Wilton Green Teens Win National Recognition For Their Garden

The Community Garden at Trackside was the recipient of three awards this year, two state awards from the federated garden clubs of Connecticut and one national award from the National Garden Club organization.

The gardens are managed by the Green Teens, a group of around 25 students from Middlebrook and Wilton High School. The group has two advisors from the Wilton Garden Club - Pam Nobomoto and Laurie Musilli, as well as input from Jim Hunter, WHS teacher and Jonathan Kirschner from Ambler Farm.

Since the inception of the garden nine years ago, the space and the program have grown and expanded in organic ways. Starting from four raised beds and no fencing, the garden now consists of ten raised beds, is completely fenced in, with pollinator attracting flowers planted around the outside. The goals of the program are to get more young people involved with creating and maintaining vegetable gardens, to teach youth about the importance of healthy foods, and to give back to the community as the produce they grow is donated to the Wilton food pantry. This year the Green Teens group were able to donate 200 pounds of fresh produce to the Wilton food pantry.

Laurie and Pam are incredibly proud of the hard work that the students have put in over the years and are very pleased with their state and national recognition. “Everyone who comes here gets something different out of it, we have kids that like digging, kids that like planting, kids that enjoy the flowers. We have expanded into making art out of plants, we have been the beneficiaries of service projects and Eagle scout projects. The seniors from Wilton Commons have been to visit and we look forward to getting Genesis more involved with the garden” said Laurie Musilli about her involvement in the program.

Green Teens meets at Trackside weekly during the growing season. The program is free to participate in.

To find out more click here to visit the Trackside website.

W
Submitted by Wilton, CT

Become a Local Voice in Your Community!

HamletHub invites you to contribute stories, events, and more to keep your neighbors informed and connected.

Read Next