Garden News
Welcome to the Garden!
Follow along with the PS 48 school garden and outdoor learning program throughout the seasons. There's always something new happening. Whether you are student, parent, community member, farmer or not, check out what's growing! Consider supporting the garden too! Lots of different groups and people support the PS 48 school garden. We can use your ideas, creativity, resources, materials, and hands on help!
Students learned English as part of the South Bronx Intensive English Sessions after school program while outdoors with TreesNY environmental educator, Ms. Maddy. They planted pollinator friendly plants, including edible plants like raspberries. They learned about the importance of pollination and supporting pollinators. Here are some student THANK YOU letters and artwork. Thank you again for your collaboration, TreesNY, and Ms. Maddy!
Learn about different ways to grow mushrooms alongside the different plants we grow in the garden. We are growing Italian Oyster mushrooms in straw that covers up the soil around our vegetable plants. This added straw protects the soil by keeping it moist, adds nutrients to the soil, and keeps weed plants away (plants we don't want growing!). The mushrooms also helps the soil structure to grow stronger and healthier vegetables! This project is by funded donors on DonorsChoose.
Butterflies Released into the Garden!
Ms. Lloyd's class learned about pollination, pollinators, and the importance of creating wildlife spaces for plants and animals. They held a release party in May for the butterflies that they raised in their classroom over many weeks! Safe travels and happy pollinating, butterflies! Come back and visit often.
Thank you, DonorsChoose, and donors for supporting the garden. Your donations provided 3 picnic tables for students to use for outdoor learning. They will learn about plants, animals, fungi, and more! They will also simply have more access to living and learning while in nature. What can be better than this?
Who's ready to build a picnic table? Let's read these directions from the instruction manual.
Arbor Day 2024- Expanding the Urban Forest
Thank you to the NYC Arbor Day Committee, John Bowne High School Nursery, and Nancy Wolf, Arbor Day Project Coordinator, for growing and organizing the donation of trees to schools. We are grateful to receive a Flowering Dogwood tree, plus Arbor Day posters and bookmarks. We can't wait to get the students involved in the planting and caring for the Flowering Dogwood at the The South Bronx Schoolyard Garden and Outdoor Classroom at PS 48! Here is a great article on the work of the Bowne Nursery and here is an article on New York City Arbor Day celebrations. Celebrate Arbor Day and Plant Tree. Care for a Tree. Think of the Next Generation.
The garden received a large donation of compost from the NYC Department of Sanitation. Students used the compost to grow an almond agaricus mushroom bed using the compost. Compost is nutritious (yummy!) for the plants that we will grow in the soil. This compost is made right here in the city we live: New York City! It is made from food scraps and other decaying plant material by the NYC Department of Sanitation. This project is funded by donors on DonorsChoose.
We are grateful to be one of the first organizations to receive a pallet's worth of bagged compost- delivered free! We will grow mighty plants using the food waste from our fellow New Yorkers! PS 48 already composts food scraps using worm bins in the classroom. This donation helps us make connections with the decomposer, producer, and consumer cycle of life. Compost supports soil in many ways, helping us grow better plants. Compost supports beneficial organisms, helps the soil keep moisture, and adds nutrients to the soil! Thank you DSNY!!!
Garden Awarded Grant from The City Gardens Club of New York City 2024
Thank you to The City Gardens Club of New York City for continuing to generously support The South Bronx Schoolyard Garden and Outdoor Classroom!!! With this new grant, we look forward to developing the outdoor learning space into a Certified Wildlife Habitat through certification by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) that incorporates the role of decomposers, fungi, compost, and healthy soil. Your support will help us continue to create a natural space where students and adults alike develop a deeper understanding, appreciation of the natural world by providing access within urban environments. Thank you for helping us grow!
Growing Potatoes in the South Bronx Spring 2024
Second and third grade students learn English while preparing "seed potatoes" from left over potatoes. They cut the potatoes around the "eyes" to begin growing new potatoes to harvest this year. They planted the potatoes in pots outside in the garden. What a way to learn English! As student Mario said, "I already grow mangos and lemons. Now I can grow potatoes too!"
Thank you, Bonnie Plants, for donating cabbage seedlings to our school. Students will be planting the seedlings. They will grow the cabbage plants. How large will they become? Only healthy soil tended by student gardeners will tell! Here are the planting directions!
