Buxton School - Williamstown, Massachusetts

Buxton Garden

Sustainability on campus has been an important element of Will Miller’s biology curriculum for the past several years. The biology class conducted an energy audit of the campus, and last year’s Senior Family Gift provided funds to begin a solar-panel project at the classroom building, planned for next term. Food sustainability on campus has been an on-going and expanding part of this program. In 2007, the biology class planted a small garden with the

Harvesting

traditional “three sisters,” harvesting winter squash, beans and corn that fall yielding a meal of beans, cornbread, and winter squash canelloni. By this school year, the garden had grown to 200 square feet and peppers, onions, potatoes, beets, cabbage, and purple carrots were added. This year’s harvest was celebrated in fine style. A nine-person work program crew harvested one fall Saturday morning, providing

Dan Sebestyen '11

the ingredients for that evening’s kitchen crew of eight, who prepared a feast for the entire school that evening. Enough was produced in this year’s garden to supply the kitchen with some home-grown ingredients.

The garden, while not certifiably organic, is enriched only with manure from local farms and school-produced compost. Students organized the composting project, collecting scraps from the kitchen and after meals to enrich the garden.The garden also uses bird house gourds that it produces to attract birds for pest control. Plans to expand the garden each year would provide even more for the kitchen to use regularly while continuing to add to the school compost. There is also interest among students for a Buxton presence at the local farmers’ market next year, and garlic has been planted this fall to offer there.