Author: Advyon

Ramona, a 17-year-old rising senior in Kansas City, Missouri, has been a Katie’s Krops Grower for two years. Her garden, located on the grounds of Mount Tabor School of the Liberal Arts, is tended mainly by Ramona, with considerable help from her eight-year-old sister, Josephine, and occasionally from her fellow students during the school year.

After a teacher at the school learned about Katie’s Krops, they applied for a grant and used the funding to grow peppers, greens, kale, tomatoes, and eggplant, which were extremely popular at Thelma’s Kitchen, where the food is used to make meals for those in need. She also grew potatoes, radishes, snap peas, strawberries (which were not successful), and kohlrabi, a new vegetable for Ramona that grew surprisingly well. Overall, she produced 58 pounds of vegetables in the first year.

For this second year, in addition to repeating what was planted last year, she added spinach, another very productive crop, along with green beans and okra. Sadly, the strawberries yielded only a few berries, which was better than last year. She also had no luck starting seeds in trays, but fortunately, direct sowing was successful. As of the end of June, she has harvested 18.5 pounds of vegetables.

Her mom is a talented gardener and has been a great inspiration to Ramona. She has received valuable guidance from Peter Bradshaw, a school staff member, and Christine Dreschler, a school supporter who has assisted with the grant process and provided encouragement throughout the project. The elementary school students have been very enthusiastic about helping during the school year, and Ramona’s classmates were also a great help. She found it challenging mostly during the summer months, when very few people were interested in volunteering. She also found it challenging to get to the school during the summer until she obtained her driver’s license.

Basil Gipson, a school staff member, has agreed to take over tending the garden at the end of July, as she is embarking on a new adventure. The entire family is moving to Pelican, Alaska, for a year while her parents teach at the local school, which has about 16 students, including Ramona and her three siblings. Even though Pelican is on an island about a 60-minute charter plane ride from Juneau and, somewhat surprisingly, in the same growing zone as Kansas City, it’s uncertain whether she’ll be able to garden there since she won’t be taking her tools and grow lights. With each family member allotted just two shipping boxes that are 2 feet long, 1 foot wide, and 1.5 feet high for everything they want and need to take, space will be at a premium. Fortunately, a furnished house is provided by the school district.

As Ramona begins this new adventure, she is thankful for all that she has learned and gained as a Katie’s Krops grower. She is taking with her the inspiration to help neighbors in need, new leadership skills, and a budding love of gardening. Katie’s Krops has enjoyed working with Ramona over the last two years, and we hope she enjoys living a very different lifestyle, one where there are no cars, just four-wheelers and a boardwalk instead of roads. We also hope she avoids the brown bears.

Katie’s Krops gardeners don’t always plant in their backyards or schoolyards. Some, like 10-year-old Isaiah Enterline and his 7-year-old sister Grace, make the most of whatever space is available. For them, that space is at their church—Solomon’s United Church of Christ in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania—where they tend four 2’x8’ garden beds and are excited to add a fifth this season, thanks to a win in a contest we hold throughout the season for our Growers.

Church member Julie Emig first discovered Katie’s Krops about four years ago while helping launch a community garden at Solomon’s, which now includes over 20 plots maintained by local residents. Inspired by her son’s work with kids’ gardens in Chicago and a desire to involve youth at their own church, Julie found Katie’s Krops while researching youth-led gardening initiatives—and the rest is history.

Isaiah, the youth lead Grower, impressed us with his gardening skills, earning him the title of 2024 Rookie Gardener of the Year. Alongside their mom, Kathleen, who serves as their primary adult supporter, Isaiah and Grace—joined by other young volunteers—donated over 300 pounds of fresh produce in 2024. Most of the food came from their church garden, with extra contributions from their home garden and neighboring community plots. Their harvest includes beets, radishes, cucumbers, peas, strawberries, peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, kale, and cabbage. All of it goes to local food pantries, including The Gleaning Project, which runs a daily produce stand sharing surplus crops from farmers and gardeners. This year, the young gardeners are also contributing to their church’s blessing box, which now includes a refrigerator—perfect for storing freshly picked radishes and strawberries.

Their gardening journey hasn’t been without challenges: drought, persistent weeds, hungry bunnies, and whiteflies that damaged their brassicas. While a row cover helped protect the plants, strong winds sent it flying. Thankfully, their dad found it in a nearby field—although the stakes were lost. This time, they’re using heavy rocks to keep it grounded.

In addition to the vegetables, they also have a butterfly garden with many colorful pollinators, encouraging beneficial insects to help keep the destructiveones away. They work in the garden weekly with other children, helping regularly. Isaiah is happy to do so because he enjoys giving back to thecommunity and appreciates gardening. Grace also likes giving flowers.

The church continues to create opportunities for other children to get involved. During their Weekend of Wonders on the second Saturday of each month, six or seven children join in to help with whatever the garden needs—from planting to weeding.

Katie’s Krops is proud to support Isaiah, Grace, and all the young gardeners at Solomon’s United Church of Christ as they grow food, give back, and blossom alongside their gardens.

Jarred Shaw has a passion for two things—gardening and his students—and he’s found a way to beautifully blend the two. When we featured his work at River City Science Academy in 2023 (River City Science Academy ~ Florida – Welcome to Katie’s Krops!), we shared how he brought their school garden to life with support from Katie’s Krops and other generous organizations.