Students are learning about fungi. Fungi are all around us, and essential to all kinds of life forms. But we don't teach out fungi as much as we do about plants and animals. And outdoor learning is a great space to learn by doing. So students are 'planting' fungi mycelia that will grow by using different substrates. Eventually the fungi will 'fruit' and we will see the mushrooms we are most familiar with. This project is funded by donors on DonorsChoose.
Thank you, Seed Savers Exchange for your generous donation of vegetable and flower seed donations. We received a variety of full sun and partial shade seeds to grow in the school garden! "Seed Savers Exchange stewards America’s culturally diverse and endangered garden and food crop legacy for present and future generations."
Thank you, Grow NYC, for always supporting our gardening and outdoor learning. We just received all these seed packets for students to grow from seed. Some seeds we will start indoors and transplant outdoors. Some we will grow with the PS 48 Hydroponics equipment. Other seeds we will directly sow outdoors in the school raised garden beds. Thank you again, Grow NYC!
2023 Grow NYC Bucket Brigade and Soil Delivery!
Nearly 200 students came together alongside their teachers and school staff to support the school garden! Thank you to GrowNYC and NYC Parks GreenThumb for the HUGE soil, mulch, and lumber donation and delivery. The students got busy shoveling, hauling, and dumping the soil and mulch to create raised garden spaces and enrich the soil. They are creating an outdoor learning space that will also provide habitat for wildlife within the Hunts Point community. Plant a seed. Grow a plant. Watch an animal harvest a leaf, flower, or seed. Way to go, gardeners of PS 48! Thank you again, GrowNYC and NYC Parks GreenThumb!
Raised Bed Install Fall 2023
Nice work, student gardeners! You built and installed 9 raised beds in the garden! Soon, those raised beds will be filled with healthy soil by the PS 48 Bucket Brigade. Then we can get started planting seeds and seedling, creating habitat and food source for local wildlife. Nice work, everyone!
PS 48 Gardeners Create Living Memorial Fall 2023
PS 48 gardeners came together with NYC Parks, Partnerships for Parks, Southern Boulevard Business Improvement District, Loving the Bronx and Drew Gardens to help revitalize the park space and continue to create a living memorial for the enslaved people whose graves are unmarked within Drake Park. Students planted hundreds of daffodil bulbs donated by New Yorkers for Parks (NY4P), Cornell University Cooperative Extension 4-H Youth Development Program and Loving the Bronx’s Nilka Martell, as well as learned to become community and park advocates, and helped restore the local park and memorial space. Here are some photos from their work. It's progress towards writing the people back into our collective history and a continuation of prior student work creating a living memorial at the Hunts Point Slave Burial Ground Project.
Getting Ready for Next Year! Fall 2023
Fall is for planting! Students planted azaleas and rhodendrons in pots on a chilly fall day. The plants were watered and preprared for a cold winter here in Hunts Point! Plus they learned a lot of English too!
Summer School 2023 Gardening @ PS 48
A big thank you to the kindergarten through eighth grade (K-8) students who participated in garden programming under the guidance of Ms. Binuya and Ms. Benitez. They learned English, literacy, math and science skills while growing perennial and annual plants. They grew foods like sweet potatoes, blueberries, peas, pumpkins, and carrots. They also raised native pollinator plants like sunflowers and coneflowers. Lastly, they planted shade loving plants like rhododendrons. Thank you for creating more habitat for nature here in Hunts Point!
IS 254 Garden Supports PS 48 Garden Summer 2023
A big thank you to the IS 254 Garden Club. Thank you for support our elementary school garden with your materials donation! The hose reel and hose will really help our student gardeners water more plants in a quicker manner. The compost and garden tools will help propel the garden forward! Thank you to your middle school for collaborating with our elementary school!
Garden and Art Design Spring 2023
Wow! The PS 48 artists are busy designing and creating artistic creations for the garden. They are painting raised beds, benches, and chairs with different themes. A special "Thank You" goes to Mr. Papo and Mr. Felix for their carpentry skills. They constructed the garden raised beds from the lumber. A big shout out goes out to the PS 48 artists who have been studying and learning with Ms. DeLeaver and Mr. Langley. Thank you to these talented artists and teachers! Lastly, without the support of GrowNYC School Gardens, we would not have lumber for raised beds or benches! Coming soon: another bucket brigade to add soil in the 4 new garden beds!
