Danville’s Douglas Discovery Garden will again be a place to get free vegetables this summer…thanks in-part to some local students.
Some students from the Kenneth D. Bailey Academy use the site for a school project. Science teacher Jamie Skovran explains…
{AUDIO: ‘’We have partnered with the U. of I. Master Gardeners here in town to work with the kids. They come in and do lessons with the kids on different gardening things. We talk about soil, good and bad bugs…all kinds of things. And then we plant our own seeds at the school. We grow them for a few weeks and then we bring them out here, and several of these gardens are ours – for Kenneth D. Bailey Academy.’’}
Skovran says she loves being able to use the Discovery Garden…
{AUDIO: ‘’This is probably one of Danville’s best kept secrets. There’s so many free vegetables here all summer long. And all they ask that you do is maybe pull a couple of weeds before you take a couple of tomatoes. So it’s a really great resource.’’}
Skovran adds it’s a good lesson for her students….
{AUDIO: ‘’I think that gardening is a life skill – like knowing how to grow your own food, knowing how to take care of plants, knowing the process. It’s also very scientific for those who are interested in… the biological sciences of how things go through those stages. …The kids love it. They enjoy all of our speakers. We had a lesson on bees this year that they just went ga-ga over. It was the most interesting thing.’’}
The Douglas Discovery Garden is located at the site where Douglas Elementary School once stood along Florida Avenue in Danville (near Douglas Park). It was built as a place where students could learn about various plants.
University of Illinois Master Gardeners from the area help maintain it.
