Convergence: 2013 Year End Report

This fall we found the papilio polyxenes that becomes the Black Swallowtail Butterfly.

Converge: to move toward one point and join together: to come together and meet. [www.merriam-webster.com]

What do you call it when things come together?  What makes a garden work and prosper?  These are questions I’m dwelling on as I reflect on our Environmental Affairs Club and activities surrounding The Clinton Garden in this year-end report.  We’ve been able to meet many of our ambitious goals announced this past summer.  But how can I explain how we were able to do this?  

Convergence is a term that comes to mind when I need to explain that magical feeling of being in the right place at the right time with others there to help.  It is this joining together in a united cause that has thrilled me since I can remember.  As I think back to the numerous activities and events that have happened this past fall the term reminds me that success is always a combined effort.  And while it is essential that people come together to make a school garden happen, the coming together must also happen at the right time.  Success is therefore a coordinated effort!  I hope that the following examples illustrate how we managed to converge this past year to help improve the soil, the health, the nutrition, and the appearance of DeWitt Clinton Campus! 

Convergence # 1 The Clinton Garden becomes an Official Compost Demonstration Site

The sign makes it official! Left to right Richard Perez, Shahana Suma, Junior Shouten of New York City Compost Project, Hirra Zafar, Maribel Vitagliani, Ray Pultinas, Ngoc Tran, Francisco Pizarro, Myranda Ramos, Ghislain Cohen and Mike Zamm of Grow NYC.  

On September 26, 2013, The Clinton Garden was honored to become an official demonstration site through the New York City Compost Project. Our first demonstration was a Compost Made Easy Workshop. Twenty-six students and community members, New York Compost Project in the Bronx team leaders Jodie Colon and Junior Schouten along with several Master Composters in training and The Riverdale Press converged in the garden to see how our compost operation is maintained and to educate each other about the basic fundamentals of composting.

After some tool safety instructions from Ray Pultinas, Tiffany was ready to use loppers to cut up and break down some of the bigger sticks to enable faster decomposition.  

From a sustainability perspective, composting redistributes organic waste into essential nourishment for the landscape and the human body and spirit.  It is a recycling of the material upon which our living bodies function that would otherwise be wasted in putrid landfills. Because it involves a process of decomposition in which countless macro and microorganisms, fungi, and bacteria are invited to participate, it is a communal digestion of discarded organic matter for the sake of our mutual well-being. There is no future without composting.  We can only improve our methods and our outreach so that no organic waste is wasted. 

Hirra and Mr. Pultinas demonstrate what to do when you have compost - sift it!

Composting happens naturally.  Throw an apple core into the bushes and it will be broken down by a variety of organisms and reenter the soil.  Some of it will be picked at by birds and insects, some of it will be overtaken by the bacteria on the apple itself and some of it will interact with the organisms present in the soil.  Some of it may dry up and be blown by the wind, but inevitably it will be broken down into increasingly smaller pieces containing nutrients that will become available to plants. 

Our Compost Made Easy Workshop included work with our worm bins.  Worms are fascinating!

Humans can augment this natural process by creating the conditions whereby decomposition occurs more rapidly. We're fortunate to be able to compost at DeWitt Clinton High School and contribute to this vital and basic natural process. 

Convergence # 2 Fall Harvest Events

Richard Perez, Ngoc Tran, Hirra Zafar, Maribel Vitagliani, Ghislain Cohen and Shahana Suma bask in the sun that helped make food for all of us!  

We named October Harvest Celebration Month with good reason.  The Environmental Affairs Club had events happening throughout the month and extending into November. 

We harvested a record amount of produce.  In total we harvested at least 155.5 lbs. of food during this second part of our growing season from July through November.  Our highest yielding crops were tomatoes (52 lbs.), kale (48 lbs.), cucumbers (17 lbs.) and parsley (16.5 lbs.).   

We collaborated with GrowNYC’s Greenmarket to host two harvest sales.  During our sales in October and again in November we sold $1,430 of fresh local vegetables to the DeWitt Clinton community.  Some of it was grown in our own garden!  We made close to $600 profit on these sales that will go towards our annual overnight trip.  

We partnered with Grow to Learn's Garden to Café to help prepare two meals served in our school cafeteria.  

Garden to Cafe Chef George Edward's created kale chips with pesto dipping sauce and Roasted  Eggplant Salad from our own veggies.  In November, his sweet potato fries were also a hit! 

We also set up a sample display of our harvest and gave out recruitment forms and kale chips out during Teacher Parent Conferences. We participated in the Big Apple Crunch (see Convergence # 3). Finally, we hosted a Bronx Green-Up event to divide our native plants and extend our native plant garden. 

Hirra, Jasely and Ghislain brave the chill of early November to divide native perennials and help prepare our raised beds for winter.

