GROW kicks off summer school garden party series open to La Crosse and La Crescent communities

The Brief

• La Crosse nonprofit GROW held its first summer garden party Tuesday evening at Hintgen Elementary School

• The free events rotate through school gardens across La Crosse and La Crescent through August 5

• Activities include scavenger hunts, garden taste tests and fresh produce harvests from school gardens

LA CROSSE, Wis. (WKBT) — Nonprofit GROW kicked off its summer garden party series Tuesday evening at Hintgen Elementary School, inviting the entire community to explore school gardens across La Crosse and La Crescent through August.

The free events run from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at rotating school garden locations and feature hands-on activities, garden exploration and fresh produce taste tests.

“Today we’re hosting our first garden party of the season. We’ll be having garden parties at rotating school gardens throughout the whole summer,” said Bonnie Martin, director of communication and outreach for GROW.

Tuesday’s kickoff at Hintgen featured a scavenger hunt and garden taste tests, including a radish salsa made from produce grown in the school’s own garden.

“Each of our gardens are unique. They all have some of your garden basics — tomatoes and peppers, herbs, a variety of different things to taste,” Martin said. “As the season progresses at each of the garden parties, the gardens will be different, so there will be new and different things to try.”

Martin said the events are designed to engage the broader community, not just students and families from each school.

“Our hope is to engage the community in these spaces. It’s a great opportunity for kids who go to these schools to kind of show off what they’ve grown and what they’ve done, but it’s also open to the public,” she said. “We hope that people go to gardens that aren’t the schools that they go to so you can see all of the different spaces.”

GROW operates gardens at every public elementary school in La Crosse and La Crescent. Martin said seeing students return to gardens they helped plant earlier in the year is one of the highlights of the summer series.

“It’s fun to see students come back who helped plant the seeds in little starters in March, and now the gardens are green and flourishing,” she said. “Students who haven’t been to these gardens who are just really excited to get in the spaces and explore and to try new things, they always bring a lot of energy and excitement to these gardens.”

The remaining garden party schedule is as follows:

• Tuesday, June 23: Hamilton/SOTA I Elementary

• Thursday, July 9: La Crescent-Hokah Elementary

• Thursday, July 16: Spence Elementary

• Tuesday, July 21: Northside/Coulee Montessori

• Wednesday, July 22: North Woods International

• Thursday, July 23: Emerson Elementary

• Thursday, July 30: Summit Environmental Elementary

• Wednesday, Aug. 5: Southern Bluffs Elementary

All events run from 5 to 6:30 p.m. and are free and open to the public. Attendees can arrive late, leave early or stay the full time. Weather-related cancellations will be posted to GROW’s social media pages.

GROW also hosts a “Grow and Gather” fundraiser event at La Crosse Distilling Co., 129 Vine St., on Tuesday, Aug. 11, from 5 to 8 p.m. The event features raffles, kids’ activities, distillery tours and food and drinks, with every purchase supporting GROW’s mission.