A late summer morning is the best time to be in the garden. When the sun is shining but the heat of the day hasn’t caught up to you, it’s easy to be swept away by the magic of the outdoors.
A bounty of bright red tomatoes sits on their vine, ready to be picked. A swell of buzzing can be heard from the beehives in the back of the space, interspersed with conversation of high school volunteers talking about their weekend plans as they weed plant beds. The smell of the herb garden, basil and rosemary and parsley, drifts through the air.
After two summers of volunteering with ReWild Long Island, a local environmental group that brings high-schoolers to 10 different community gardens, I have seen firsthand how impactful gardening can be — for the one doing it, for the community, for the environment, even for fighting hunger.
Students at the ReWild Garden at the Thomas Dodge Homestead in Port Washington. The author is the first on the left of the third row.
Credit: ReWild Long Island
The ReWild summer program gives people of my generation an opportunity to learn to grow food sustainably, compost, and remove invasive plants. While a great portion of the summer consists of learning gardening skills and environmental practices through hands-on work, the program also helps foster a sense of community, both in the program and in general. Students and adult mentors work together and learn from each other, and the harvest is donated to the food pantry at Our Lady of Fatima in Manorhaven.
While I’ve learned the benefits and joys of gardening, many of my high school peers are completely uninterested. I know, how could high-schoolers not jump at the chance to wake up early on a summer day to crouch for hours weeding invasives or turning smelly compost bins? But the disinterest goes beyond the activity itself. On some level, many in my generation feel they’re already making a difference, not by getting their hands dirty, but by spending time on their phones.
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