Andrew helped plant winter rye as a cover crop to keep beds happy.

Sara Katz of Bronx Green Up made plant dividing seen very easy.

In each of these events our EAC students converged and planned and enacted the kind of leadership at just the right time in order to help grow, harvest, and distribute food for our community and take care of The Clinton Garden.  

Convergence # 3 Big Apple Crunch

 Apples for the taking at Big Apple Crunch.

October ended with a crunch!  A Big Apple Crunch that is. Back in September we had been invited by Mike Zamm to participate in the Grow NYC sponsored city-wide event called The Big Apple Crunch as part of our Fall Harvest Celebration month of October.  The idea was to get millions of New Yorkers to bite into an apple at the very same time.

Our Principal, Santi, brought his considerable presence to the event.

Less than 24 hours before the designated 12 o'clock noon bite-time on October 24 I was in my weekly meeting with Susanna Banks, the new Montefiore Medical Center's Community Health Organizer. I finally shared the idea of Big Apple Crunch and Susanna suggested that we just try it.  We marched down to Santi's office and he happened to be available and we pitched the idea to him.  He gave a tentative agreement to come down the next day to lend his support even though it was during a cabinet meeting.  But our minds were already “made up.” We would do our Big Apple Crunch ceremony after all in the student cafeteria!

The moment finally arrives!

The next day when 5th period rolled around Susanna and I got right to work. We secured the loudspeaker from Mr. Dubin's office, wheeled it past Mr. Jackson's office to enlist his help setting up this formidable transformer-like microphone and speaker system. We were to meet up at 11:50 with EAC President Marii Vitagliani who had just persuaded Andrew, a bass player, to play the marching drums!  This is what I mean about convergence.  Think about it; Ms. Banks, Mr. Jackson, Mr. Dubin, Mr. Zamm, Santi, Marii, Andrew and still others came together at the right time to make something happen.

We checked in the kitchen and saw that Ms. Peterkin and Chef Larry had already set out five trays of delicious looking apples on a cart. We pushed them to the spot where Chris Jackson had finished assembling the loudspeaker just as Marii and Andrew arrived.   Andrew started to bang away and I got on the mike to encourage students to grab an apple, and sure enough, about 3 minutes before noon, in comes Santi with the entire cabinet of assistant principals.  The moment, 12 o’clock nears and there is genuine excitement and I'm especially happy that everything just fell into place.  Convergence!

Where there's a crowd, there's a way!

As Andrew set the beat and the students chewed down their apples we were treated to an unplanned, spontaneous and fully improvised apple dance performance. 

Nothing could beat the Apple Dance!

Convergence doesn't just invite participation!  Convergence is participation!

Convergence # 4 The Osborne Association donates and installs a new green house for The Clinton Garden.

Some of the crew from Osborne Association that built our new greenhouse in just two days.

Ursula Chance and Sara Katz, the horticulturalists at Bronx Green-Up, first contacted me about the possibility of our garden receiving a green house for free. This was easy, I thought to myself, all I have to do is nothing!  

I have learned that once a garden is started, the rest comes easy and things start to happen even if we do nothing.  Let me try to explain. First, we succeeded in setting aside a disregarded piece of land and began to grow and nurture plants.  Sure, we invested some hard labor and good intentions but over time we began to establish a successful garden.  For the birds, the squirrels, and the butterflies and countless other creatures, of course, the garden became an opportunity from the very start.  And just as birds, and bees, and plants - wild and the domesticated - have converged on our garden so too have opportunities arrived to keep our garden growing as a resource for our community and our school.  And here is where the Osborne Association fits in. 

Our new greenhouse promises to extend our growing season by allowing us to get started earlier in the spring and keep going later into the autumn.  

The Osborne Association is a non-profit organization that offers young people who have had conflict with the law opportunities and programs to help transform their lives. Sara and Ursula recommended us and The Clinton Garden as a site for a community benefit project that would also provide on the job skills training for its members.  We were delighted to be chosen and working with Team Leader Barbara Marengo, Instructor Alvin Banks, community volunteers like Mike Young and the entire crew of young people who converged on our garden for two days this fall. 

One young man told me he was a former student of mine who I could not remember because he was a truant and said he would get into trouble rather than go to class. The Osborne Association provided him the opportunity to return to his community for a second chance, a chance to be positive and help give back to a place he knew and I believe still cherishes. 

Convergence # 5 Beginning our Recycling Campaign

Our Green Team assembled, ready for action, poised to be Champions!  From left to right: Teacher and EAC advisor Ray Pultinas, Shahana Suma, Edison Sanchez, Ghislain Cohen, Catherine Cabrera, Cristeen Sathu, EAC Vice-President Hirra Zafar, Theodore Silver, EAC President Maribel Vitagliani, Deborah Agosto, Myranda Ramos, Francisco Pizarro, Grow NYC Environmental Educator and EAC Advisor Mike Zamm.  

