A lot of folks in Dearborn are going to be enjoying some delicious, fresh produce thanks to an idea from a local high school student.
Bailey Richardson will be a junior this upcoming school year at North Platte but she isn’t taking the summer off. Richardson has been busy this summer maintaining a community garden that her younger sister Katie and some schoolmates helped her plant this spring. Richardson said she’s had the idea for two or three years and has talked about the idea with her sister.
“I’ve had this idea for a couple of years but never really knew how to get it started,” Bailey told the Citizen.
Bailey found some help in the form of a new ag teacher at North Platte, Kaitlyn Paxton. She credits Paxton for creating the spark.
Bailey’s community garden is part of her supervised agriculture experience (SAE) project for school. Bailey said being part of FFA also helped. She also credited the North Platte FFA alumni for helping her get the garden going.
“It was a lot easier for me to get this started going through a school organization and through FFA then doing it on my own,” Bailey said.
Bailey’s parents, father Brian and mother Summer, also give a lot of credit to the school for hiring Paxton. Summer, who is also a teacher at North Platte, said it was the key.
“They’ve been wanting to do this for two or three years now,” Summer said. “It just happened the new ag teacher came in and started a bunch of new classes so we’re really thankful for her. It sparked that idea back in her.”
Brian said this idea is something that Bailey and her sister have talked about and didn’t really get any adult help in putting the plan together.
“Her mom and I are really proud of her,” Brian said. “She came up with this idea; it wasn’t our idea.”
The garden consists of three different plots. The main plot was donated by the city and is located next to the community center. A local farmer donated a plot of land for Bailey’s corn patch and she has another patch with potatoes and onions. The main patch has cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, peppers and cabbage.
The Richardsons said their daughter has gotten a lot of help from the community in the form of donations to get the garden going. Summer said Bailey got help from the Stone family and the Heckman Family Greenhouse.
“She’s got it in a couple of different areas and she’s got a lot of stuff planted,” Brian said. “And a lot of people are happy to hear that she is doing this.”
Once the produce is ready for harvest Bailey said she plans on having designated pick up times for members of the community to get an opportunity to sample the labor. Whatever is left over she will take to a farmers’ market to sell. She’ll take the money she makes and invest it back into the garden.
Bailey will have at least one more year in the garden after 2021 but the plan is to hand off the project to Katie, who will be a freshman at North Platte this year.
“I’ve already been asked if it’s going to continue to go throughout the rest of my high school and I’ve said hopefully my sister will pick it up and take it on through her high school career,” Bailey said.
Brian is confident that Katie will pick it up after Bailey leaves but is glad his oldest will be learning some valuable lessons from the garden.
“She gets to learn about cultivating the soil and growing and all that stuff that goes with that,” Brian said. “When she does sell some produce to turn around and put that money back into her garden she’s learning about money management.”
Bailey also spends about three to four hours a day, two to three times a week working the garden and hauling water. She works it into her already busy schedule. The community garden is part of a school project but it’s also a fulfilling adventure for Bailey. She said the interest it has already generated is a great feeling.
“It’s already happened,” Bailey said when asked what she hoped to gain at the end of the day. “The community just wanting to be involved in something and it to continue; yeah it feels good.”