GrowNYC School Garden Tool Pick Up 2023
Thank you (again) to GrowNYC School Gardens and their amazing staff for helping our students become gardens, scientists, and nature enthusiasts. In May 2023 on a VERY rainy day, they energetically provided our school with garden tools, equipment, seeds, and benches to continuing 'growing' the school garden. Thank you for helping us and LOTS of other New York City schools! More photos to be added as students garden. :)
Students will be learn by doing with TreesNY environmental educator, Maddy. They are mapping local areas for fresh food like greenmarkets, farmers markets, community gardens, and PS 48!!!! How?!?!? Because of the support of TreesNY we will be planting huckleberry bushes to grow food here in at PS 48. Thank you for your collaboration, TreesNY.
Arbor Day 2023- Expanding the Urban Forest
Thank you to the NYC Arbor Day Committee, John Bowne High School Nursery, and Nancy Wolf, Arbor Day Project Coordinator, for growing and organizing the donation of trees to schools. We are grateful to receive a Crape Myrtle tree, plus Arbor Day posters and bookmarks. We can't wait to get the students involved in the planting and caring for the Crape Myrtle at the The South Bronx Schoolyard Garden and Outdoor Classroom at PS 48! Here is a great article on the work of the Bowne Nursery and here is an article on New York City Arbor Day celebrations. Celebrate Arbor Day and Plant Tree. Care for a Tree. Think of the Next Generation.
Garden Awarded Grant from The City Gardens Club of New York City 2023
Thank you to The City Gardens Club of New York City for generously supporting The South Bronx Schoolyard Garden and Outdoor Classroom!!! Your support will help us continue to create a natural space where students and adults alike develop a deeper understanding, appreciation of the natural world by providing access within urban environments. Thank you for helping us grow!
PS 48 Student Gardeners Spring 2023
With the return of Spring, students are taking on the role of gardener. They are growing and tending to plants inside and outside. Click on the photo album to see some of the progress and learning taking place. They are learning to collaborate. They are learning math and science skills. They are using art to express ideas. They are reading, writing, listening, and speaking. They are learning English! Join us!
GrowNYC School Garden Seed Giveaway 2023!
Thank you, GrowNYC, for the generous seed donation! We received free vegetable and flower seeds for planting in the garden. We look forward to "germinating" seeds in the classroom and "direct sowing" outdoors. We will get started reading the planting directions. We will learn how to measure row spacing, seed depth, and other math skills! There's a lot to plan! It takes science, math, and reading skills!
PS 48 Students Plant Wildflowers Spring 2023
Students learn about the importance of wildflowers, pollinators, and ecology. They planted wildflower seeds in trees beds to attract native pollinators (animals). These pollinators include birds, like the colibri or hummingbird (thank you, Mia and Hemily)! They also include butterflies, bees, and all sorts of insects. By planting wildflowers, pollinators receive food, and help sustain (keep healthy) plants and animals for all of us, including the food we eat!
PS 48 Daffodil Bulbs Start to Bloom! Spring 2023
Last Fall (2022), PS 48 students plants hundreds of daffodil bulbs alongside the trees on the sidewalk. Now it's springtime! The sun is out longer. The days are getting longer. The temperature is warming up. And now, those daffodil bulbs are waking up and blooming! What a sight! Way to go, green thumbs of PS 48!
Hudson Valley Seed Company Donates Seeds! Spring 2023
Hudson Valley Seed Company donated flower and vegetable seeds to our school garden. Thank you!!! We cannot wait to get started planting. Thank you for your donation. We love the artwork on the seed packets. Art, science, and gardening all together. Amazing.
PS 48 Starts to Compost! Winter and Spring 2023
PS 48 student gardeners participated in a Zoom workshop with Grow NYC to learn about composting food scraps. We will have red wiggler worms compost (break down) food scraps and turn it into compost. Compost is like humus in soil. The compost is nutritious (yummy!) for the plants that we will grow in the soil. Plus composting helps keep material out of landfills. Plants make food that we eat. The parts of the plants we don't eat are called food scraps. We give the food scraps to worms in a "worm bin." They digest (eat) the food scraps. This turns into compost! We put the compost with the soil around plants we grow. This helps grow healthy plants and food that we eat. And the cycle goes on and on. Thank you, again, Grow NYC! Learn about composting with this video (English). Aprende sobre el compostaje con este video (español).
