Schools

Blaine Plans Outdoor Organic Garden Along Southport

The outdoor space will not only be utilized for classes, but also spruce up the street and hopefully become an outdoor space for area residents.

Blaine Elementary School is ready to break ground on another outdoor space along Southport Avenue that will not only serve its students, but also the Lake View community.

The Blaine Organic Garden—or BOG, for short—will transform the school’s Southport-facing entrance into a functional and beautiful outdoor space. But along with sprucing up the space for neighbors, it’ll also serve as much-needed extra space for the teachers and students.

“One of the goals was to create one or two classroom spaces for classes to use as an outdoor space,” said Garden Club leader Nancy Ziegelmueller. “Blaine is packed. They’re reaching some pretty serious levels of overcrowding. There are teachers without classrooms, which is no fun. If an outdoor space can give them just a little bit of a steam valve to enjoy that space, that’s definitely what we want to provide.”

Find out what's happening in Lakeviewwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The BOG will have two spaces where teachers can take a classroom. Organizers broke ground on the south square last year, and plan to do transform the northern square starting later this spring.

“Blaine is packed... If an outdoor space can give them just a little bit of a steam valve to enjoy that space, that’s definitely what we want to provide.”

When finished, the new space and pathways will hopefully relieve congestion at the end of the day when school lets out. Ziegelmueller says aiming to improve the flow of students and parents was one of the top priorities.

Find out what's happening in Lakeviewwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

That’s combined with including the space in Blaine’s curriculum. Ziegelmueller says the goal is to make sure everyone in the school can enjoy the BOG, meaning it’ll be incorporated into everything from math to English classes.

“This ties in with using the outdoor classrooms in the entire curriculum,” she said. “It’s not just science, it’s math, geography, reading, art, music, nutrition, environmental lessons—all of those things can be done out there.”

But in the end, Ziegelmueller hopes the entire endeavor will be something enjoyed by the entire Blaine community.

“A final goal is to engage the community in creating and enjoying the new space,” she said. “If neighbors want to help out, work in the garden or enjoy the benefits, that would be ideal.”


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here