How does your garden grow?

Ashante Custis wrinkles her nose when she thinks about eating squash. But with some coaxing and the culinary talents of a local chef, she may be convinced to try fresh vegetables from the Rehoboth Elementary School Learning Garden.

"Tomatoes are my favorite," Ashante said. "I want to see some of them grow."

Ashante was one of dozens of students who helped plan, build, cultivate and now maintain the garden that now sits near Silver Lake.

Principal Trish Mumford said the school began planning for the garden last summer, an offshoot of the school's healthy-tasting partnership with Nage restaurant.

Mumford and a group of parents, teachers and administrators decided to create the garden to encourage healthy eating habits among students while also teaching them some math and science.

"When it became a question of how are we going to do this, the community response was incredible," she said.

Boy Scout Pack 1 built six wooden, raised boxes; Rommel Ace Hardware, American Cedar and Millwork, Mid-Atlantic Compost and Recycling, Solutions IPEM, American Hardscapes, Tomato Sunshine and Renew helped with materials and construction; Schell Family Foundation gave $5,000 to start the project; and Rehoboth PTO plans to purchase benches in Jack Redefer's name.

"There was no cost to the school; everything was donated," Mumford said.

Once all the legwork was finished, it was time for planting.

Students used string and multiplication to create arrays that divided the boxes into neat plots for each plant.

Third-grader Brittingham Solloway was particularly interested the process of dividing the garden box into 72 smaller parcels.

"You measure this side, and then that side to get the perimeter and then you measure out the boxes inside," he said.

Classes recently planted the first crop of sun gold tomatoes, squash, fennel, purple basil, lemon thyme, purple sage, white beauty eggplant, lettuce and jalapeno peppers.

Perusing the nascent garden on a sunny morning, third-grader Aidan Reynolds explained how the garden was laid out.

"Squash grows big and has to be put in the corners, or else it'll grow too much," he said.

Third-grader Amanda Holtgrew brought in some petunias to add some color to the garden.

"I really want to see fruits," she said.

Her classmate, Nyashja Brown, is happy with the vegetables.

"I want to see vegetables like broccoli and corn," she said.

Other classes have used the garden to learn about soil and seeds.

Mumford said her goal next year is to have each classroom do a lesson that would tie into the garden.

Students will continue to tend to their garden until the end of the school year when Chef Hari Cameron of a(MUSE) restaurant will take over the duties. He'll also reap the offerings from the garden and use them in dishes at the restaurant, Mumford said.