Now to work towards the next and biggest convergence of all – improving recycling in our school! We are planning to make DeWitt Clinton a school that cares enough about the environment and the planet to become Bronx Recycling Champions.  We need to do a much better job than we presently do at recycling. Our goal is to double our recycling of paper waste for the entire building and begin recycling in our school's cafeteria.  Perhaps we can place some faith in the fact that we have already accomplished so much and a new year is just beginning.  

And while our garden quietly fills up with snow...

We know that the Black Swallowtail Butterfly will return in the Spring!

Please share your comments

The School That Food Saved

I’ve recently finished reading and discussing Bob Hewitt’s The Town That Food Saved (2009) with a book group I belong to. Hewitt writes an honest and reflective profile of a group of a dozen or so men and women whose synergistic efforts help transform the once depressed town of Hardwick, Vermont into a healthier and more vital community full of not only good economic opportunities in hard times but good local food. As I reflect back on a historic meeting that took place at the Clinton Garden earlier this summer, I can’t help but dream of a day in the future when we might similarly declare that our own DeWitt Clinton High School was saved by food.  

How can food save us? 


I believe that food and what we do with it and how we think about it are at the very heart of sustainable practice. By eating the right kind of food in the right amounts (as well as the proper exercise) we keep our bodies healthy and vital – a precondition for all other sustainable practices to follow. In order to eat the right food, however we must trust its source and know where it comes from, where and how it was grown. Was it produced at the expense of the further deterioration of the earth? Was it treated with chemicals that could harm our bodies?  If it was, this kind of food will ultimately not save us.  For food to be sustainable it must be produced sustainably and that means produced outside of the industrialized factory food system.  Of course I realize that our garden itself cannot feed the entire population of students on our campus (at least not yet) but our garden can serve as a model for how food can be grown with sustainable practices that do not compromise its quality and nutrition.  In terms of our scale, we can do in the garden what we as part of a public institution of learning should do, educate our students about the sustainable practices that will ultimately save us.  These to me are the core issues of our time and must be reflected by what are bound to become the core standards of our time.  And it all began in the garden.



July 19, 2013 was an absolutely scorching day of 100° temperature and high humidity; nevertheless, a team of professionals and students from the Environmental Affairs Club gathered at the Clinton Garden to discuss how we might work together towards a more sustainable DeWitt Clinton High School. I called the meeting as the school’s new sustainability coordinator because I had a sense of the enormous task ahead of us and I wanted to begin to gather a team willing to continue their service and support to our school as consultants and allies in an effort to make sustainability a community practice at our school.  My thinking is that this is not a job for any one person, not even for any one group or for that matter, any one school. To succeed we must all make a united effort as we help each other prepare for and adapt to a rapidly changing planet. I think that the fact that a team assembled despite the discomfort of the high temperature is an indication of the dedication each of us have in making a difference. Perhaps these individuals and groups will comprise the "collective efficacy" necessary to make our DeWitt Clinton campus a model of sustainability in high schools across and beyond the city.  

Pictured standing from left: Bronx Collaborative High School founder and principal Brett Schneider; Director of the Environmental Education Program at GrowNYC Mike Zamm; Farm Educator at The Battery Conservancy Anna Scott Ellis, Director of the Citywide School Garden Initiative at Grow to Learn NYC Julianne Schrader; DeWitt Clinton High School English Teacher, Gardener and Sustainability Coordinator Raymond Pultinas, Coordinator of Garden to Café (GrowNYC) George Edwards; Compost Educator and Project Manager of the NYC Compost Project in the Bronx, Jodie Colón; School Garden Community Liaison for Grow to Learn NYC Matt Mili; World View High School Principal Daniel Nichols; DeWitt Clinton High School Assistant Principal Margaret Glendis and DeWitt Clinton High School Principal Santiago Taveras.  Sitting from left to right, Environmental Affairs Club students from DeWitt Clinton High School: Catherine Cobrera, Tiffany Mfoafo, Sarah Rivera, and Maribel Vitagliani.  Missing from picture: School Garden Advocacy Group Leader Michele Israel.

This is my 3^rd year as advisor of DeWitt Clinton High School's Environmental Affairs Club and I see the club playing an increasingly vital role at our school and in our world. I am committed this year to making the EAC a force in our school’s current transformation.  We must also continue to work together to bring awareness to our fellow students of our environmental crisis and inspire an active response to the environmental problems in and out of our school. In this era of global warming and diminishing resources amidst overwhelming evidence of mankind’s disregard for the planet in its pursuit of technical progress and self-serving power and wealth, there is, in my opinion, no greater cause than the environment.  What is at stake is the very air, water, earth and energy that sustains our life.  As our school’s sustainability coordinator I am especially interested in expanding the club’s influence in terms of recycling.   

