How Their Garden Grows : Education: Students from area schools learn life skills through the cultivation of vegetables, flowers and trees.
James Paisano paused to wipe the sweat from his brow. The 21-year-old high school student was toiling in the children’s garden and as usual, having fun, he said.
Almost every Tuesday for the last four years, Paisano has boarded a school bus that brings his Franklin High School special-education class to the small plot at Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge.
Paisano pointed with pride to an apple tree he helped plant three years ago. “It was fun eating apples last spring that we’d grown ourselves,” he said, with an enthusiasm and confidence that belied the learning disability he constantly works to overcome.
The garden’s raised rectangular plots lay side by side in a small, fenced area near the entrance to the Los Angeles County-run arboretum. “Most people don’t even know the Children’s Garden is here,” said Ruth Coggins, director of the Descanso Guild’s Exceptional Children’s Program.
Located just east of the facility’s parking lot, the garden, which is about the size of a football field, is hidden by a contoured mound of earth. It is home to an assortment of vegetables, trees and flowers planted and maintained by students of all ages from the area’s public and private special-education schools.
It has been used by the guild as an educational facility for 30 years and the guild funds the program.
Developmentally and learning disabled students care for this garden. The guild provides volunteers, tools and plants to assist teachers who use the garden as a classroom.
Stephan Cohan, superintendent of Descanso Gardens, said he believes the program is one of the few of its kind in the country. In 1988, the program received a Horticulture Therapy Award from the American Horticultural Society.
“The program is designed to build self-esteem through horticultural therapy, teaching children hand-eye coordination and responsibility,” Cohan said.
Schools participating in the weekly program include the Verdugo Woodland School in Glendale, Dunsmore School in La Crescenta, Roosevelt School in Pasadena, Lanterman Regional School and Griffin Avenue School in Los Angeles, and Franklin High School in Highland Park. Students in the program range in age from 5 to 21. Each school is assigned one or more plots in which its students cultivate vegetables. The students also grow seasonal flowers to add beauty to the garden.
Coggins said the guild plans to create an orchard, augmenting the garden’s educational potential, in a large area just north of the plots. “Work has begun to clear the area and we hope to start planting trees in March. Right now, the ground is still too cold.”
On a recent Tuesday, five Franklin students were busy tending the 10-by-20-foot plots assigned to them. Guided by their teachers, they carefully removed weeds that had sprung up in and around a colorful assortment of purple kale, white kale, cabbages, carrots, Swiss chard and artichokes.
Their teacher, Fidel Pontrelli, has been bringing students from Franklin to the garden for the past seven years. “Most of our children have learning disabilities,” Pontrelli said. “We teach them how to be resourceful, giving them plants to try growing at home to test what they’ve learned.”
Most students in the program are mildly learning-disabled, said Tom Priest, another Franklin teacher. Their disabilities may have a variety of origins, including complications before or during birth, accidents resulting in severe head injuries or poor health care.
“We don’t receive the case history of the students,” Priest said. “What we do know is that these students function at a level of learning that is too low to pass the district’s proficiency tests.”
Because of this, the students participate in programs that teach them to be self-sufficient once they leave school. In addition, their educational emphasis is more vocational than academic, Priest said.
“Our goal is to make them functioning members of society using unique educational methods,” he said. The Children’s Garden provides students an alternative educational atmosphere.
Their education, however, doesn’t focus solely on the planting of vegetables. Pontrelli, dressed in a sweater and jeans, split a large Swiss chard into transplantable pieces.
Holding up a piece of chard, his eyes shaded by the brim of an old baseball cap, Pontrelli explained: “This is an example of what we show the children in the garden . . . not just the planting, care and harvesting of vegetables, but alternatives and interesting ways to enhance the garden. They learn about every aspect of growing and cultivating vegetables.”
Debbie Gutierrez, a 19-year-old Franklin junior, said that of all the jobs in the garden, planting is her favorite. “I think I could plant a garden of my own from what I’ve learned here,” she said.
Gutierrez said she likes to take her favorite vegetable--lettuce--back to school and make salads.
Dressed in a cozy pink jacket that kept out the morning chill, she talked about her plans to attend college. “My favorite subject is biology. I think that’s what I’ll study in college.” She said her four-year experience at the garden has a lot to do with her interest in biology.
Gutierrez and Paisano are veterans of the program. Both say they intend to visit the garden even after they’ve finished school.
“It will be fun to see how much the garden grows in size,” Paisano said. “It will look even better when the orchard’s finished.”
Cohan said he is trying to provide trees for the orchard from the main garden. Others will come from donations. Still others will come from people in the program.
“I plan on bringing in a couple of fruit trees from my own garden,” Pontrelli said, exemplifying the type of commitment to the garden he wants to teach his students.
Another educational opportunity the guild has offered is a scholarship program for students who show exceptional ability in gardening combined with a desire to contribute, Coggins said. The students are hired to work in the garden and paid a small stipend.
John Smith and Grady England received the guild scholarships and work in the Children’s Garden two mornings a week, helping with general maintenance.
England, 33, is a graduate of Avon School in Burbank. His duties include mowing and trimming the area surrounding the plots and keeping the garden tools clean. When not at the gardens, England, who has Down’s syndrome, spends his time at the Self-Aid Workshop in Glendale.
“The best thing about this job is the friends I’ve made,” England said of his 10 years at the Children’s Garden. “All my time here has been a good experience.”
Smith, 38, also is an Avon graduate and has been working in the garden for four years. His main duty is to help prepare the plots for use. Smith, who is developmentally disabled, has his own plot where he has planted kale, red onions and Brussels sprouts. His goal is to use the mower as his friend England does.
“The gardening is easy for me,” Smith said. “I really enjoy it here.”
Pontrelli considers the program an integral part of a larger educational process for learning-disabled students at Franklin High. The Exceptional Children’s Program is part of Franklin’s diverse Community-Based Instructional Program, Pontrelli said.
“Having a green thumb isn’t enough,” Pontrelli said. “You have to know how to cook what you’ve grown as well. A major part of the CBI program involves everyday things. We go shopping with students, ride the bus with them, until they’re familiar with everyday activities.”
Many of the students in the CBI program at Franklin work during the summer, Pontrelli said. Some, like Paisano, even have part-time jobs during the school year.
“We try and encourage students to work and save their money,” Pontrelli said. “After all, that’s what life’s about anyway. Get a job, save your money and live a comfortable life.”
Of all the instructional programs provided at Franklin, the garden remains a favorite with students.
“I tell my friends at school about the garden. It’s fun to come here and see the things you’ve planted grow,” Paisano said.
Dressed in blue jeans, a T-shirt and tennis shoes, Paisano looks very comfortable in the garden he has helped cultivate over the last four years. He hopes to attend either Glendale Community College or Pasadena City College next year. “I want to learn a trade in college and then get married,” he said.
