Tucked away behind Catonsville High School, next to the tennis courts and the softball field are two student-operated gardens.
One is tended to by the school's special education life skills program and is intended to teach students about math, science and language.
The other is run by the school's garden club and supplies fresh produce for a local food pantry.
Both were at the center of attention on Friday afternoon as the school hosted a special ribbon-cutting ceremony to recognize the students' efforts.
"I knew nothing about gardening," said Catonsville teacher Alicia Brady, who began the life skills class, Comet Garden, last year with donations from a number of local businesses as a way for her students to learn concepts such as measuring, construction and other skills while getting their hands dirty. "It's mostly just trial and error."
The high school's campus off Bloomsbury Avenue and South Rolling Road is beautiful, she said, but unless a student plays a sport, there isn't always a reason for them to get to experience the grassy and wooded areas that surround the school buildings.
For her students, she said, a lot of the campus is uncharted territory.
"I just wanted the campus to be accessible to them," she said, on one of the byproducts from their forays seeding, weeding and checking on the plants' growth..
For the garden club, the process of starting their own garden began in March. That's when club president Eva May took notice of the other students' garden and began to think about how a similar project might be able to help feed families in need who don't have access to many fresh fruits and vegetables.
By starting a fundraising page online for the Catonsville Community Garden, garden club supervisor Robin Cremen, a teacher at the school said May was able to raise about $600 for supplies.
By late March, the seeds were planted and, earlier this month, the group made its first donation — a bag of spinach — to the Catonsville Emergency Food Ministry.
Together, the students from both groups are growing radishes, onions, tomatoes, watermelon, string beans, kale, lettuce, spinach and other vegetables and fruits using two separate gardens that share seeds, staff and a rain barrel.
Brady's students are able to learn how to care for a garden while the garden club members, about four students total, get to use the food that is produced by both gardens.
While last year's first-ever Comet Garden harvest was used in a big salad students enjoyed together, this year's crop will join with the garden club's yield and be donated to the food pantry.
During Friday's ceremony, the students' pride was visible as some read jokes and poems in front of the crowd of students and teachers who wandered outside to join in the event.
For Katelyn Stinchcomb, a senior in Brady's class, the garden has taught her skills that she has already started to use at home.
"I help my neighbor plant stuff in her garden," Stinchcomb said. She also stops by the class garden sometimes in gym class when the students get to go outside, she said.