Now, Jarred has taken on a new role closer to home at Landrum Middle School in Ponte Vedra, Florida, where he works as a literacy coach. Although the garden at Landrum was already thriving when he arrived, Jarred didn’t miss a beat. From his office window, he now enjoys watching the garden in action—cared for primarily by students in the special education program who plant, weed, harvest, and maintain nine raised beds brimming with kale, tomatoes, onions, cabbage, squash, peppers, collards, snap peas, beans, okra, strawberries, and a wide variety of herbs like thyme, parsley, and oregano.

Even more exciting, the school is expanding its orchard, which already includes two mature avocado trees. Soon, students hope to be harvesting cherries, bananas, limes, lemons, papaya, raspberries, mangoes, and grapefruit.

The garden is more than just a growing space—it’s an outdoor classroom. The students, who have various intellectual and developmental disabilities, are guided by dedicated paraprofessionals and teachers who weave gardening into science and math lessons. The work gets them moving, engaged, and learning in meaningful ways.

Each week, members of the school’s Best Buddies chapter (part of Best Buddies International) join in. Every Wednesday, they share lunch, play games, and garden alongside the students. Their commitment was recently recognized with a visit from the national Best Buddies team, who brought lunch from Chick-fil-A and fun activities to celebrate the program.

The impact of the garden extends beyond the special education program. STEM students recently engineered a hydroponic system using buckets and pipes to grow tomatoes. Their innovation will help contribute to the roughly 200 pounds of food harvested annually—most of which goes home with students in care packages. Jarred hopes that one day soon, they’ll produce enough to donate fresh food to a local pantry as well.

In addition to supporting students and teachers in the garden, Jarred stays busy behind the scenes. He manages garden supply purchases and writes persuasive grant applications. Thanks to his efforts, the school has received support from groups like the Garden Club of St. Augustine and will soon receive milkweed seedlings from the Florida Wildlife Association for their butterfly garden.

Last year alone, Jarred secured over $15,000 in grants for his previous school—and we have every confidence he’ll continue to grow big things at Landrum.

Ten-year-old Joseph of Sharon, Massachusetts, may be entering his second year as a Katie’s Krops gardener in 2025, but he’s far from a beginner. His gardening journey began in 2020 when he started a home garden using seeds saved from grocery store produce.

In 2021, he expanded his knowledge by volunteering at The Farm at Moose Hill, a CSA farm located on the grounds of the Audubon Society’s Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary. There, he gained hands-on experience in organic farming and picked up valuable gardening tips—including the fact that while all parts of the pokeweed plant are toxic, the young shoots can be eaten if boiled multiple times.

Joseph, a homeschooled fifth grader, has a deep passion for gardening and enhances his knowledge by watching educational videos. His mother, Ellie, admits she doesn’t have much gardening experience herself but fully supports her son’s interests. She discovered Katie’s Krops while researching programs for young gardeners and has encouraged Joseph to track his harvest totals in a spreadsheet.

In 2024, Joseph cultivated four raised beds, growing a variety of crops, including tomatoes, green beans, purple beans, eggplant, spinach, and bok choy. His most successful crop was green beans, and he harvested about 10 pounds of fresh produce, which he donated to the Community Food Pantry at First Congregational Church in Sharon.

Looking ahead to 2025, Joseph hopes to expand his garden and increase his food production. He plans to add two more raised beds, experiment with an in-ground garden, and grow new crops such as zucchini while improving yields on crops that didn’t thrive last season. Additionally, he intends to start growing flowers to provide fresh bouquets for the food pantry. Since Sharon is in growing zone 6, Joseph begins his seeds indoors and transplants them outside in early May.

As with all our gardeners, we wish Joseph the best of luck in 2025 and commend his dedication to helping those in need through his passion for gardening.

When people think of gardens, most picture in-ground plots or raised beds. However, not everyone has that option—including seven-year-old Olivier Perez of North Charleston, South Carolina. He and his parents live in an apartment with a balcony, but after volunteering at the Katie’s Krops flagship garden in nearby Summerville and attending children’s classes there, he knew he wanted to be one of our gardeners and grow food at home to donate.

Fortunately, his parents were prepared for this. During the pandemic, they decided to become more self-sufficient and purchased three hydroponic tower gardens to grow some of their own food. Not only did this give them greater food security, but it also inspired four-year-old Olivier to eat more vegetables, especially cucumbers.

After losing her job right before the pandemic, Patrycja became a stay-at-home mom and now homeschools Olivier, teaching him how to grow and care for their gardens. He enjoys organizing and planting seeds—two of his favorite tasks—and takes part in harvesting and donating most of their produce to the Impact Center at Cathedral Church. Their donations supplement grocery store contributions and are distributed twice a week to those in need, along with items such as clothing and furniture.

With two towers on their balcony during the nearly year-round growing season and another one indoors under grow lights, Olivier is able to grow a wide variety of food, including cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, basil, collards, lettuce, bok choy, Swiss chard, and other greens. In addition to harvesting when the produce is mature, Olivier ensures there is enough water and mineral solution in the reservoir for when the automatic timer activates the pump to water and nourish the plants.

Tower gardens are not without challenges, though. They couldn’t prevent bugs from getting to the zucchini or protect the eggplant when it was planted too late and exposed to the cold. To help with pest control, they spray neem oil and other essential oils on the plants to prevent further infestations.

Katie’s Krops is thrilled to have Olivier as one of our young growers—and our first tower garden grower!