What’s ‘Growing’ on at the Dennis Twp. Primary School?

Gardens will be growing all over Dennis Township thanks to $5oo in “seed money” given as a grant to teachers, Patricia Novakowski and Sallyjeane Stein last fall by the Cape Educational Fund. Their idea was to plant a memorial garden at the school; now the plot just grows and grows.
The grant paid for gardening tools, but that was just a start. To get the garden in the ground, everyone needed to pitch in. For a dollar, parents purchased paper flower petals from the school, which were signed with each family’s name and hung in a school hallway display, announcing their support for the project. And the school’s staff also contributed by donating money to participate in dress down days.
Before long, there was enough money to buy soil, perennial bulbs, and plants from the Grove Garden Center for a greatly reduced price. That’s when the garden really began to take root. Every student in the school planted a bulb or flowering perennial plant in the garden in memory of a loved one.
Then, Mr. John McLaughlin, owner of O’Connor Landscaping, donated mulch and paving stones for a walkway, and students in the first grade, including McLaughlin’s youngest son, Brendon, helped to put down the mulch and lay the pavers. And people continue to pitch in. Parents are still donating daylilies, hosta, black-eyed susans, and several other types of flowering perennial plants to add to the over 300 plants that already in the garden. And the school is hoping for future donations of a concrete bench, a birdbath, an arbor, and a fence to complete the project.
The fence won’t hold the garden in, however. The project has a ‘Pay if Forward” twist that will keep flowers blooming well beyond the school grounds. Students signed contracts promising to plant other gardens at a specified sites later this spring, and they’ve already potted more perennial plants to plant in those future gardens. They should be ready for replanting by late May or early June, and that’s when the junior gardeners will put their new found green thumbs back to work.
The Kindergarten classes will install a garden at the Dennis Twp. Senior Citizens building. First grade will work at the Ocean View Rehab Center, and the second grade will plant gar-dens at the Dennis Twp. Museum and Dennisville Post Office. In turn, the recipients of these gardens have agreed to sign contracts to plant gardens for someone else.
And Museum Curator, Bobby Babbit, and Postmaster, Frank Germanio, will have some help in spreading the joy (and the mulch). The Girl Scouts, under the supervision of leader, Cherie Fossett, have offered to lend a hand in fulfilling their garden contract.
So by summer, flowers will be blooming all over Dennis Township as a reminder of the importance of family and community and taking time to lend a hand.