Students from DLC had a wonderful hands-on learning experience this week! They welcomed a new apple tree to the campus, learning exactly how to plant it and what it takes to help it grow and thrive. It was a fantastic lesson in nature and responsibility that our students will get to watch grow for years to come.
It’s a jungle out there! This garden has taken off with reckless abandon. As we wind down the year, our garden is just getting started. Soon we’ll see the shoots and buds that turn into fruits and vegetables. We won’t be here to harvest them, but hopefully people will grab whatever looks tasty.
As we approached the end of the winter months, our teachers and students began preparing the school garden for the upcoming growing season. Even with the colder weather, our school community stayed committed to caring for our outdoor learning space. Students helped clear leaves, remove debris, refresh the soil, and tidy up the raised beds to ensure everything was ready for spring planting.
This early season cleanup gave students hands on experience with garden maintenance while reinforcing teamwork, responsibility, and environmental stewardship. Teachers guided students through identifying winter damage, turning the soil, and learning why preparation is essential for a healthy garden.
We started our garden plants in seed snails and in hydroponics units. We transplanted tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, basil, and string beans into our garden.
We also planted cucumber seeds and have been harvesting chive blossoms, chives, and snap peas. We used our beautiful purple chives to make delicious chive blossom butter which we enjoyed on french baguette. Yum!
We have a few ladybugs lingering in our garden, which were released by our preschool students at the end of their ladybug lifecycle study.
We are excited to share that during the 2025–2026 school year, our school has expanded our existing vegetable garden thanks to the 2025 Kids Dig In Grant. In partnership with Groundwork Elizabeth and the Union County Board of Commissioners, we added a new raised planting bed along with soil, seeds, tools, and additional materials provided through Groundwork Elizabeth’s garden program.
Our students worked alongside Groundwork Elizabeth staff and Union County Commissioner Stanley J. Neron on planting day, actively participating in growing fresh vegetables. We are proud to continue donating a portion of our harvest to the community, strengthening our connection and giving back to those around us.
Our garden continues to enhance our school environment while providing hands-on learning experiences that promote teamwork, environmental responsibility, and healthy habits. We look forward to another successful growing season and sharing our harvest with the community.
Pantoja Gardens
On today’s visit, Groundworks Board Chair Sergio Granados was in attendance. Thank you, John, for teaching the students how to take care of their new garden!
We love how passionate the teacher and students are about their new ADA raised garden bed! We can’t wait to see the new, amazing things that grow in the garden!
The Happy Garden
On this hot day, we thanked the teacher and students for coming out to learn about their new ADA-compliant raised bed! Thanks to their amazing teacher, they are able to collect rainwater as a natural way of harvesting their garden!
The students are very excited to learn more in STEM learning, environmental science, and nutrition education. We look forward to seeing what they’ve learned 😊
Thyme: The Delicious Herb
Welcome back to Thomas Edison Career & Technical School in Elizabeth, NJ. This year, we learned thyme is being put into the gardens from Groundwork Elizabeth!
Not only is thyme very delicious in our foods, it is also full of antioxidants and is a great source of beta-carotene (a red-orange plant pigment) and folic acid (Vitamin B). Thyme can also be used for soothing wounds, preventing infections, and treating congestion and stomach pain.
Out of this World 🌎 Gardening
Union County Commissioner Palmieri-Mouded was in attendance at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School No. 52!
A fun fact about one of the flowers we planted: the Zinnia. Did you know that it was the first flower to bloom in outer space?
In 2016, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly was able to successfully grow bright orange Zinnias on the International Space Station (ISS). This was an active project at the time to understand how plants can grow in microgravity.
With the arrival of this warm weather, our students have stepped away from their desks and into the dirt. Armed with gloves and rakes, and a whole lot of energy, they’ve been hard at work clearing out the old to make room for the new.
