ORANGE : It’s a Dirty Job, but Student Gardeners Have Fun Doing It

The oleander shrubs that grew in the courtyards of California Elementary School were long gone by last fall, when teacher Diane Francis bought some seeds and invited students to join her garden club.

Along with cuts in music and other classes considered luxuries, the school also lost its groundskeepers over the years, but that opened an opportunity for Francis to teach her students how to cultivate beauty.

Francis was rewarded for her efforts in December, when the National Garden Assn. sent her more than $500 worth of garden seeds, plantings, tools and supplies as part of its Youth Garden Grants program.

The school grounds now include 700 square feet of soil bursting with pansies, sweet peas, wildflowers, rosebushes and California poppies.

Along the way, Francis tries to teach students in grades three through six something about beauty.

“The whole idea is to show them they have the power of making things beautiful with a few seeds,” Francis said.

“They are miracle workers in their own way,” she said of the fourth-graders who reveled in the soil Friday.

Students seem to treat the garden with the utmost respect, picking up litter and tackling the tedious chore of leaf-clearing with gusto.

“I don’t mind, I like getting dirty,” said 10-year-old David Hicks. “It’s important to make things beautiful.”

Weeds, of course, give everyone pause, but the students slowly are learning how to identify them.

“I almost know which ones are weeds and which ones are not,” said Melissa Watson, 9. “They look so much alike.”

A few plants lost are a small price for instilling pride in students, Francis said.

“What better way to to get kids feeling responsible for their school?” she asked.