With this in mind, I am proposing the following goals for the 2013/2014 school year:

1. To continue to maintain and grow the Clinton Garden

The garden has become the heart, soul and nourishment of our club.  It can become the site of a core curriculum of eco-literacy in our school because we have demonstrated through our hard work and commitment how a space in the school can thrive even when the school itself is teetering.  The garden embodies the values of  sustainability namely careful observation, thoughtful attention, mindfulness, patience, caring, respect, health and well being.

2. Develop an extensive plan for the garden expansion.

This includes use of permaculture principles and practices to grow fruit starting this spring.  Blueberries, raspberries, grapes, gooseberries, strawberries and other fruit bushes will be planted along with native plants that are already flourishing in our garden.  Additionally, planting annuals like tomatoes and squash will help transform The Clinton Garden into an edible forest.  We are also going to pursue the idea of a fruit tree orchard on the West side of the gym building.  What we still need are plans for student seating and an outdoor classroom space so that we can eventually make the garden a site of interdisciplinary learning.

3. Expand our composting stream to include collection and composting of cafeteria vegetable prep scraps.

Currently we have three methods for making compost.  We have a three bin compost bin that EAC students built themselves and this is for composting garden waste. We have a tumbler for recycling vegetable scraps from the kitchen and we have several worm bins that also compost vegetable kitchen scraps. If anything has helped make our garden prosper it is the soil.  We have never used any inorganic fertilizers or chemicals.  The healthy food we grow comes from the way we feed the soil with compost.  We currently have the capacity to compost our cafeteria's vegetable prep scraps.

4. Double our school’s recycling of paper waste and finally educate students to comply with mandates and laws requiring the separation of recyclables. 

Our goal in this regard is to become recognized as recycling champions who will educate fellow students about our obligations to be responsible for our school waste.  We will work with Grow NYC's Bronx Outreach Coordinator for the Recycling Champions Program Ifeoma Nwoke on projects to educate our students.  Our obligation is to save, reduce, recycle, upcycle, reuse as well as practice other habits of caring for our school and our environment.   

5. Recruit students from throughout the Clinton campus regardless of grade, level, track or school.

To accomplish our many goals we need more positive student power.  We need to recruit students who have a passion for the environment and not just a passion to socialize.  We need student action and this will only come with greater numbers of active members.  

6. Inspire environmental awareness presentations for fellow club members and active participation in events throughout the Borough and City.

We need to consider ourselves a work group involved in educating each other during club meetings about relevant environmental issues that affect our lives.  In addition we need to inspire participation not only in our own club sponsored events but in events sponsored by our allies like GrowNYC, Friends of Van Cortlandt Park,  Bronx Green-Up, Greenthumb, Bronx River Alliance, and Bronx Council of Environmental Quality and others.

7.  Raise funds and write grants to support and expand the garden and for our annual EAC overnight trip.

Since the spring of 2010 we have raised at least $10,000 for the garden through grants and generous donations.  For over ten years we have done an overnight trip.  Last spring ten members of the EAC went to Hawthorne Valley Farm, a working, biodynamic farm with an awesome learning center.  We need to continue to raise money for our garden expansion and our club's activities and trips.

8. Plan our next Harvest Celebration event on October 3 that will include a Garden to Café prepared meal for students using vegetables from our own garden and a greenmarket for faculty and students.

Though we can't feed everyone from the garden we can provide a meal for our students and we could also sell locally grown and purchased vegetables for our community.  This year, our Harvest Celebration will be held on October 3 and negotiations are under way to have this be our Harvest Sale Day as well.  Perhaps we could also provide guided tours of The Clinton Garden.

9. Plan to participate in the Big Apple Crunch on October 24^th.

What will it sound like if everyone in our building bit into a fresh apple at noon on October 24th?  Let's participate in this activity.

10.  Certify our garden with the National Wildlife Federation as a Schoolyard Habitat. 

We have witnessed countless varieties of butterflies, goldfinches the color of canaries and hummingbirds in our garden.  We need to provide these and other creatures a safe haven in our busy world.

11. Continue to think Big, think critically, and anticipate unintended consequences and contingencies.

I guess that's my problem.  I like to think big.  I haven't shared half of my ideas, but with our new administration in place and with the assurance that change is on the way, who knows how far we can go?  I intend that this blog will document our progress on these and additional goals that surface along the way.

