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The Powisset Garden Club of Dover visited the 3rd grade classes at Chickering Elementary School to lead them in an exercise at the school’s historical garden, which was built by the Garden Club in 2015. The garden is an exact replica of the 18th century garden at the Caryl House - a traditional English garden that features four raised beds surrounded by a river stone path. The beds contain plants used for medicinal, dyeing and flavoring purposes.
The children started outside at the garden, where members of the Powisset Garden Club showed them the spring growth in the beds. The children were then divided into three teams – doctors, weavers and cooks - and helped identify which plants would be of use to them in their trade, whether for medicinal, textile dying or culinary use.
Then it was back to the classroom to see how herb bouquets, which they put together during the fall visit from the Garden Club, fared over the winter. The children got to take their bouquets home with them, as well as a lavender sachet made just like in the 18th century – and still today.
The goal of the garden project is to augment the 3rd graders’ curriculum of Massachusetts history, especially that associated with their annual Caryl House field trip in June. The garden provides Chickering students with their own outdoor learning space, which can be used by all grades.
Created by the Powisset Garden Club of Dover, the garden was planted in the spring of 2015 by that year’s 3rd grade. This project was supported in part by a grant from the Dover Cultural Council (DCC), a local agency that is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency. For many years, the garden club led a school plant project at Dover-Sherborn Middle School, and it is excited to have moved its school outreach project to Chickering.
The historical garden at Chickering provides students with a hands-on learning experience. In the fall, the Powisset Garden Club teaches the children how Colonial New Englanders harvested and stored plants for use during winter. In the spring, children see plant growth and how to foster that growth for spring and summer. They go over what plants were used for in both lessons. The spring lesson is aligned with the annual field trip to the Caryl House so the children can see how the garden looks in its historic setting.
The Powisset Garden Club, which funded the project (in part with the DCC grant), maintains the garden, working in concert with the PTO Outdoor Classroom team. This maintenance is in addition to the classroom and garden lessons.
The Powisset Garden Club of Dover is a civic garden club. Other projects the club works on include maintaining the Soldier’s Memorial in town, supporting the Dover Library Holiday House Tour by decorating a home, and designing a tree for Mass Horticulture’s Festival of Trees fundraiser.
New members are always welcome. For more info on the Powisset Garden Club, visit www.powissetgardenclub.com.
