Garden Breakfast Club at Seatack Elementary: Garden Extension

The Something in the Water Festival was a momentous occasion full of great music and experiences. It really put Virginia Beach on the map. Before any of the bands performed or food was served, however, there was a garden at Seatack Elementary School that needed to be officially opened.

PlantPop produced a story about the original garden back in 2016. The garden once held 12 raised beds, two for each grade level. The new extension of the garden, thanks to support from donors, means that there are now 28 raised garden beds available for students, faculty, and the rest of the community.

“We have more space to plant things...I’d say that’s the biggest change and the one I’m most excited about,” says fifth-grader and member of the Garden Breakfast Club Ricky Jarvis.

Marie Culver, a gifted resource teacher who has worked with the students on the garden for the past few years always points to this space as being more than a garden.

Justice Williams, another member of the Garden Breakfast Club says being out in the garden changed his life.

“My attitude was really bad, I was a really troubled student. That’s when Ms. Culver picked me to be in the Garden Club and then I came outside the second day and, like, my whole life changed.”

The current garden represents a great deal of hard work and teamwork. The boys worked closely with landscape architecture firm WPL and had only a matter of weeks to complete the project before the Something in the Water Festival began. 

The fifth-grade boys who make up the Garden Breakfast Club knew that the opening of the garden was the kickoff to the festival, but also knew the garden would be the lasting impression of the festivities, as Justin Harden pointed out.

“Even when the Something in the Water Festival is long gone, this is still going to be there…this garden is still going to be part of it.” 

For more information about the garden, visit WPL’s post here and watch the first film we produced about the garden at Seatack here.

This episode was filmed by Leon Guanzon and editing was done by Josh Wingard.