"I have a dream ... "

And it was nowhere near as grand as Dr. King's dream. But that is how my e-mail to Mrs. Casey started last year. Mrs. Casey is the principal at my daughter's elementary school.

My dream was that we take a portion of the green space on the school grounds and turn it into a community garden.

Much to my amazement, Mrs. Casey took my dream and made it a reality.

"Just think," she said, "how great it will be when we teach the kids about plants, and they can go out into the school garden and see a carrot instead of just seeing pictures in a book."

Then Mr. Sconce, the school's custodian, bought into the dream in a big sort of way. He built raised beds for each of the school's grade levels to have their own garden, and he attended a community garden seminar, and he started composting cafeteria waste. 

Then the lunch ladies bought into the dream. They volunteered that if the students could grow it, they could serve it. Last spring, only a few plants were sprouting, because the gardens were so new, but my daughter told me about eating lettuce at lunch that had been grown on school grounds. And -- I can't prove cause and effect -- she started eating salad at home.

In addition to the children's gardens, senior gardeners from the community have been invited to grow vegetables on the school grounds, making the project multi-generational.

While the children have been on vacation, the vegetables have continued growing. Here are some photos I took last week: