Rutherford’s Washington School is planning on building an environmental study garden outside the school to help give students a more active appreciation for outdoor field work in science. School officials are hoping to have the garden completed in time for the 2008-2009 school year.

The garden would be about 4,000 square feet in the rear of the building with fenced off private properties bordering it. Plans for the garden were drawn up by the NJMC’s Joanne DeLorenzo after the school approached the commission about the project in the fall of 2006. Currently the space is just a small lawn outside away from the students’ recreation area. The garden would be divided into four areas: a space for studying plants and insects, a "testing zone" with eight planting beds, a composting area and a place for students to gather for outdoor instruction.

"We’ve always talked about finding a more natural environment to provide a more hands-on experience for our students," said Mulcahy. The garden would have several trees and a winding gravel or wood chip path leading between small hills and hummocks. A little circle of pavement with the compass directions engraved in the surface surrounded by a semi-circular two-tiered wall and small boulders will form the main teaching area.

Only Washington School students will use the garden at first, but Mulcahy said eventually students from other schools in the district might be able to use it for mini field trips.

Altogether the garden is expected to cost about $77,000, according to Mulcahy. However, he noted that the school has already received grants and funding from a number of sources, including Lowe’s Charitable and Education Foundation, the Bergen County Utilities Authority, the Rutherford Education Foundation, the Washington School Parent Teacher Association and the Sam’s Club Foundation. Though the Board of Education approved the the plan to use the space for a garden, Mulcahy said the funding is expected to come entirely from donations and grants and won’t require any money from the district’s capital fund.

One of the teachers who helped plan the garden was Corrina Ogden. A former Environmental Education supervisor for the NJMC’s Environmental Center, Ogden has worked as an elementary lab science teacher for Rutherford for the past five years. Currently she teaches bi-weekly lab science classes at all four of the district’s elementary schools to supplement the students’ regular science classes.

"There’ll be a lot of hands-on work understanding the cycles of nature," said Ogden. Currently Washington School second graders learn about insects and third graders learn about plants. Students will learn about all the different seeds and pine cones on the ground in the fall and see how plants end their life cycle before becoming dormant for the winter. In spring, seeds for quick-growing plants such as peas and beans collected from earlier in the year can be planted in the garden’s planting beds for students to see growth before them. Students will learn to identify different species of plants and insects as well as record observations, sketches and results from experiments in regular journals they’ll keep over the course of the year, according to Ogden.

A groundbreaking ceremony for the garden was held on the morning of April 18. Mulcahy said he expects construction to begin over the summer so that the garden will be ready by the start of the new school year.