Students’ Interest in Nature Blossoms With Garden

In 1991, science teacher Brandyn Scully brought two empty wooden crates to the 2nd Street Elementary School and planted some flowers in them. Today, the boxes have bloomed into a garden the size of two classrooms and is the pride and joy of the Boyle Heights school.

“The kids adore it,” said Scully, who proudly added that the plot was honored last year as one of the best school gardens in the nation by the National Gardening Assn. “When we did a school survey and asked what was the favorite part of the school, the kids said the garden, the flowers and the insects.”

Students from the school’s science classes plant and care for rosebushes, sunflowers, corn, squash and pumpkins.

The garden has also become a habitat for a variety of birds, butterflies and insects. The garden, teachers say, is responsible for the students’ increased sensitivity toward nature.

“Not too long ago, a student found a spider and carried it to the school garden,” said Irene Avina, another teacher involved with the project. “Before we started the garden, he probably would have just smashed it.”