Mace’s Lane Middle School Garden
The Mace’s Lane Garden began with a simple invitation from the Mace’s Lane Middle School Garden Club: help us grow something here. Together, students, staff, Blackwater Rising volunteers, and community partners have shaped that idea into a joyful, student-led garden full of food, flowers, learning, and care.
Where Hands-On Learning Takes Root
In late 2025, the Mace’s Lane Middle School Garden Club asked Blackwater Rising to help bring their school garden to life. What began as two small planting beds quickly became something much bigger: a space where students could imagine, plan, plant, and take pride in what they were creating.
Throughout the winter, we worked alongside the students to develop a planting and design plan. They chose what they wanted to grow, shared ideas for how the garden should look, and helped shape a space that reflects their curiosity, creativity, and connection to the land.
Today, the garden is growing into the students’ vision. With support from Blackwater Rising volunteers, school faculty, staff, and community members, the Mace’s Lane Garden now includes eight planting beds, fruiting plants, pollinator habitat, and a special herb bed rooted in African-American traditional medicinal and culinary knowledge. It is a place for hands-on learning, fresh food, teamwork, and the kind of joy that grows when people dig in together.
Highlights
- The garden began in late 2025 with just two small planting beds and has grown to eight active beds.
- Students helped choose what to plant and how they wanted the garden to look.
- The garden now includes onions, garlic, tomatoes, peas, lettuce, peppers, flowers, and more.
- A local herbalist is helping students plant a bed of African-American traditional medicinal and culinary herbs.
- The garden also includes a fig grove, grape arbor, raspberry patch, and native pollinator plants.