Paid in Kale

Last Thursday, July 25, Marii of the EAC and I harvested 10 lbs of kale on a cool cloudy morning – one of the first breaks in the heat that we had for over a week.  3 lbs of the kale were the variety called Red Russian – long, bunny ear shaped smooth leaves.  7 lbs were of the curly variety and 6 lbs of these have already been dehydrated to make a little over a ½ lb of kale chips.  I’ll bring some of these back to the garden to sample with students. Marii took 1lb of each type of kale home and she seemed to walk so proudly carrying her kale when I passed her on my bike in front of the school on my way home.   I took home 8 lbs in total, I have 2 lbs of the Red Russian still in my refrigerator in a green bag – waiting to be prepared or frozen (knowing that each day I wait, the vitamin content diminishes).  For each of us, kale was our reward for working in the garden. No money exchanged, we volunteer our hours, but we receive a share of what the garden provides to us. If more student gardeners had come, more would have received a share to take home.

There are basic rewards in keeping a garden that do not nor ever will rely on money. The earth gives us something directly in exchange for its care.   I’ve become interested in recent studies that indicate health benefits from just working the soil, touching and breathing it in.   A strain of bacterium in the soil, Mycobacterium vaccae, has been found to trigger the release of seratonin the neurotransmitter associated with feelings of well-being and happiness (see: http://www.healinglandscapes.org/blog/2011/01/its-in-the-dirt-bacteria-in-soil-makes-us-happier-smarter/).   There is also the satisfaction of having the opportunity to grow and eat fresh organic vegetables and fruit with the knowledge that no fossil fuels, artificial ingredients, chemicals, hormones, inorganic fertilizers or pesticides were ever used in its production.  Even more basic is the joy of being outside, in the sun, breathing fresh air. 

The rewards do not end even if we are thinking in terms of money value.  Were I to buy 8 lbs of organic kale I would have to spend at least 1.60/ lb. and so I received kale that would cost at least $13.00.  Incidently, dehydrated raw kale chips typically sell at Whole Foods for about $7.99 for a 2.5 ounce container.  Therefore, by dehydrating our own kale we added value to our crop – and if we needed to put a price on it, the 6 lbs I dehydrated could have been purchased for about $30.  But if we just concern ourselves with monetary profit, we are missing the point.  Another value of kale is in its outstanding and well known nutritional benefits: high in iron, calcium, antioxidants, protein, Vitamins C and K (see: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/drew-ramsey-md/health-benefits-kale_b_3529768.html ).

While I would welcome paid hours for myself and students and am committed to securing funds for this purpose, I also feel deeply rewarded already from sharing in the garden’s bounty.  In a sense this is receiving the work of the garden in exchange for having worked in the garden.  There is no better exchange with the little piece of earth that we’re caring for.  

Garden by Bike

Ahead of me awaits a jewel upon the grounds

how else describe the miraculous wonders there

everyone aligned to perform their tasks

awaiting the dawn restless to prepare

like on Henry’s path I ride past healthy neighbors jogging

sing good morning and arrive to catch the squirrels unaware

and the birds, this is their turn, I trespass, observe,

dream to examine one caught in a snare

rid this air! Listen how quiet scarcely embraces 

distant laughter of men, traffic and machines


                                 Raymond Pultinas

space for a garden

by Raymond Pultinas

Space is experienced by the body.   When we explore the space of the garden our bodies are always involved.  Our senses are awakened.   

There is the sudden presence of the sky and light and wind.  Immediately, we are in a different   context, not framed in the same way, on all sides, like the walls of a classroom.  We sense an opening to other than human means of existence. 

We witness the garden’s existence, its life in constant formation.   We see the life of plants and insects in relation to the sky and light and wind and of course rain and water.  The garden exists because of everything that is brought to bear on it.  

The agreement between the sun and the sky and the plants and insects in the garden predates the arrival of human beings on the planet.  It predates the agreement between humans and plants.  Human beings arrived into the world of plants and sun and sky, and this is why we still call earth our mother.  

The garden exists because of everyone who has contributed to it but it is created and maintained not only through the labor of human beings.   We can easily focus in the garden on a different species of life.  We are able to witness a species with which we have coexisted, inter-evolved, and inter-domesticated.

As gardeners we have set apart the area, planted some seeds and tended them until the plants that form develop the roots, seeds, fruits and leaves that nourish us.  The garden offers up its fruits and vegetables with unyielding grace.

To say that the garden is wild might be a stretch, but the garden has wildness within it.

What can a garden do for a school?  What purpose can this new space, The Clinton Garden,  serve in a large urban high school like DeWitt Clinton?   

