Mitchelle Stephenson — The Capital From left, Girl Scouts Katie Bedard, 11, Alyssa Rose, 10, and Cassie Keenan, 11, explain their gardening techniques to Liles Creighton at the Capt. Salem Avery Museum in Shady Side.
By MITCHELLE STEPHENSON, Staff Writer
Three south county Girl Scouts, of Troop 148 recently helped the Capt. Salem Avery House Museum in Shady Side and in the process earned their Bronze Award. Alyssa Rose, Cassie Keenan and Katie Bedard were recognized at a garden dedication this past Sunday at the Shady Side museum.
The project was to plant a vegetable garden near the boat house on the property. But first they had to conduct research on 1800s garden varieties and clear the spot of overgrown shrubs. The project got off the ground about a year ago when the girls approached Vicki Peterson, the museum director, to try to find a good community service project.
Katie was already a junior docent at the museum, so she had some familiarity with the Capt. Salem Avery House mission. The museum's new garden, the Heritage Eco Tour, was in its planning stages, and Vicki told the girls that maybe there might be some way for them to be involved.
"The lilacs were overgrown and we thought we could do something like an ancestry vegetable garden," Katie said. She explained that the goal was to plant the kinds of trees, vegetables and herbs that might have been used during the 1800s - the era of Capt. Salem Avery.
Cassie did her research on the herb portion of the project. She said that she found that the kinds of herbs used - lavender, yarrow, mint, thyme, sage and lemon balm - were grown not just for cooking and making tea, but also for medicinal purposes. She also learned that children in the 1800s liked candy, one of the reasons for growing mint. Katie planted a red bud tree.
Alyssa procured tomato seeds from one of the volunteers at the museum, and researched an 1800s Maryland technique for growing corn, beans and squash called, "three sisters." In the three sisters growing pattern, corn is grown in a row, interspersed with plantings of beans.
The beans use the corn stalks as a trellis. The squash is planted all around the corn and beans as a method for keeping the soil moist. She made a planting box in the style of the three sisters at Capt. Salem Avery museum. Some of the work was too onerous for the three girls, so they enlisted the help of Boy Scouts from Troop 853 of Shady Side.
The Boy Scouts helped with clearing out the overgrown shrubs and building the planter boxes. The girls brought in the dirt and plants.
Vicki said that she thought the project turned out to be more than the girls had anticipated. "But it came out great," she said. The vegetables and herbs that the girls harvest over the summer will be given to the South County Assistance Network, or SCAN, the local food bank.
Principal Teresa Zablonski is leaving Tracey's Elementary School after having served there for eight years. Faculty and students recently gave her a send off in the form of a schoolwide assembly. The assembly was organized by Jennifer Foster, the school counselor. During the event, the 16 classes at Tracey's each compiled a presentation for the beloved principal.
Some gave her posters andartwork, while others read poems. Teresa accomplished much at the school. During her time at Tracey's, she oversaw the students during a two-year renovation of the building. During the construction, students were housed at Southern Middle School in Lothian.
That was from August 2005 until January 2008. She got to enjoy the new environs for the past two years. She's headed to Glen Burnie Park Elementary School for her next assignment.
Tracey's students will welcome Kathleen Fitzgerald as their principal for the next school year. She is currently the principal at Jones Elementary in Severna Park.
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