Martha’s Garden extends both the classroom and the after-school program out of doors, allowing elementary and middle-school students to enrich their reading, math and science skills and cultural literacy.  The Garden is in season year-round.  Student teams develop decision-making and negotiation skills as they plan the layout of the beds using geometric principles and prepare a planting and maintenance schedule based on observation of climate and weather data that they document over time.  

The teams evaluate decisions such as whether to focus on high-yield crops that will bring added dollars at the market; how much space to devote to plants they like to prepare and eat, themselves; and how much productive space to yield to flowers that will attract beneficial insects and birds, and decorative plantings that will appeal to visitors.  

At harvest time they decide which crops to sell at a local market and which to prepare on site in daily cooking and nutrition classes.  They research pricing, learn display techniques, evaluate options for investing the proceeds, and plan recipes according to which vegetables are ripe.