The Clinton Garden: Opened and Encased like a Gem as Students Build, Plant, Harvest, and Plan for the Future

by Raymond Pultinas

Building

“The most enjoyable experience would have to be making the Compost Bin with the EAC (Environmental Affairs Club) simply because we spent days and hours in a project held deep in our hearts as something we did together and that no one can take away from us.” - David 

Although I had completed the Master Composter Training Course in the spring of 2011, it wasn’t until February of 2012 that we began our bin build with Jodie Colon and Junior Shouten of the New York City Compost Project.  Our initial expectations were that we would be able to complete the project indoors on a single Saturday in February, but with a meager turnout of students we only completed about quarter of the build on that day.  That left a series of Thursdays, after school, with a squad of between 10 and 25 students gathered outside of the garden to saw, measure, plane, drill, hammer and finish the job. By my estimation, we put almost 24 hours into the building of our three-bin compost system.  

But how do you measure the sweat and muscle?  Perhaps, it can be measured in the satisfaction connected with the feeling of ownership that David mentions above.   We made it, its ours, and it always will be!   But it took so long because it was thought through, examined over and over again so that it was right.  Not only did students learn the proper use of tools they learned safety above all else: to spot for one another, carefully stay involved in what is happening, understanding the task every step of the way. 

“Gardens matter, especially in schools because they offer a place for fresh air and a more natural scene compared to city life.  Gardens also open peoples’ eyes to new life and an alternative to learning (the way we learned in the garden).” - Stacey

Planting

“My favorite part was actually planting flowers and vegetables.  I liked getting my hands dirty.”  I loved seeing the flowers that were there in the beginning of the year.  It made me more open-minded about nature and whole foods.”  - Fatema 

After attending a Seed Starting Workshop hosted by Andrew Barret of Green Thumb, I felt we were ready to start all of this year’s vegetable plants from seed.  We studied some short films about germination and then began planting seeds in plant plugs on trays right in our classroom.  We kept our trays of seedlings under the supervision of Mr. Grosso in our school’s famous tower, then moved them to my own apartment bedroom during spring break, and finally to the supply shed and, after acclimating to the temperature and outside conditions, to the garden.  Most of our seeds were purchased at our local Whole Foods Market.  I love to look through packets of seeds, something about that tactile sensation – sensing the size and number of the seeds inside and its potential growth, but the red lettuce, basil, arugula and some of the radishes we are growing this season are from seeds we saved ourselves.   We have more growing in our garden than ever before. 

“I felt honored that I got a chance to plant here.  I liked going outside to plant because I had dreamed to work in the garden of DWC.”  - Delsaline 

Harvesting

“My most enjoyable experience in the garden was learning how to pick the vegetables and actually seeing what the garden looks like since I hadn’t noticed it before.  Also eating the lettuce from the garden was very enjoyable.”   - Michael 

On May 30, two days prior to the opening celebration that we had planned we harvested over 15 lbs of lettuce as well as 4 lbs of Radishes and 1 lb. of Kale, Collards, Scallions, Oregano and Thyme.  We cleaned out a bed of red lettuce and thinned out our mixed greens and offered it to Chef Deb Cahill from Garden to Café and the staff of the DeWitt Clinton Kitchen including Chef Larry Crowell.  The greens continue to produce well and we’ve picked and distributed at least that amount in June and early July.  This year we had a good start with our future harvests of tomatoes, eggplant and peppers and the corn has begun to look promising.  We’re growing a variety of beans: dry, string, runner.  We also have a variety of onions and garlic, chard, calendula returning, carrots, kale, collards, strawberries (next year), a few straggling sweet potatoes (experiment) and much more.  We also have added additional native plants to our butterfly garden, courtesy of the Butterfly Project and Bronx Green-Up workshop, wonderfully conducted by Ursula Chanse and Chrissy Word that I attended in late May.  The western most bed of the garden is in perpetual blossom with an endless array of native flowers including Swamp Milkweed, Virginia Rose, New York Ironweed, Arrow Wood and Dogwood, Blue Mistflower and so many others.  There is always so much to observe and learn in our native plant garden.  It attracts butterflies, birds, bees and human beings.

“I love the feeling of the soil between my fingers.  I always felt the smell of the freshness of the flowers that bloomed.  I loved picking veggies and also planting the seeds.  I watered the seeds and plants a few times and I felt they were grateful for it.  I think I grew closer to nature and even started to plant again in my backyard.”   - Jessica 

Opening

My most enjoyable experience was the garden opening.  Seeing people together for the same cause made me feel that the planning was worth it.  The best part was to taste the food provided from the garden.  It was really good and I’m considering doing it at home.  Everyday I wish I could have it on the side of a dinner meal.  That made me realize eating fresh and healthy is good and for some, part affordable.”  - Tyshae 

On June 1, we held our opening celebration. We are grateful for the words of our principal, Geraldine Ambrosio, and our two guest speakers.  Famed community garden activist and Just Foods Trainer Karen Washington spoke of the how community gardens bring change to neighborhoods. As a member of the La Familia Verde Garden Coalition, she launched City Farms Market, bringing garden grown and farm fresh vegetables to her Bronx neighbors.

