What does the PTG do?
Garden Classroom & The Green Team
Who is the Green Team?
The Green Team is led by this Elementary Classes Parental Crop of Green Thumbs (and then the next, and the next… and continuously supported by volunteers in the community.
Read about the start of the Lapham Garden Program and how the model spread, and started a its whole own non-profit.
Presently, we are under the guidance of the wonderful Lizzy Hamilton (left, dancing) runs the Lapham Garden, and Abbey Sabatino (right, flexing) is behind the magical Garden at Marquette. You can find us in the garden many days with a green bandana. And usually overalls. Lots of overalls.
During the fall and spring time, classes actively meet in the garden 1-2x weekly. Through the summer, the garden supports the community throughout. We grow zuccini, basil, corn, onions, cilantro, raddishes, squash (many kinds), cucumbers, sunflowers and beets. To name a few.
What is the Classroom Garden?
Our school garden is more than a place to plant seeds—it is a living classroom, a gathering space, and a bridge between our students, families, and the wider community. Through regular visits and hands-on exploration, we strive to:
Nurture healthy living by giving students first-hand experience growing and tasting fresh fruits and vegetables, encouraging more time outdoors, and inspiring lifelong habits of exercise and healthy eating.
Foster environmental learning through hands-on opportunities that bring science, ecology, and sustainability lessons to life.
Inspire wonder and respect for nature by connecting children to the rhythms of the natural world in ways only a garden can.
Enrich classroom learning by offering experiential, garden-based activities that teachers can weave directly into curriculum.
Strengthen our school community through work days, social gatherings, volunteer opportunities, and our “Adopt-the-Garden-for-a-Week” program, which gives Lapham-Marquette families a special role in tending the garden each summer.
Extend our reach beyond school walls by welcoming summer school groups, scouts, and neighbors into the garden; donating harvests to local food pantries; and offering a joyful, educational, and restorative space for people of all ages.
Who is the Garden for?
Short Answer: Everyone.
Students and Their Families
Enjoy a few extra peaceful minutes with your kid at drop off or pick up. Ask them what they do in this space. Pick some herbs. Soak it up.
Staff
A quiet place to gather your thoughts, an optional Parent-Teacher meeting spot.
Community
Join the Green Team and sign up to work with us. Weeding, planting and harvest season all need hands. The Best Part: you go home with free veggies
The Whole Neighborhood
Our garden programs donate the bounty of our harvest to local food programs to directly support the families in our district, such as the Wil-Mar Food Pantry.
Future Scholars
Bring the younger ones to pick up and drop off, and let them explore the world of smells and textures that only a flourishing garden can provide.
Lapham Alumni
Invest in our very own community and its kids. Spend time in the Garden today. Pick some berries, bring a book, and enjoy.
How it started..
The roots of the Gardener in Residence program can be traced back to the early 2010s, when a small but determined group of Lapham parents—known as the Green Team—set out to expand the school garden. Led by Stephanie Steigerwaldt, and supported by an enthusiastic principal and teachers, the team secured a grant and poured their energy into transforming the space.
Among them was Lapham dad Jim Hanson, who volunteered his time in what would become the first “Gardener in Residence.” Partnering with Community Groundworks (now Rooted), Jim helped demonstrate how powerful it could be to have a dedicated gardener working alongside students, teachers, and families. The idea took hold. By 2015, Community Groundworks had established the Gardener in Residence program as a model to share with other schools, and the Lapham-Marquette PTG began contracting for the role—making it an enduring part of our community.
As time went on, families moved on, leadership changed, and the garden program slowed. But new volunteers stepped forward, building on the vision started years before. Along the way, the PTG created new ways to get involved and to share garden history, updates, and opportunities to be part of the school community.
Today, both the Lapham and Marquette gardens carry that same spirit. They remain living classrooms that depend on the hands and hearts of volunteers to flourish. The story of the Lapham garden is not just about soil and seedlings—it is about a community coming together, planting an idea, and watching it grow into something larger than any one garden.
