The teenaged students boasted big smiles Thursday morning as they proudly displayed their handiwork at the UVI demonstration garden—their own box garden, which they have prepared, nurtured and planted.
Soon it will be bear eggplants and tomatoes, the tangible results of this year’s Work-Able Summer Institute Community Garden.
Work-Able, a not-for-profit agency that has been helping people with disabilities join the work force since 1989, holds a yearly program for youngsters to introduce them to the working world.
This year’s batch of youngsters, all 14 or 15 years old, explored "Careers in Agriculture, Landscaping and Home Gardening."
Most of them got their first taste this year of how food gets on the dinner plates. They learned it’s not magic; it’s a labor of love.
Longtime Work-Able Executive Director Gwendolyn Powell partnered with Carlos Robles and Albion George of the UVI Extension Service this summer to give the youngsters a taste of local agriculture.
Benjamin Bougouneau, a Charlotte Amalie High School junior, says the program opened his eyes. "What I learned is that we should be more dependent on our own resources," he said, "and learn more about growing our own food, so we won’t be so dependent on bringing things in from off-island. There’s lots of opportunities in agriculture."
Trisal Perkins, a petite CAHS student who wants to go to China to learn the language, said aside from gardening, she has learned "how to make money, how to dress for an interviews so I can get a job."
Jahmile Lewis said, "I’ve learned you don’t have to go to the grocery store; you can learn to plant food, grow organic food. It’s healthier."
George, who is something of an institution in the island’s school gardening programs, having started or overseen multiple gardens, helped the youngsters this summer along with his UVI student assistant Mahlik Griffin.
George was almost as proud as his students in showing the box garden. "We supplied the box, but they did everything else. They sifted the soil, mixed it with Happy Frog [a soil conditioner] and pro-mix potting soil. Then they put the black plastic over it which minimizes the weeds, while maximizing the water available to the plants."
The youngsters planted their garden in the UVI demonstration garden, which normally boasts just about one of every plants growing on the island – from sweet corn to sweet potatoes – under George’s careful year-round care.
Along with the box garden, the youngsters learned about agriculture in motion, with a half-day visit to Lucien "Jambie" Samuel at his Green Thumb Garden in Bordeaux. "We got to pick some of the peppers, too," said Perkins. "It was really fun."
Powell and Usha Gupta, who helped supervise the program, were busy Thursday morning organizing the youngsters who presented George and his assistant, Griffin with certificates of appreciation.
The program will draw to a close this week, but the students said they will be back to harvest their eggplants and tomatoes.
