At the front of the D-wing near the Oak Grove Parking lot stands M-A’s garden, which many students don’t know exists. There, the Gardening Club, led by junior Sam Rousseau, maintains the garden, planting and watering to preserve the greenery.
“We’re a club right now that’s mostly dedicated to revitalizing the space, because it’s been abandoned for close to 10 to 12 years,” Rousseau said. “We plant things, and we have guest speakers sometimes to learn more about plants and botany.”
Inside of the garden.
The club meets Wednesdays after 5th period and Thursdays after 6th period at the garden to work on planting, weeding, and monitoring plants.
Besides Rousseau, the club is led by vice president and senior Crystal Winikoff as well as commander of plants and sophomore Fiona McGaraghan. “There’s three of us who mainly lead it. So we came up with ‘commander of plants’ as a title,” Rousseau said, regarding McGaraghan’s title. All three club leaders work together to help the garden grow, from planting seeds to constructing large scale rehabilitation projects.
Gardening bed used in 2013 by an AP Environmental Science class.
During Rousseau’s freshman year, he discovered the garden and decided to dedicate time to revitalizing it, which sparked his interest in starting the club. “It became kind of a sanctuary for a few of us, where it was hidden, but we could still make it our own, and decorate it however we wanted, and create stories,” he said.
The club itself is very hands-on, and students use their creativity in projects. “In my first year in the garden club, one of the things that I really wanted to do was turn an abandoned bathtub that was on the corner, upside down, and I wanted to turn it into an herb garden. I got some help from various people, I got them to help drag it over to the spot we wanted, and then set it down,” McGaraghan said.
A crutch that was dug out of the dirt.
The gardening club has begun to plant different foods, eventually getting to taste the results of their hard work. “We also get to eat the plants that we grow. And so we’ve had some peas, bean harvest, mustard, potatoes, Fava beans. So that’s always a plus,” Rousseau said. In addition to these plants, the garden also has a crab apple tree, which the club plans to genetically modify to try to change the taste of the apples.
“We have about eight regular members, including three administration and some people who pop in, which is completely fine. It’s always nice to have people who come for a few sessions every once in a while. They’re always welcome,” Rousseau said.
Trash can in the garden that has “love your mother earth” painted on it.
McGaraghan enjoys the club and is looking forward to continuing to grow plants and conducting projects in the following years. “Everyone’s just super supportive, and it’s an environment where I feel very comfortable to make suggestions and help make the club the best it can be, because I’m never worried about judgment, and I know that I’m going to be supported for whatever I’m trying to do,” they said.
Going into the summer, construction plans in the garden will take place, which will tear the entire garden down and then rebuild it with better soil, planter beds, and better surrounding fencing. This will hopefully be completed by the upcoming 2026-27 school year. The club is also hoping to partner with the culinary class to be able to share some of the food the garden produces.
