanted to get a job where I felt comfortable and where I could impact people," he said.
A few beds over, Wilson Cardona, 16, pulled weeds and tossed them under the burlap sacks to decompose and rejuvenate the soil. Also a Prospect Hill student, Cardona said he enjoyed digging in the dirt and harvesting the crops.
Further, he said volunteering at the Union Square Farmers Market prompted him to talk to his family about buying more locally-grown food.
"It makes me think about how we get the same things at the supermarket," he said. "But here it's so much better."
