Olive’s Garden in Jefferson Park seen as important educational resource for students

by BRIAN NADIG

The volunteer curator for the Olive’s Neighborhood Garden for the Hungry in Jefferson Park hopes it can become an educational resource for local children, providing them hands-on experiences on an urban farm.

The approximately 2,000-square-foot garden at Laramie Avenue and Ainslie Street is located two blocks from Beaubien School, 5025 N. Laramie Ave., and the school’s Garden Club has started working with Bill Zelenka, who manages the garden and can often be seen volunteering there.

“Where else in the city is there an outdoor urban farm so close to an elementary school?” Zelenka said, describing the garden as a “laboratory” where science, farming and other educational topics can be taught.

“We are constantly planting seeds,” he said. “We have bees, farming, solar panels, a greenhouse … four types of peppers, five squashes, eggplant, tomatoes, green beans” and more.

Even when students are not at the garden, it can continue to serve as a resource for the school, Zelenka said.

“The garden is in the process of adding WiFi so that we can have 24/7 camera to watch how the garden grows. We also will have videos on our honey bees where the students can learn all about the bees’ cycle of life and how they produce honey,” Zelenka wrote in a proposal to the school.

Some of the harvesting honey videos have been shown to pre-schoolers at Immaculate Conception School, 7263 W. Talcott Ave., Zelenka said.

Zelenka already has begun working with the Beaubien Garden Club on growing garlic, a winter crop, in the the school’s on-campus garden.

Beaubien principal Michelle Ludford said that the garden is “an awesome” resource for the community and that the club and teachers will be formulating plans with Zelenka on how to take advantage of its educational opportunities.

“The great thing is that it’s easy to customize this to the teacher’s needs. The garden has applications in science, social studies and even math with things like the physics of our watering system or counting crops and estimating yields,” Zelenka’s proposal said.

The garden, which includes a raised bed of organic soil mix, was founded 17 years ago as part of an Eagle Scout project and provides food to pantries at Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity Church and Northwest Church of Christ. This year the garden features 10-foot tall tomato plants.

“In 17 years we’ve gone from Seth Brecklin’s Eagle Project to a paradise” in Jefferson Park, Zelenka said of the garden’s growth.

More information is available on the garden’s Facebook page.

This is just part of today’s coverage. Get the full story - every article, every ad, every page. Subscribe now.

The Latest From Our Community