Scout alums boost garden club
Thanks to the hard work of three Butler Catholic School alumni and their Eagle Scout projects, the garden club at Butler Catholic School continues to grow.
What started small has now grown into an expanded space with a shed and composting bin as well as the opportunity for students to earn their Junior Master Gardener certification. It's been just over a year since Butler Catholic started the club.
In August 2017, Justin Higgins, a 2015 BCS graduate, built four 4-foot-by-8-foot garden beds with cold frame lids at the school for his Eagle Scout project.
Eager to see those garden beds put to use in September 2017, 29 third- and fourth- grade students joined the newly formed after-school garden club, and members began by preparing the new soil beds with fertilizer and plants.
The first garden plantings that October included strawberries, chives, garlic, shallots, a variety of lettuces and vegetables including carrots, beets, spinach and radishes.
The cold-frame covers worked extremely well over the cold winter months, and with regular upkeep from the students, the spring harvest was plentiful. The lettuce was even used on all the sandwiches BCS students and families enjoyed for lunch during Healthy Living Day in April. In May, encouraged by the success of their first winter garden, club members were excited to plant again, this time transforming the garden into beds full of summer plants and vegetables.
Over the summer, even with school out, garden club members were faithful in caring for the plants, taking turns coming to the garden to water and weed.
The hard work that they and their families put in yielded a bounty of vegetables. The students were able to enjoy a taste of their harvest by taking some of the vegetables home for their families to enjoy, while donating the majority of their vegetables to the St. Vincent DePaul food bank.
The transformation of the back of the school into a garden continues to gain support from both alumni and students.
Danny and Joey Orsborn, brothers and BCS alumni, also decided to complete their Eagle Scout projects to benefit the club by adding to the garden that their fellow Eagle Scout and BCS alumnus began.
Joey Orsborn, a 2017 BCS graduate and current sophomore at Butler High School, built a 4-foot-by-4-foot tool shed for club members to store shovels, tools, watering cans and gardening supplies.
“I think it is nice to help out my old school, and to thank them for helping me be on the path I am on now. I hope future Eagle Scouts will continue to add to the garden,” he said.
Danny Orsborn, a member of the Butler Catholic Class of 2018, and current freshman at Butler High School also used his construction project of a compost bin as a way to thank his alma mater.
“My time at Butler Catholic has opened me up to many opportunities, so I was happy to give back to help other students,” Danny said.
With the growth of the garden, has also come growth to the after-school garden club itself.
Forty third- and fourth-grade students participate in biweekly meetings, and this year have the special opportunity to become certified Junior Master Gardeners.
The Junior Master Gardener program is a cooperative Extension system created and managed by Texas A&M AgriLife, and led at Butler Catholic School by local Master Gardeners Justine Brown and Mary Ellen Walter.
