CitySprouts’ Summer Gardeners: Green Team Session 1

Emaline Relyea-Strawn, Community Engagement Coordinator, TerraCorps Member

On Friday, July 24th, I walked into a packed room of excited and nervous youth, engaged in their finishing touches to their final projects, while parents and family members filed in. The room was full of evidence that this had been a rewarding and exciting first session of the CitySprouts’ summer program. Propagated plants lined the windows, painted clay plots lay waiting to be brought home, and dried garlic hung from the ceiling. And my personal favorite: a bowl of deliciously ripe, freshly harvested tomatoes and peppers sat, waiting to be eaten, at the end-of-year celebration. Summer programming was in full swing! 

CitySprouts’ first session is centered around the theme titled “Science of Gardening.” Youth explored aspects of successful gardens and plant growth: soil health, plant families and propagation, and food preservation were some of the many topics covered! 

This program allows youth to engage in these topics through hands-on gardening every morning, field trips, cooking projects, science experiments, and community members. It’s a special combination of learning in a classroom, learning from doing, and learning from those in the field: all while building relationships amongst the Green Team community itself! 

As I sat that Friday and watched youth present their projects, one parent expressed to me that her daughter had so much fun she didn’t want to miss a single day even though relatives were visiting! When the presentations concluded, youth eagerly brought family members out to the garden, giggling with friends on the way. It was evident that these youth had built for themselves a community where they could both have fun and engage passionately in the world of gardens, food, and science. 

This summer we have three locations, two in Cambridge and one in Boston. Youth visited local farms, learned about different ecosystems through a trip to the Blue Hills Reservation, kayaked on the Charles River, and more. As we transition into session two of the CitySprouts’ summer programming, youth will have the chance to zoom out more and focus on city green spaces at large. Stay tuned for updates! 

Interested in hearing more? Check out one of our recent blog posts about the summer program or head to our Summer Green Team page!