Green thumbs at Shamrock Gardens Elementary School

Is it out of the question for me to enroll back in elementary school? I caught a crazy case of envy after visiting and viewing the grounds at Shamrock Gardens Elementary School. The Garden Project for Hands on Charlotte Day was a huge success. About 50 volunteers including parents, students, and other community members all chipped in to help keep the gardens on the right track. Shamrock Gardens is literally surrounded by organic gardens, which means no pesticides! There’s a wheat bed to make bread, compost pile, butterfly garden, and even a resident opossum that the volunteers had to be sure to not disturb.


Thanks to the volunteers, the students at the elementary school will now be able to watch an apple tree grow that was planted using the school’s own compost. Weeds were pulled, a whole bed of overgrown sunflowers were attended to, and the schools own collected rain water was used to water the beds. The volunteer project was certainly a group effort considering the number of gardens at the school. This was no small feat. Most everyone was still hard at work well after the project’s official time was over. One of the volunteers even brought some cookies for all of her fellow helpers. I had to try one and they were amazing. This group did a fantastic job and the students at Shamrock Gardens will be able to continue developing their green thumbs.


Katie Sherman is a guest contributor to the Hands On Charlotte Blog.