Tickle the earth with a hoe and she’ll laugh with a harvest.

"Hey you guys, look at this!" This is a common phrase shared by the students while experiencing gardening! Some of the exciting observations made at our Elementary School have been in our three outdoor gardens. There is a butterfly garden where children study annuals and perennials that are tasty for nectar-seeking insects. One student said,"I actually saw a butterfly eating!" There is a Native American garden where children learn about the three sisters--corn, beans, and squash. Carving a pumpkin from this patch for the school entrance has become a tradition. The third garden, and perhaps the one of most intrigue, is an herb garden. Here the students smell the lemon balm, taste the peppermint, enjoy fresh oregano in their pizza sauce, and love the chives on their baked potato. Children record in their journal the weekly progress of the planting time, growing season, and the harvest. In the school library they research the types of plants they will plant and enjoy reading stories about growing food.

We are fortunate to have an active Flower and Garden Club in our community that has "adopted" our school garden project and assist, the students in planning the garden. The older students prepare the soil and test the pH for the younger second graders. During the summer months, there is a "Garden Guardian" schedule where the soon-to-be third graders, along with family members, select a week to come to the school to water, check the gardens, and enter journal entries. This way there is a constant monitoring of the gardens during the summer months. All of the students are excited to read the writings of the other students when school commences in the fall.

The Flower and Garden Club assists in the harvest and enjoys a garden feast in the fall. Along with tasty food, they assemble herb wreaths to take home for their family to enjoy. The children make a great vegetable soup and all enjoy this tasty school festival. The food tastes so good because each student had a part in the planting, caring, and harvesting.

Students design the garden by using some seeds from the previous class, work with their teacher and older students, and consult the friendly members of the Flower and Garden Club. After the students decide which plants to plant, blueprints of the gardens are constructed by taking measurements of the three outside, raised garden beds. The children work in cooperative learning groups to accomplish this task.

The students love to garden and they certainly believe in the motto that is carved in a stone at the edge of one of our gardens …Tickle the earth with a hoe and she’ll laugh with a harvest. They learn so many things from gardening, such as working together, practicing observation skills, exploring the world of tiny soil invertebrates, vegetables don’t grow in supermarkets, plants follow a growth cycle from seed to plant to flower to fruit to seed, distinguishing between different vegetables by observing their leaves, the effects of insects and diseases on plants, and how to protect the vegetables. Our gardens are an intricate part of our social studies, math, science, and language arts curriculum! We highly encourage our students to utilize all their senses. "Look at this …Smell this…Touch this" … in their gardening experience!