Herold Hochberger ’72, founder of the Mrs. Green’s Natural Food Markets spoke about the value of green markets including vegetables and recommended kickstarter as a means of generating support for green businesses.  Diamond Anderson ’12 did a wonderful job as mc and Mr. Patrick Lennon and his Toy Boat Theater provided a performance of Michael Polan’s Food Rules.  The ceremony concluded with the dedication and planting of a Burr Oak in memory of Megan Charlop, a beloved friend, activist school-based health advocate and inspiration to the garden.  

We’d like to thank all for your support of our garden.  Among those who attended were Jo Umans of Behind the Book; Mike Zamm of GrowNYC; Margee Rogers and Dr. David Appel of Montefiore Hospital; Saleen Shah of the Citizens Committee; Jodie Colon of the New York Compost Project; Laura Henriksen, of Change By Us NYC and project coordinator at the Office of the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit (CAU), Nutritionist Karla Jean Peterkin from our own kitchen staff as well as SchoolFood Supervisors Claire Freire and Josephine Sullivan and the Regional Director, Lisa Mizrahi; Kelley Wind of New York Coalition for Healthy School Food; Gerard Pellison of the DeWitt Clinton Alumni Association; Jimmy Rafferty, DeWitt Clinton's Head Custodian; Deb Cahill of Garden to Cafe; members of the Garden Committee of DWC; members of the Environmental Affairs Club and former Witt Seminar students.
   
Michelle Walrath of the Walrath Family Foundation was unable to attend. However, thanks to her generous donation, a beautiful cedar and wire mesh fence now surrounds our garden.  We had hoped that it would have been completed in time for the June 1 celebration, but it was not completed until the following week.  Thanks go out to Ahmed Nizar and his crew from KW Construction for doing a superb job building our fence.  

The Witt Seminar/English 8 class prepared a program that contain student written articles addressing the importance of gardens in schools and a history of our school’s connection with New York City’s first community garden near the site of the school’s former location at what is now John Jay College.  


For more on this event, please read "School Garden Raises Hope at DeWitt Clinton High School" by Marcos Sierra published in the Norwood News.  

“I loved planting seeds and watching them grow.  However, the best part was eating it at the celebration.  I also loved going out into the open space; it created a bond between nature and [me].  The garden was a beauty, especially with the cherry blossoms and the tulips.  If I learned in a regular classroom, I would not have the opportunity to experience this amazing event.  I learned so much about gardens.  I will never forget this experience.”  - Sabrina 

Planning The Future

“I remember when Mr. Pultinas asked us to describe what we hear, see, touch, feel.  I felt so at peace with myself because I tried to connect with the garden spiritually.  Everything was so clear and bright, plus it lifted my mood.”   - Christopher 

“The garden matters because it gives students like me the opportunity to go there and express themselves.  Forget about school for a while and see what kind of amazing things the environment has to offer.”  - Leury

“I’m forever going to remember an array of colors.  A typical English 8 class exists soly with the black and white colors of a book.  But in this English class I was able to see reds, blues, yellows, purples, oranges and greens of the spring tulips.  These colors brought lif to the garden in a way I never thought it would.”  - Stacey 

Gardens matter because with gardens we get organic foods and we get the pleasure to see and witness the process of growing and eating your food.  Also when you live or are near a garden you can smell a better oxygen.”  - Juan 

“Gardens matter because its not only an emotional relief but a relief on the environment.  It not only brings people together to watch something grow, but also brings many healthy benefits for society." - Raquel 

“It was really nice to get outside away from the same four walls I see everyday.  It was also nice to do something with my hands other than writing.  Aside from the bees, the butterflies were also an added bonus.”  -  Anntonette 

Next semester, we hope to work with a reinvigorated garden committee.  So far, we have had help this summer from several teachers who have volunteered to water while I've been on family vacation.  This is a great sign.  Teachers have contributed throughout the school year by bringing classes to learn about the garden, offering suggestions or offering food scraps to compost.  Perhaps more importantly, we must gain further support from our administration.  The garden should be central in the effort to educate the future citizens of our city and country not only about sustainability, but about our collective and individual futures as inhabitants of this planet. 


Besides continuing to help grow the garden in size and yield, I have become active in a School Garden Advocacy group to gain further support from the city and the Department of Education.  I will be working to help establish a realistic set of expectations for what a garden/sustainability coordinator’s position could possibly mean in a school like ours of over 4,000 students.  Because our school is so large, our needs are great and so are our obstacles.  I'm sure that we can grow and succeed together and what better example before us than The Clinton Garden!  

