Educational and Social Aspects of Our Garden

We started a garden in the spring of ’99!

It was a patch of clay dirt that way really, really dry!

The children were excited as they started to learn

That a garden is more than just a big plot of Earth!

We hoed and we raked, we composted and seeded

And by June you could see that a garden was planted.

We worked through the summer by bringing the children back to school.

They admired their work when each session was through.

Their parents and siblings joined in and no one was prouder

To see our small garden grow greener and "louder!"

We harvested our small little crop that was left

And with a bit of help we had a salad bar feast.

We began the fall of ’99 with the same group of children

Who couldn’t wait to learn what was on the horizon.

We made scarecrows and composted and readied the garden for winter.

And, wow were we sad during the winter month of December!

We worked with our high school and some seeds were being planted

In a green-house in March to get a partnership started!

The spring of 2000 finally arrived.

We dug more plots and had caught everyone’s eye.

The school board liked it; the paper came.

Our newspaper ran a gigantic story within a few days!

We planted seeds in our rooms and we tried some new experiments

Like oregano in peat pots and some seeds ‘single-seeded!"

Our plants grew like we wanted them to

And in late May we transplanted to make our garden bloom.

We were amazed and surprised when we saw that regeneration had happened

With sunflowers galore that the birds must have planted!

The perennials came back, the tulips were gorgeous, the dianthus brought the butterflies soarin’.

Our bat box is still empty but we’ve even seen bats!

We started an herb garden and we planted with plants

We hope to expand it as we continue with lessons and facts!

We have bean poles to try the Native American way and believe it or not

We have beans starting to creep up and away!

We continue to incorporate our work in the subjects we teach.

And the best part being our students have learned that keeping a garden is NEAT!!!

Special Recognition Award

We began our garden in the spring of 1999 and entered the Rodale Institute Contest at the same time. Our first year was very exciting and challenging. We found out much of the soil was clay based. It would take much digging, composting and watering to have a workable garden. We succeeded even though our harvest was small.

This year when we returned outside to "inspect" the garden for the new season we were amazed to find that things had weathered very well. In fact our four foot sunflowers from the ’99 season had "mysteriously" regenerated at many spots throughout the garden! The children were surprised to learn that the birds and wind carried the seeds and that regeneration had occurred. They will definitely be over four feet this year as long as we don’t have a drought. The children couldn’t wait until "garden days" so they could see how much they had grown. We feel a few could reach 10 feet if the conditions remain positive.

Another great sign of regeneration was our perennial garden. The perennials were much bigger and stronger looking. The primroses made a colorful appearance earlier this spring. The dianthus brought many butterflies. And, the fall mums are between 6-9 inches high already!

The tulips made the entire bat box area beautiful. Our bat box doesn’t house bats yet, but we have seen them in our area. They show up about 8:30 pm and continue to check things out. Our birdhouses were in use. We actually had bluebirds in one nest and swallows occupied the other one. We hope they return next year. They have plenty of seeds and food to draw from. They were great insect controllers also. We definitely attracted more honeybees and bumblebees and hope to continue seeing them in future years.

One of the classes also collected preying mantis egg cases and kept them the entire winter! The result was amazing. Hundreds of baby praying mantises hatched and were released at the school in May.

Our final example of regeneration was our marigold sees. Seeds were picked from plants last fall. Some were replanted this year and they grew!

This was a great motivating experience for the students and teacher.