Garden Visit
June 9, 2021 | Bridget O'Dowd
At the beginning of this week, on what seemed the hottest day of the year, the kindergarten trekked out to Ms. Pargellis’s garden. Ms. Pargellis is the lower school director at Mustard Seed. She kindly invited us to visit her garden and help out with some jobs.
On our walk there, we noticed many gardens!
When we arrived, we took a walk around the garden. Ms. Pargellis challenged us to find different types of plants. We learned about a few garden tools. Ms. Pargellis invited us to help her with some garden chores. The children chose to help Ms. Pargellis plant flowers, water, mow the meadow, rake, or sweep.
Ms. Pargellis challenged us to find an “orange shell” while we were in her garden. We were stumped until she pointed to a turtle! The turtle showed up in Ms. Pargellis’s backyard one day and has lived there ever since, with the exception of when he is hibernating in winter.
After we worked up an appetite, we got to enjoy the fruits of labor. Although these strawberries came from the grocery store, they tasted much sweeter after all our hard work! The turtle even got to eat one too! After we thanked Ms. Pargellis, we headed on to our next stop, Columbus Park. We cooled off in the sprinklers, spent time playing, and some children even found a worm, a gardener’s friend!
It was a great walking trip! We have been inspired to continue our gardening journey. On Willow, between 5th and 6th St. is a small pocket garden. We have been invited by Ms. Aberg and Hoboken Grace to tend this garden. We visited the garden on Monday and we talked about how it is a memorial to baby Arlo Walter Kolb, a baby who passed away. We talked about how Arlo is in heaven with God and that this garden is a way to honor him and for people on earth to remember him by. The garden is a little overgrown and in need of some TLC so the kindergarten decided we’d like to help! On Friday, we will be cleaning up the garden. Next week we will vote on what plants we will add to make the memorial to baby Arlo beautiful!