  

Planning for Opening Celebration of The Clinton Garden is in Full Swing

by Diamond Anderson, Jessica Guiracocha, and Olivia Johnson of the Documentation (Web) Committee

The Witt Seminar is a virtual class of intelligent and energetic individuals who take the environment very seriously. We are not only students in Mr. Pultinas English 8 class and members of the Environmental Affairs Club but avid contributors to our school community working to heal our large and still overcrowded school. As a class, we are setting goals for planting and cultivating our school’s garden for the benefit of the entire Dewitt Clinton community. At a time when our school is trying to bring its academic average up and the Department of Education is continuously scrutinizing our school, the Witt Seminar is bringing the critical issue of our school’s environment to the forefront. The garden can become a new space on our school’s campus for learning more about our intimate connections with the natural world. We advocate for sustainability and longevity of not only our own garden but local parks, gardens and urban farms throughout the Bronx. We are also trying to make our fellow students aware of the consequences of eating fast food.

The obesity rate in the Bronx is the highest in the city. If people would pull away from eating unhealthy foods and start eating fruits and vegetables grown at nearby gardens or by themselves, the obesity rate in the Bronx should decline substantially. Being obese not only limits a person’s life, it contributes to potentially fatal diseases such as Heart Disease and Diabetes. However, these diseases are preventable with a healthy diet. This is why the Witt Seminar virtual class is crucial to the school and the community because we are trying to teach the importance of eating healthy and how to prevent food related diseases. The garden is an example of the work we are trying to accomplish.

It is the hope that in the near future the garden would be embraced by the Clinton community. The garden could potentially be a place for classes to come, work and enjoy the scenery. Science teachers could use the garden for demonstrations in real world efforts to explain and depict what they are teaching. The garden would be the  perfect  place for yoga classes to practice deep relaxation and be one with nature. Other uses for the Garden could be to simply relax. Chairs and tables could be placed on the pavement surrounding the garden and students could sit, read, communicate with each other and or eat their lunch while enjoying the flowers bloom.


The possibilities for the garden are endless and can be made possible with the proper influence and support from the administration and community. In the future the garden could possibly expand, as well as become a trend in schools around the city. Our garden could set an example for other schools that would like to create a garden, but don’t have an example to look to. The garden could be a place to network within the community and NYC Public school system. The countless opportunities the garden can create within the community should not and cannot be limited.

As a small but powerful portion of the DeWitt Clinton High School community, Witt Seminar is planning ways to celebrate our garden and make it a vital component of our school’s improvement. We are seeking to promote awareness and inspire students in our community to be more aware of where food comes from and teach them the difference between fast food and real food.  This spring, we have been working on many different activities.  Perhaps the key activity is planning an opening celebration to be held in the garden on June 1, 2012.  The occasion of the opening coincides with our having received a generous donation from the Walrath Family Foundation that will be used to build a fence around the garden.  The fence is not designed to keep people out, but rather as protection for our hard work.  This event will welcome students, faculty, and over 12 community organizations that have supported the garden since its beginning. In order to plan for this event, we have set up various committees of students.

Each committee has contributed to make this garden opening celebration a success:

Event Planning Committee is in charge of researching and inviting a list of people to our event.   We are inviting people who have contributed to the garden in some way or who may have an interest in what we have accomplished. We are also looking to invite a keynote speaker to address the gathering.  Finally, this committee is coordinating the schedule of events.   Highlights of the day will include ceremonial plantings, dedications, food served from the garden by Deb Cahill, the Bronx regional chef with Garden to Cafe, student guitarists,  speeches, poetry reading, and more.

Publication Committee is generating The Clinton Garden Program. The program will include detailed history of the present as well as past gardens at DeWitt Clinton.  The program will also serve to inspire future interdisciplinary activities in the garden.  Classes that might may include Biology, AP biology, writing, English, and many more.

Mural Committee is envisioning a work of art to unify the numerous intentions and possibilities that the garden will represent for years to come. The Committee is eliciting ideas and drawings from students that might some day be incorporated into a mural within or in the neighboring space of the garden.

Garden Committee has taken on some of the planning for the garden itself. In doing so, the initiative of this committee has been to help create or support the ecosystems within the garden. Students are constructing a obelisk for vine plants, a birdhouse to different kinds of birds, and an expansion of a native plant/butterfly area to attract different essential pollinators. The committee has been researching in order to select the right kinds of rose bushes to beautify the gate arbor that will soon be constructed at the garden’s entrance.

Ray Pultinas, the coordinator, is very excited to present this wonderful and long awaited event because “something in this school actually works.”   We are celebrating a triumph of many hard working students that have taken time to do something positive within the community as a whole.  Be sure that our hard work will not end here. We will continue to make the garden a prosperous environment for students, staff, and teachers.