Staff Photo by Randall Higgins
Jesse Burgeuno, left, Jennifer Norton and Matthew Fisher, along with volunteers from Ocoee Middle School, get in some early Monday morning weeding at The Greenway Table educational garden for the community. The vegetable garden is one of the stops on Saturday's UT Extension - Bradley County's annual garden tour, along with manicured and landscaped home lawns and gardens.CLEVELAND, Tenn. -- The Greenway Table is set to grow again.
Community volunteers, schoolchildren and Lee University and Cleveland State Community College students, led by Jennifer Norton, started the community learning garden three years ago. Since then hundreds of children have learned how seeds become plants and food.
The garden, near Mayfield Elementary School at 20th and Parker streets, takes up part of a field owned by the Cleveland city school system. The board granted the garden three years, and that time is about to expire.
Norton is asking the board to allow the Greenway Table to continue on the site. Her plans include running a small pipe to a nearby city water source and adding fruit trees.
"Within the next year we want to get an educator on staff," she said. "We will continue to host school groups and after-school groups."
School board members have indicated they plan to agree when they meet Monday.
"It's truly exciting to watch the community garden grow," board member Dawn Robinson said. More community gardens are showing up now, too, she said.