Abraxas High School’s garden in full bloom

Thanks to the hard work of staff and students, plus generous donations from the community, Abraxas High School’s community garden is thriving.

Built in raised boxes on an unused tennis court in the front corner of the campus, the garden has become a center of learning for many of the students.

Abraxas broke ground on the garden in June 2015. Now, almost a year later, the tennis court is nearly unrecognizable. Raised beds full of fresh produce fill the garden, along with an aquaponics system, including a tank full of tilapia; three compost bins and a teaching area in the center of the garden.

The school is also turning one corner of the garden into an in-ground tank for the tilapia, which will give the fish more room and allow students using mobility devices to see into the tank and help feed and maintain the fish. The current tank is on a raised platform, so students in wheelchairs are unable to see inside of it. The new tank should be finished later this month.

More than just a source of fresh vegetables, the garden is an outdoor classroom for a wide variety of subjects.

Starting with a construction class for the schools’ Career Technical Education courses, the subjects using the garden for learning have expanded to include biology, Spanish and English courses, as well as work experience for the Transitions program special needs students.

The construction students designed the garden, and work on building planter boxes and the new fish tank, while biology and science students use the garden as an open-air classroom, studying everything from why certain plants are thriving to how the aquaponics system works.

The Spanish class has been working on labeling the plants in Spanish, and the English class has been working on grants for the project, said Abraxas Principal Dave MacLeod.

Despite the hard work required to maintain the garden, MacLeod said the students don’t complain. “The kids get past the hard work because they can see it’s part of the greater good,” he said. “They’re building something tangible that is important to them. They can point it out to their families and say ‘I did that.’”

MacLeod said using the garden as a classroom also provides relevancy to the subjects. “The students now know why the need math and science,” said MacLeod. “The light bulb goes on. They know why they need those skills. The students seem engaged and excited, and the teachers as well.”

Much of the maintenance of the garden, including weeding and harvesting, is handled by the Transitions program, which uses the garden as a job site for its students.

About half of the produce grown in the garden will be donated to the Backyard Produce Project, said MacLeod, to be distributed to families in need. The other half will be offered to the community for optional donations from a booth that will be set up at certain times in the school’s parking lot and manned by students.

In the future, MacLeod said they would like to add irrigation and more planters.