Bell Breaks Ground on a Garden For Learning

Work on the Bell School Organic Garden started earlier this month, well before Thursday's groundbreaking ceremony.

But the ceremony at the K-3 Bell School gave organizers and administrators a chance to thank the contractors and parents who have volunteered to make the school inside/outside learning project a reality.

The school's 370 or so students will see a new 100-foot corridor stripped of asphalt and cleared of brush, and a pizza garden and patio.

It will be a place for children to grow as they study and play.

Art, music, biology, math, geometry, literature and history are just some of the subjects the garden area will serve.

The peaceful place is ideal for small concerts and sketching, for gathering and charting data, for reading poetry, for learning the history of agriculture and the science of health. 

The project is the vision of parents Jean Skaane and Catherine Martin and teachers including Lee-Anne Fairbanks at the Baldwin Road school.

Catherine, a landscape designer with DeVellis Zrein Inc., volunteered her skills and designed the garden with education in mind.

Her plan includes 5,000 square feet, with 1,200 square feet of working space between the rear of the Upper Bell School and the school’s property line.  

Below is a list of local companies that have given their support, time and hours of hard work to help the Bell Garden:

Justin Epstein Masonry

McLaughlin Masonry

Cuzner Landscaping

DTZ

DiLisio Brothers

Unilock

Gilbert & Cole

Meredith Nelson Photography

Amy McHugh - Assistant Superintendent Water and Sewer Commission for the Town of Marblehead