UPTOWN — When Katharine Boyda asked a group of Courtenay Elementary first-graders why they wanted to build a community garden, they told her because they hoped "to make the world a better place."
Monday, the group, the Courtenay Budding Gardeners, completed planting 125 native plants at the Sunnyside Mall for the program, which was made possible through a mini-grant from the University of Illinois Extension of its Master Gardner Program.
"Most community gardens are done on school property. This was the children saying we want to do something for the community. This is their contribution," said Boyda, who led the Master Gardener Program.
The 20-or-so students helped water, "tickle the roots" and plant a variety of flowers to attract butterflies and bees for pollination including swamp milkweeds, butterfly milkweeds, coneflowers, joe-pye weeds and sunflowers at their garden in the 1200 block of West Sunnyside Avenue.
"I wanted to plant sunflowers, so I can plant beautiful flowers with my mom," said 7-year-old Michael.
Sha'niyah, 8, gardens with her grandmother every holiday and after telling her about the class project her grandmother said "I can maybe plant without her. ... I like to plant a lot."
The project focuses on "environmental stewardship and youth development through gardening in a community public place" by encouraging children to "appreciate and actively care for nature, our earth and all living things," according to the grant proposal for the project.
The project came together over a few months and required in-class teaching, which included maintaining a worm bin to create compost for the garden.
Adopting the 1,000 worms was 8-year-old Charlie's favorite part because "they're awesome and they feel good," he said showing off a new critter he discovered while planting Monday.
"They eat half their body weight [and] their poop is named castings," Charlie said.
The project illustrated for the students how plants and insects work together.
"The worms are going to help us with the soil. If the soil is healthy the plants grow," said Rihanna adding the birds and bees the native plants attract will also "help our plants grow."
According to Michelle King, the teacher, who leads the program for the school at 4420 N. Beacon St., the location of the garden was chosen because "there seemed to be a problem with the kids walking home this way."
The gardening event was the culmination of months of work between multiple teachers at the school, community members and the students involving quizzes and lots of work with professional gardeners, she said.
"It truly shows it takes a village [to raise a child. The professional gardeners] built a relationship and I'm so grateful for it. ... I'm honored to be able to facilitate and enjoy watching them work," King said.
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