Since September Clearwater Middle Schoolers have tended their vegetable plots and learned about the importance of gardening.

"No farmers, no food!" they conclude. And there are not a lot of Bermudian gardeners in the little island we call home, they observe.

"Clearwater Middle School is home to six planting boxes that are four feet by four feet," explained Middle 2 student, Nicholas Peniston, who is in the Eco Club at the school. "We have a lot of things in the garden. This is my first time gardening; I have learned a lot and still have a lot to learn."

The Eco Club, led by teacher Heather De Silva, meets once a week on Tuesdays. About eight to 10 students attend on average. The students also weed, water and empty the compost container into the compost bin during their lunch breaks throughout the week.

They have spent a lot of time getting the soil beds ready because they were in a bad state with weeds after the summer. In the last month the students have been busy mixing the soil together - compost, peat moss and planting soil. They have planted string beans, carrots, strawberries, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, arugula, lettuce and various herbs. This week the students will make some homemade, organic pesticides with things such as coffee grounds, cayenne pepper and eggshells.

The students also engage in planting endemic trees such as cedars and palmettos on the school property. "We also have two weed wrenches which we will use in a few weeks to cull invasive plants around the school grounds such as Mexican Pepper," explained Ms DeSilva. "We hope to do other activities such as woodland management work in the nature reserve at Cooper's Island. The students will also go spelunking in Walsingham Jungle in May or June."

Nicholas Peniston explained how reading newspaper articles can help them learn. "On the 13th January the Eco Club read the article entitled "Minister Burch tours farms hears of term-limit hardship,'" he wrote. "Minister of Labour David Burch wants to establish a special program to help more Bermudians become farmers. I think this is important because it would be great if more young people could earn a good living from farming.

"Not all students want to grow up and sit in an office when they start working. It will also help the environment and a lot of tourists will come back to Bermuda. I think when tourists come to Bermuda they might want to go right back home because it is so polluted and crowded with buildings and traffic. Now, they can see that in the U.S.

"Last year, my classmate, Corey Outerbridge, said in his Critter Talk article that you can save a lot of money growing your own crops. Even Corey has his own garden and he first learned how to garden when he was seven years old."

Corey himself is anxious to save Bermudian gardens from disappearing. He also "really liked the article on Tuesday, January 14, 2009 in the Royal Gazette about Sen. Col Burch and Environment Minister Blakeney's visit to farms. The Clearwater and most of the St David's community appreciated their one day tour of seven farms.

"In Eco Club most of us are interested in farming as a career. We are willing to work very darn hard. As Mr. Watson said, it is a lot of work. But if you work very hard, your farming techniques will improve and also you will be rewarded with organic crops.

"You can also recycle when you grow crops. Guess what? For three years I've been using a bed frame as a square foot garden which was going to be thrown into the trash and burnt in the incinerator causing pollution.

"I would also like to say to the journalist, Mikaela Ian Pearman, if possible could you write more articles about home gardening and commercial farming in Bermuda? Lots of people need to know about gardening and that gardening is actually lots of fun."