Nauset Middle Schoolers Help With Landscaping Project

November 13, 2025

by Ryan Bray

ORLEANS – Peter Jensen has been hard at work of late on a sloped stretch of greenspace across the street from town hall. But last week, he got some help from a few enterprising eighth graders.

Jensen, owner of Terra Firma Permagardens in Orleans, enlisted the help of students in Rand Burkert’s greenhouse class at Nauset Regional Middle School Nov. 5 in creating a terraced landscape for the property. The goal of the project is to create a design that will stop rain and water from running off the property, keeping it in the soil.

Students helped Jensen dig trenches, where sticks, wood wool, leaves and compost were set to help the ground sequester carbon. In the future, native plantings will be planted to help beautify the area.

Burkert said the greenhouse students largely work on projects at the middle school. That includes growing vegetables in the school’s greenhouse, which are then brought over to the Orleans Farmers’ Market.

“The whole class is real life (learning), but getting out into the community is really special because it’s kind of community service,” Burkert said. “Peter is doing this as community service, and he’s modeling that for them.”

Through his company, Jensen has done a number of terrace projects around town, including at Agway on Lots Hollow Road and at the Church of the Holy Spirit on Monument Road. The project across from town hall is being done at no cost to the town.