AMHERST — A butterfly fluttering above the Summit Academy Garden during a recent celebration of its completion offered an early sign that pollinators are already benefiting from the habitat created by students and staff at the public day school.
Over the past several months, an area just outside Summit’s main entrance has been transformed from patches of weeds and bare soil to one where native plants and culinary herbs are growing. The garden is providing both a therapeutic learning space and a much more welcoming area for anyone entering the school.
“It’s just been a unifying project,” says Summit Principal Diane Chamberlain, who spoke during a ribbon cutting and garden party on May 27.
Alyma Gonzalez, a 10th grader, recalled the work that went into both the planning and planting, raising money through bake sales to buy what was needed, and then turning the area into a beautiful space.
Gonzalez was among those who uprooted weeds and then put in the new plants, having good sense of where they should go and how they would look good.
“I’m very excited to see all of that growth,” Gonzalez said. “It’s very bright colored, very relaxing.”
“I like it, it definitely adds more to Summit,” said Natalia Massa, a 10th grader who helped put some of the plants in the large U-shaped raised bed at the center of the garden.
That raised bed was built by student Ralsei Godfrey, a seventh grader, who estimates spending about six hours to get in place the wood forms, supplied by the school, that now holds the soil and a number of plants.
“It was fun, it felt pretty good because this used to be a grass area, a path, that went nowhere,” Godfrey said.
Karen Murphy, science teacher at Summit who spotted the butterfly as students gathered for the ceremony, praised the students for helping design the herb garden and the hours of watering plants after they went into the ground.
“Every single student contributed to this garden,” Murphy said.
Murphy said it’s important for the students to leave a “living mark” on the school.
She also explained how violets can fling seeds 15 feet and protein fat capsules will feed ants, which will then carry these below ground and cause new violets to sprout.
“I’m looking forward to discovering what nature does to promote biodiversity here,” Murphy said.
Near wooden fences installed by D.A. Sullivan & Sons, with other plants in place, there are several signs to inform about what is there. One sign explains how the seeds from the prairie dropseed, or sporobolus heterolepis, are taken by ground-feeding sparrows and juncos, and are excellent for foraging wildlife.
As the garden party event, which included pizza and cake began, Chamberlain read a land acknowledgment.
“We wanted to build a place for our community,” Chamberlain said. “There are so many purposes for this great work.”
Among those purposes are learning about pollinators, connection to food science through the herb garden and how various aspects of life intersect.
As part of the sprucing up, Sharon Leshner of The Color Collaborative used the brick wall of the building as a canvas to illustrate the native pollinator plants, with trout lilies and red trillium featured in the artwork.
Leshner said the mural is not only connected to the plants in the surrounding garden but also to the “Fresh Valley” mural she completed at the E.J. Gare Parking Garage in Northampton, which serves as a backdrop for the Tuesday Farmers Market.
Susan Fields, a volunteer and local garden expert, thanked the students for the planting, mulching and assorted other work.
“I know how well you will care for these plants because of the care you have shown,” Fields said.
As a therapeutic school, the garden should help ground the students and give them an opportunity for mindfulness activities.
Superintendent E. Xiomara Herman, who also dropped by for the event, said the outdoor learning space will also be a place for students to reflect.
Others involved in the creation of the space were native plant expert Trevor Smith from the Native Plant Trust, Sawmill Herb Farm, which supplied the herbs, and Amherst Farmers Supply, which supported the project through garden tools and materials.