2022 Grow NYC Bucket Brigade and Soil Delivery!
Over 120 amazing PS 48 student gardeners participated in an outside service learning project with NYC Parks and Grow NYC. A large delivery of soil and lumber came at the school. Students collaboratively worked to transfer the soil to the garden using shovel, buckets, teamwork, lots of energy and laughs! Come spring the garden is gonna be blooming with all these gardeners! Take a look at the event by clicking on the photo below. Thank you, NYC Parks GreenThumb and Grow NYC for your generous support.
2022 Fall NY4P Daffodil Bulb Planting and Service Learning Project
PS 48 students participated in an outside service learning project this Fall. With support from New Yorkers for Parks (NY4P), students planted donated daffodil bulbs in the tree pits surrounding the school property on Coster Street and Spofford Avenue. Click the image to view more photos of the Student Gardener/Farmers. :) Thank you NY4P! Want to help support the school garden? Let us know!
2022 Seed Savers Exchange Grows a Bronx Garden
Thank you, Seed Savers Exchange and the Herman's Garden Seed Donation Program, for the generous donation of seed packets for our student gardeners to grow a diverse garden in the South Bronx here at PS 48! Thank you for your generosity. Seed Savers Exchange "stewards America’s culturally diverse and endangered garden and food crop legacy for present and future generations. We educate and connect people through collecting, regenerating, and sharing heirloom seeds, plants, and stories."
2018 South Bronx Gardeners Explore Nature
For the fourth year, the student gardeners of PS 48 participated in the New Yorkers for Parks Daffodil Project! Thank you NY4P for your continued support!
Spring 2017 Gardening Begins!
Stewardship of Drake Park...Continues!
Over 125 students from P.S. 48 collaborated with New Yorkers for Parks (NY4P) and NYC Parks to beautify Drake Park. For the second year, on Friday, October 17, 2014, the students planted daffodil bulbs in remembrance of September 11, placed mulch around tree beds, raked the falling leaves, and improved the site of the Hunts Point Slave Burial Ground. Thank you, New Yorkers for Parks, for donating the bulbs. Thank you, NYC Parks, for donating mulch. Thank you to both groups for providing tools and lending your planting expertise!
Art in the Garden Spring 2014
Ms. Muzik and Ms Binuya paint in the garden with kindergarten artists. Now that is colorful...and fun! What else can you do in a garden?!?!
Taking it to the Park! Spring 2014
The gardeners of of PS 48 left the school garden and headed down to Drake Park in Hunts Point to collaborate with NYC Parks on a stewardship project. The students applied mulch around the bases of the trees, young and old, to keep them healthy as the temperatures rise and the trees get thirsty! Students received their own seed packets and reusable bag as a thank you! And so we say, "Thank you" to Mr. Christopher Acosta and Ms. Basia Nikonorow from NYC Parks for making this event happen!
Garden Soil Analyzed! May 2014
Thank you Ms. ShayMaria, Mr. Rich, and Mr. Edwin for checking our soil to make sure it is safe to grow food! We had a fun day watching you use the soil "x-ray gun" and recording data in your notebook. Take a look at some of our photos from the day. And the good news? The soil is safe for growing food for harvest. Wahoosers!
On Thursday, May 8, 2014, SBxSGOC received plant starts, including vegetables, herbs, and flowers. Let's go plant!
Please see photos of students planting daffodils in Drake Park and the school garden. Also, see their awesome "thank you" letters! The link will take you to the Hunts Point Slave Burial Ground Project.
Thank you! View student thank you letters. We received plant starts in May 2013 for getting the garden up and growing. Tomatoes, cilantro, or bell peppers anyone?
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Garden in the Winter
Students learn to be meteorologists during a snowstorm! They used thermometers, anemometers, measuring sticks, clipboards, and their senses!
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Compost and Mulch Fest 2012!
Check out the photos from the May 23, 2012 event. Over 200 students participated in the soil, mulch, and compost delivery. They even found some surprises in the delivery. Can you find them in the pictures? Grow to Learn NYC and NYC Parks GreenThumb teamed up to donate soil, mulch, compost, and a deeper sense of community! Over 200 students collaborated with teachers and these organizations to deliver the soil to the garden beds. The students were organized into bucket brigades to carry, dump, and rake the soil delivery. Hard work is hard fun! Here is a slideshow of pictures from the event.
Mulchfest 2011
NYC Parks Green Thumb donates Soil and Mulch...Thank You, Green Thumb! This is an example of what your donation can do for the students of Hunts Point!
2010-2011 School Year Gardening
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