Imlay City Team Turns Garden Dream into Reality

By Nick Prusakiewicz, plant manager, ScottsMiracle-Gro
Nov 20, 2019 8:20 AM ET

It all started with an idea. High-school principal Brian Eddy and environmental science teacher Jeff Gartell wanted to provide Imlay City Schools students in Michigan with authentic, hands-on experiences with biology. He wanted a place where they could nurture a love for the outdoors in students and teach them about plants. A place for students to get their hands dirty and “live” the science.

So the idea of a school garden was born. And that’s when our team stepped in to help.

Fifteen associates from our Imlay City growing media plant volunteered their time and worked with the chemistry, biology and environmental science students to create a raised-bed garden area for the school. 

Eleven raised garden beds were created and filled with soils. Our team organized volunteers, delivered 25 pallets of product and worked with students to fill the beds with soil and level them for fall planting. The garden will be used for scientific study and provide hands-on gardening experiences for all grade levels. The students want to plant wildflowers, milkweed, asparagus, peppers, tomatoes, pumpkins, broccoli and squash.

The school garden project is a perfect fit for ScottsMiracle-Gro’s new Gro More Good initiative, which is all about providing resources and community support to inspire more kids to garden and connect with the outdoors. Gro More Good aims to cultivate the health and well-being of the next generation and has a goal to connect 10 million children to gardening by 2023. The Imlay City team was happy to do our part to support our local community and get more kids gardening.

Learn how ScottsMiracle-Gro is supporting our communities through garden and greenspace development.