Sarah Currier, fourth grade teacher at Edgecomb Eddy School, recently gathered together an impressive assembly of experts and enthusiasts to brainstorm future plans for the school gardens and orchard.

Exciting ideas to engage students and the community sparked the imaginations of the invited guests at the late January meeting. Yoga classes, art shows, authors' teas? A stop on the Maine School Garden Network garden tour? Outdoor cooking classes, workshops on composting and pollination? Building birdhouses and bat houses?

These hands-on and hearts-on activities cultivate the spirit as well as the mind.

Since the first garden plot nurtured by teacher Dawn Garey nearly 20 years ago, Edgecomb children have dug in the dirt, examined invertebrates, and blossomed brightly right alongside the little seedlings they had planted. Collaborators including Maine Agriculture in the Classroom, TeachME Food and Farms, ReTreeUs, CLC YMCA'S FARMS program, Mainely Worm Bins, and Full Circle Farm have invigorated our resolve to forge ahead. Members of Boothbay Rotary, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, and Boothbay Region Garden Club have been essential companions all along the way. With new reinforcements from Garden Club of Wiscasset, Edgecomb Eddy School children will be able to play and learn in the gardens and orchards for years to come.