Cultivating Learning
Magdalena Barajas carefully scooped a handful of soft soil from a new planter at Cohasset Street School in Van Nuys. She plopped a basil plant into the hole and gently patted the dirt. Although she knew neither the plant’s name nor its use, she enjoyed the opportunity to do some gardening.
“I find it fun,” said the 10-year-old, as her classmates clamored to do some planting themselves.
Magdalena is learning about plant life through a pilot program called Gardens for Kids L.A., which is creating gardens at 28 elementary schools throughout Los Angeles, including 10 in the San Fernando Valley. In the program initiated by Mayor Richard Riordan, the city is spending $100,000 to give children a hands-on gardening experience.
Spearheaded by the city’s Environmental Affairs Department, the program brings together organizations such as the Los Angeles Conservation Corps, which builds the planters; the UC Cooperative Extension’s Common Ground Garden Program, which trains volunteer gardeners and helps schools recruit volunteers; and Gardens for Kids, which provides expertise in garden design.
The Los Angeles Urban Resources Partnership gave $64,000 in grants, about half for a greenhouse where the Conservation Corps will grow seedlings. The California Integrated Waste Management Board kicked in $25,000 for the program’s first year.
Cohasset Street School already has some small planters outside classrooms where students track the growth of such plants as snapdragons and needlepoint ivy and such vegetables as peppers and lettuce. Students have done experiments to determine why aphids prefer one plant over another. And they’ve learned that the food they eat originated in the ground, not the supermarket produce bin.
Principal Cherie Spamer said one boy was shocked to see her pick a lettuce leaf and put it in her mouth.
“I ate it and he just looked at me,” she said.
The five new large planters, built with boards made of recycled plastic, will give students even more opportunity to learn about nature, literally from the ground up. On a recent school day, fifth-graders crowded around the raised planters as Conservation Corps members filled them with dirt and organic planting mix. When asked who wanted to help shovel, arms shot up.
“This is what they need, instead of workbooks,” Spamer said as she watched the children dig. “Of all the things they’ll do this year, they’ll really remember this.”
When it came time to plant, children huddled around teacher Ellen Swaggerty as if she were selling ice cream.
“Most of our kids live in apartments, so this is a new experience for them,” said Swaggerty, who doled out a variety of plants, including cucumber, strawberry and zucchini.
Planting a strawberry plant, which had tiny green fruit on it, brought a smile to the face of 10-year-old Stephanie Cruz.
“I like nature. It makes me feel good,” she said.
The city’s school gardening project complements the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Garden in Every School program, which will spend $37,000 this fiscal year to train teachers and parents to develop and maintain school gardens. However, money for plants and other supplies is often lacking. Schools hold fund-raisers or apply for grants to get money for those expenses.
The city’s program “was just the thing we needed. It was a missing piece of the puzzle,” said Nonnie Korten, a science resource teacher who works with the school district’s gardening program.
Delaine Easton, state superintendent of public instruction, has called for a garden at every California school. Currently, California’s public schools have about 1,600 gardens; Los Angeles Unified has about 200 gardens in its 915 schools.
Teachers say gardening helps students learn about math, science and nutrition in a more meaningful way. For example, a math class might pull weeds and then determine the ratio of the top growth to the roots, or a science class might take soil samples to determine its composition.
“Without gardening, learning from a textbook doesn’t have the same meaning or excitement,” Korten said.
Tending plants can even motivate students to read, write and communicate, she said, recalling a day when students who spoke several different languages were all working together on the gardening project.
“It’s a great way of bringing people together,” she said.
