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Growing New Roots at the Linford School Garden

September 2024

The garden at Linford Elementary School in Laramie has been there for many years, but for the last few, it’s been dormant. With Laramie’s short growing season that spans the months when school is out of session, it’s been a challenge to keep the garden going. All of that changed this year when Linford librarian Stefanie Hunt connected with Cent$ible Nutrition Program (CNP) educator Ruth Lake.

“I’ve helped with the garden in the past, and it was kind of in shambles the past couple years,” said Hunt. “So, we wanted to partner with Ruth and Albany County 4-H. They came to me with ideas about adding more garden troughs and getting kids together to help us.”

“We wanted to get the Linford garden going again,” said Lake. “The counselor at Linford is trying to get a food pantry started in the school, and so we wanted to help provide produce for that, that the kids grew themselves.”

Ruth Lake and Stefanie Hunt under the growing arch at the Linford garden

Lake and Albany County 4-H educator, Amanda Dougherty, met with Linford’s Parent-Teacher-Organization (PTO) to get approval for the project. Once they had approval, they hosted several seed-starting activities before school ended for the summer to get youth started on the project. Seed starting was open to students at Linford and Albany County 4-H members. Many of the youth who participated attend Linford and continued to help with transplanting and garden upkeep during the growing season.

“They wanted to be part of their own garden,” said Lake. Many of the kids came back week after week to see how their seed progressed to a seedling and then to a plant.

Inside one of the Linford greenhouses with tomato plants and a sign that says Linford Garden

As part of rehabilitating the garden, new soil, donated by Big Hunks Excavation Company, was added to the beds. Fresh wood chips, donated from Lodge Pole Products, were laid down throughout the garden area to keep the weeds down. The community support was essential for restarting the garden.

In addition to Lake and Dougherty, Brenna Litynski, the Agriculture and Natural Resources educator at Albany County Extension joined in to share her expertise.

“I think it’s helpful to have multiple perspectives and skill sets on a project like this,” said Litynski. “There were times where our leaves were getting eaten on one of the plants and Ruth sent me a picture and was like, what’s happening here and, as an Agriculture and Natural Resources educator, I could try and find the reason for that and come up with some kind of solution.”

Lake, Dougherty, and Litynski are all newer members to the Albany County Extension office and found that the Linford garden project helped bring them together on an effort that makes a difference in the community.

“As someone who’s super new to the job, this project let me network with the community and learn about the things that are going on in Laramie,” said Litynski.

With the garden back in shape, Hunt is hoping it will be used more by students and teachers alike. “I think classrooms will want to come out here and maybe do some science notebooks to make observations,” said Hunt.

With school now back in session, students have formed a garden club and are helping to harvest once a week, with the produce going to the new food pantry at Linford.

“I have been there a couple of times as school is getting out and the garden club kids will come in the garden and help me,” said Lake. “I think they feel ownership and pride in the garden.”

As the harvest comes ready, everyone is taking a chance to reflect.

“I think a big success for me was just getting the Linford garden going again,” said Lake. “I think we may not have the most successful yield from the garden, but we learned a lot from this first year and will go forward from there. That’s the part that has me excited. This is not just a one-year thing. This is going be an ongoing project.”

“I hope that our excitement and enthusiasm can be realized and other people can grab on to that and want to be a part of this,” Dougherty adds.

If students working in the garden before and after school is any indicator, the new roots at Linford’s garden have been a success.

“We got a lot more accomplished this summer than I think we ever have, and so now we’ve kind of got a clean slate to keep building and producing,” said Hunt.

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* The Cent$ible Nutrition Program is funded by USDA SNAP-Ed and EFNEP. SNAP-Ed assists individuals and families who receive, or are eligible to receive, benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). EFNEP assists families and youth with limited resources  in acquiring the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and changed behaviors necessary for nutritionally sound diets and contributes to their personal development and the improvement of total family diet and nutritional welfare. Visit our Qualify page to learn more. 

This material was funded by USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – SNAP. This institution is an equal opportunity provider. This material was funded by USDA’s Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program-EFNEP. USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. The full nondiscrimination statement can be found here. 

Issued in furtherance of extension work, acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Kelly Crane, Director, University of Wyoming Extension, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Wyoming Extension, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming 82071.

The University of Wyoming is an equal opportunity/affirmative action institution.

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