The old adage, “growing like weeds”, might be applied to the 17 Tabor Academy students who arrived at the Wareham Free Library Wednesday morning to tend to the gardens they had begun last fall.

“You’ve all gotten taller!” said Wareham Free Library Board of Trustees member Johnna Fredrickson, as the students stepped off the bus.

The teenagers were also there to help build the outdoor Story Walk trail, a trail children and their parents can follow by reading a story laid out through the library's back yard.

“It’s going to take a little bit of time to do it, but what we hope eventually is to have a garden area, and a stage down there,” said Fredrickson. “Right now, we have these areas here, which are for garden learning, and Marcia Hickey, our Children’s Librarian, does story walks.”

Fredrickson said the project is supported by a $2,000 United Way gardening grant given to the library in 2012.

After a brief meeting to discuss where the new plants would go, the students ventured outside to the library’s backyard, to deal with the real weeds, and plant both flowers and vegetables.

The students mostly opted for mono gardens, planting all vegetables together, and all flowers together. Of the varieties of seeds planted, only three were not edible: Chinese lanterns, love in a puffs, and cosmos. The edibles ranged from spinach to beans to nasturtiums.

“They sometimes put them in salads in restaurants,” said Fredrickson of the nasturtiums, holding up a packet of seeds emblazoned with colorful flowers.

Stephanie Chen, 18, of China, whose group was in charge of planting pumpkins, said she doesn’t enjoy the smell of fertilizer, but she likes other aspects of gardening.

“I think planting the seeds [is] kind fun, and coming back to see what grows,” Chen said.

Another trio was in charge of planting beans, alongside other crops planted in the fall.

“We have some hostas, some chives, some grass, some weeds Ms. Conway wants to keep,” joked Chase Cooper, 16, of Bermuda, waving a rake at seagrass.

“And we’re planting the ‘ultimatums’, or whatever they are called,” continued Cooper, meaning the nasturtiums.

After a brief snack break, the students trooped back outside to set up the story walk. They hammered several stakes into the ground, meant to hold boards on which laminated pages of children’s books can be attached via velcro. Children’s Librarian Marcia Hickey decided to start with "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", in honor of spring.

“I am tired of stories about snow and snowmen,” Hickey said.

The students finished the task quickly, and soon piled back into the bus to head back to Tabor Academy.

“That went pretty well,” said Fredrickson, smiling. “I sometimes forget that they’re not used to gardening, and such like that. But they did a really good job, and I am really happy that they came.”