PHIPPSBURG

Twice weekly, mothers and grandmothers of Phippsburg Elementary School students meet at EdgeWater Farm Bed & Breakfast to renovate old chairs and other discarded furniture.

The women then sell their handiwork and donate the proceeds to the “The Amazing P.E.S. Kids Garden.” The acronym is short for Phippsburg Elementary School, which is surrounded by an intricate and productive vegetable and flower garden.

Aside from this endeavor, there’s something else about these P.E.S. mothers and grandmothers.

These women are dump-pickers.

Every few days, one or more of them sheds any sense of decorum and heads to the local dump. There, they pick the area for salvageable furniture and take it back to Carol Emerson at EdgeWater Farm.

“I enjoy it,” says Tiffeny Merrill. “It’s just fun to go there and see what you might find. We have a trailer where people can drop things off that they don’t want anymore.”

Emerson is the head honcho of this somewhat unlikely gang.

“My husband and I went to a fabulous dump the other day and I found two cabinets in perfect shape,” she said. “Now they’re a home for art supplies.”

The women also do crafts on the long table of Emerson’s bed and breakfast sunroom. In the old garage, they strip down the old pieces and paint them. The students paint fanciful designs.

“With the children and the adults, the collaborative part of it is so critical,” Emerson said. “The children have ideas that we wouldn’t think of.”

And when they’re done, the students indulge themselves with a swim in Emerson’s indoor pool.

Usually, it’s just the mothers.

“This is kind of a mom’s time to chat and get together and work,” Emerson said. “Once or twice a month I’ll call the kids to come in to help. The swim time is a reward.”

Years ago, teacher Ed Secskas worked with students to start the school garden. Emerson joined in, and worked with Secskas to plant the sunflowers that greet students each autumn, near the chain-link fence.

Merrill recalled that her sister, 25-year-old Michelle Campbell, took part.

“They grew stuff, went on trips and did crafts,” Emerson recalled. “It became a wonderful after-school activity.”

Emerson, a landscape designer, and other adults involved in the garden realized the need to raise money for seeds, tools, compost and other material. They got Curtis Doughty, the town’s road commissioner, to remove overgrown shrubs and weeds and haul in loam. The garden club added compost two years ago.

The garden club members went to nurseries, and bought shrubs. They went to farms, and hauled in horse manure.

“I’m a kind of pusher person,” Emerson said. “I don’t mind asking for things.”

Today, The Amazing P.E.S. Kids Garden features several sections. There is a raised garden near the flag pole. The club enlarged two spaces leading to the school on either side. They plowed up one of the lawns, and turned the space into a vegetable garden.

Brian Coffin tilled the area twice, and Curtis brought in saw dust and sand to mix with the clay-type soil.

And there is an Ed Secskas Memorial Garden.

“In two years,” Emerson said, “we’ve rehabbed probably four or five gardens. There is a vegetable and fruit garden maze.”

As Emerson said, she is capable of enlisting plenty of help. Students from Hyde School helped spread the saw dust and sand. Volunteers of America helped with various projects, including the spreading of the horse manure.

The results: produce that the students take home to their families.

“There were tons of tomatoes this year,” Merrill said, “and they were good.”

Currently, Emerson is sending out emails to people in the community seeking old chairs, desks and even sleds. Recently, she and Merrill found and renovated a high chair.

“We’re looking for older,” Emerson said, “because the lines are so beautiful. We have chairs for sale, we’ll take special orders and we’ll rehab old chairs, for a price.”

Those who have items can contact Emerson at 389-1322.