Community

Volunteers, Donations Needed For Wheeling Middle School Garden

WHEELING - Renewal and change is in the works for the student garden at Wheeling Middle School, which sustained much damage and loss during the flooding this spring in South Wheeling.

The former vegetable garden is being transitioned into a pollinator garden. And more volunteers are needed to make the garden bee-, butterfly- and student-ready before classes start this fall, explained Ohio County Education Association President Jenny Craig.

Volunteers are needed to help with such tasks as watering, weeding and mowing, she added.

"There have been a lot of challenges this year with the garden," Craig said. "The flooding, in particular, has been a big challenge."

Nearly all of the raised beds had some kind of damage attributed to the flooding, she explained.

"Some of the wood on our raised beds was broken, or completely swept away," Craig continued. "So we've had to purchase new lumber and make some repairs to them."

In addition to volunteers, donations also are needed as the school also lost many of its necessary items, including its lawn mower. A new lawn mower has been purchased, according to Craig.

Among the items needed are wheelbarrows, seating, garden decor, gloves and garden tools.

"With a small garden that just sustains itself on grants, it's been really hard to make sure we just replenish all of that," she said. "But we have it up and running.

"The kids and the staff worked very hard the last few weeks of school, but the weather wasn’t really cooperative either. And with all of the end of the year stuff that we have, all the state testing and the extra things we have, it was really hard to find time to work in the garden.

"But we got it done and we transitioned it from a vegetable garden to strictly a pollinator garden."

When there was a bounty to harvest, the vegetables grown in the garden were distributed to students and their families when school resumed in the fall.

But while the transition to a vegetable garden largely became necessary because of the flood, it had also become hard the past few summers for staff and volunteers to keep up with the garden when school wasn't in session, Craig explained.

Then there were the neighborhood groundhogs - really big, well-nourished ones - who feasted on the vegetables in the garden before the students and their families could pick them.

"It's been very hard the last two summers to care for the vegetables. They need more water, more weeding and more care," Craig said. "It's really about getting by with the volunteers and the help we have.

"But also we contend with all the local groundhogs. Despite our best efforts they can just scale the fence."

The staff and volunteers worked hard to maintain the garden, "but we really wouldn't get the yield we really wanted to give out to our families," she said.

"We just thought this was a much better use of the space, and a better direction to go. It will positively impact the environment, having lots of pollinators," Craig added. "We planted some milkweed this year, so we're hoping in a few seasons we'll see a lot of monarch butterflies - which we already have a good bit - visit our garden."

The garden is locked to the general public.

"We would love to have it accessible, but we do keep it locked," Craig explained. "Last summer, despite it being locked, we still had quite a few things stolen. We've lost our weedeater and our garden furniture. We've had shovels and things stolen.

"Unfortunately, we do have to keep it locked just to keep it preserved. But we do invite groups to come use the garden."

Keys to the garden gate will be given to "responsible adults," Craig said.

Those interested in volunteering or donating items should contact Craig at 304-280-6979.