Lillian Jean-Baptiste, junior, went to elementary school at Mallinckrodt Academy where they had a huge community garden. People who lived around the school could come to pick vegetables.

“My dad made a compost bin for me 7 years ago, and that’s when I really got into everything,” Jean Baptiste said.

Now,  she and her friends have decided to create a gardening club.

Jean-Baptiste said this year the gardening club has several goals, including reviving the  school’s flower beds and getting the support of the Wild Ones Grant, which provides grants for native plants to be planted.

The club found out Friday, Feb. 9, that  they would not be chosen to receive the grant, so they will have to find other ways to fundraise, Jean-Baptiste said.

“It’s fine, we are going to bounce back from it,” Jean-Baptiste said.

Jean-Baptiste said they plan to do bake sales and receive some funding from the school due to the fact that they are improving the landscaping.

Jean-Baptiste said in the future they hope to start a vegetable garden project, but for the time being they do not have the funding to pursue such a goal.

“We have milkweed plants we plan to do, American Plum trees, red columbine and a lot of pollinator plants that are native to Missouri,” Jean-Baptiste said. “We really want to restore the school’s side garden bed by the pool entrance and then the  center garden bed by the sign that says Marquette.”

Daya Deepu, junior, said she was inspired to start the club with her friends because she enjoys activities outside.

“Right now we are mainly just clearing up because we can’t do a lot in the winter, but hopefully we can start getting more activities going in early spring,” Deepu said. “We are also planning on painting rocks and putting them along the center gardens.”

Deepu said she has limited experience with gardening, and only really gardened with her grandparents, but she was still interested in joining and helping organize the club.

“When I found out we were starting a gardening club, I really wanted to take the opportunity to try something different,” Deepu said.

Tonia Scherer, director of schools for Seed St. Louis, said there are many reasons gardening is a good skill to learn and many reasons young people should be interested in gardening.

“I think of gardening as, one, just being a great therapy. Getting outside, getting vitamin D and it tends to be very therapeutic and meditative,” Scherer said. “Now more than ever, it is important to know how to grow our own food.”

Scherer said there are also health benefits to being able to grow your own food such as having  more control.

“You know where your food comes from, you know what, if any, chemicals have been put on it; whereas, you don’t always know that in the store,” Scherer said. “It’s also fresher if you are growing tomatoes from your own garden versus if you are eating tomatoes from the store that may have been shipped from another country.”

After the pandemic, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of people interested in gardening, Scherer said.

“It takes adults and teachers introducing youths to gardens and the outdoors at a young age to hopefully have that effect that leads to them having more interest later in life,” Scherer said. “Technology, and people spending less time outside I think will get to a point where people really value that kind of escape.”

Leslie Tiemeyer, FACS teacher, sponsors gardening club. She said the club started in the winter overall the fall due to the fact that they had difficulty finding a sponsor. 

“I trusted that the students who came to me would follow through and truly make this a student-led organization, and so far they have done just that,” Tiemeyer said.

This story was originally published on Marquette Messenger on February 14, 2024.