Grant Helps Romeoville HS Expand Garden

Submitted by Valley View School District 365U

Photo: Romeoville High School senior Rory Burt prepares a plot before seeds are planted in the school’s green house for eventual placement in the RHS vegetable garden.

Romeoville High School is well on its way to converting what originally was designed as a learning garden into a full-fledged edible garden and outdoor classroom, courtesy of grants from VVSD Nutrition Services and Lowe’s Toolbox for Learning.

The garden, located in the southwest corner of the school, now includes 19 different planting beds, cedar boxes, tables, benches, pergolas, arbors, walking paths and even a greenhouse.

“It was really important to continue the momentum we started four years ago through the original grant from Lowe’s,” said Rick Rujawitz, Chair of the RHS Career and Technical Education and Humanities departments. “We’ve made a lot of progress but there’s still a lot of work to be done.”

In addition to the cherry red tomatoes, lettuce and radishes the garden has already produced for the RHS cafeteria, it has also generated a variety of tasks and future ideas for RHS students.

Geometry in Construction classes built the beds, tables and accessories for the garden, poured concrete for paths, and also assembled the green house which was purchased with a second Lowe’s grant.

RHS students help with the planting of seeds and often join in the maintenance of not only the edible garden but also a second garden that is producing pumpkins, Indian corn and gourds.

“We’re thinking of doing a fall sale if we can get a big enough yield,” Rujawitz said. “Any money we make would go back to the garden to buy some more seed for next year.”

Future dreams include putting more bushes around the fenced-in edible garden to add color, and planting flowers so business entrepreneurship students can become involved in some sort of business ownership plan selling flowers for special holidays like Mother’s Day.

“It’s all a vision right now,” Rujawitz said. “It’s just a matter of getting it done and having enough items to sell.”

Rujawitz also hopes more faculty members will use the garden as a learning tool or class meeting space.