BOWDOINHAM

When Bowdoinham plants a seed, it grows and flowers.

Bowdoinham Community School has had a school garden since 2000. In 2002, the school received a three-year Agriculture in the Community grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to garden program volunteer Cathy Reynolds.

After the grant expired, the garden lived on with the help of volunteers and students’ little hands. Local farmers even donated and well-known farmer Harry Prout left the program some money when he died.

On Friday, students stopped by the garden located behind the school to help Nancy Curtis pick seeds from the head of a giant sunflower plant. Curtis has volunteered since retiring from teaching 10 years ago.

Fifth graders Raven Thibeault and Lana Lapoint crouched next to Curtis, cutting strips of thyme from the garden as Curtis quizzed them on the spelling of the delicious smelling herb. She then had them help her remove the small thyme from the stem.

“It’s fun, because it’s helping nature,” Thibeault said. “It’s awesome and I want to help the garden as much as I can.”

The herbs will be used, along with other items harvested from the garden and produce donated by local farmers, at the Harvest Supper on Thursday night at the school.

The community has again reached out to help the garden program. Lynn Spiro, owner of the Town Landing on Main Street, always raises money for area organizations during the monthly cruise-ins she hosts every summer.

She recently presented school principal Chris Lajoie and garden manager Adelaida Gaviria with a check for $879 for the garden program. Second grader Jae Beede, who has logged the most hours in the garden and at the school’s farmers market booth this year, was also on hand to accept the donation.

The donation will help the program revamp the garden — building new beds and a new compost, and making it more accessible.

Gaviria and fellow volunteers do a six-week program with students in the spring when they plant the garden. They also do waste challenges with the kids, teaching them to put only as much food on their plates as they can eat.

Volunteers maintain the garden over the summer and students can help during open hours on Fridays.

Gaviria credited Reynolds and Curtis for providing continuity to the garden program.

“They know what works with children. They know the rhythm of the garden. They have all these tricks up their sleeves,” which make children excited about gardening, she said.

All three are avid gardeners, which helps keep the cost down for the program.

Curtis comes with “heirloom tools for heirloom plants,” Gaviria said. Some of the tools were handmade by her late father George Millay.

“I think we all think ahead about what will keep little hands busy,” Gaviria said. The herbs fall into that category.

Some kids aren’t thrilled with vegetables, Reynolds said, “but they love bugs. And earthworms.”

Many Bowdoinham children come from families that farm or have their own gardens, but for many it’s their first exposure to a garden.

Spiro said Gaviria is humble, but no one is more deserving of the donation. The money raised by the cruise-ins are weather dependent and the car enthusiasts who come are generous.

What the garden program provides students is important, Spiro said. She prides herself at the restaurant on the fact that so much of the food is homemade.

“I think there’s a middle generation that’s lost the art of cooking and using fresh vegetables and meats,” she said, adding there is so much to learn about what they can do with fresh-grown food.

She’s even talked with the director of the town’s food pantry about using some of the harvest to make soup for the food pantry.

“It’s a full circle program,” she said.

dmoore@timesrecord.com