Raised Garden Beds in Courtyards

If you are around during advisory, you may have run into a community volunteer tending to the raised garden beds in the courtyards. Fred Miller has been working with Whitman students for some time – starting this labor of love prior to the covid pandemic.

This is the first year since covid that Fred has been able to step back into his role as our gardening expert! Previously, students from different 6th grade advisory classes would be enlisted to help tend to the Whitman gardens. Ms. Hartman’s advisory class has participated this year, and were especially excited to harvest the miner’s lettuce recently.

Fred explains that miner’s lettuce kept the old Gold Rush miners from getting scurvy because it contains so much Vitamin C. Fred and the students recently harvested and donated 150 lbs of produce to give to the Ballard and UW Food Bank. They were also able to snack on it themselves! Fred has done a lot of work on the raised beds himself this year, but it is great to see this advisory project spring back into action.