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Schools

Growing Children Growing Gardens

HES/Healdsburg Charter School gardens full of life.

 

“If children are to care for the earth, then working and playing with the very stuff of existence is a priority.” David Hawkins

Getting kids’ hands dirty is just one of the important tasks of the teacher-gardeners at the Healdsburg Elementary School/Healdsburg Charter School.

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The other jobs include teaching children, from kindergarten on, where their food comes from, the life cycles of insects and chickens, to identify plants, seeds and bugs, to graze in the garden and much more.

Today, the 22 students in Vikki DuRee’s kindergarten class spread throughout the garden, some petting chickens, some picking snails off the vegetable plants to toss into the hen pen, some watching as Alison Garcia carryied a newly-hatched tomato hornworm moth.

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What you first notice, though, is that these are children happily and fully engaged in outdoor life.

The garden is a mishmash of perennial and annual flowers and fruits that attract pollinators, easy vegetables, many berries—straw, blue and black—an outdoor kitchen, a chicken yard, a greenhouse, roses, trees and more.

A half-dozen pullets, just feathering in, enjoy outdoor life after a classroom hatching in an incubator.

Natalie Pile quietly sits and strokes the feathers of a small hen settled comfortably into her arms. Three boys and a girl join forces to convince a wayward hen to return to the henhouse.

“Miss Vikki, we’ve got her,” shouts a dark-eyed, dark-haired youngster, as he opens the door and the hen flutters back to her companions.

“They’ve all gone broody,” says DuRee, when asked about eggs. “Since the chicks have come outside, first one, then the rest turned.

“But we do have four hens that usually lay out here,” she says.

Kathryn Jurik is another  teacher who hatched chicks in a classroom incubator.

“They’re getting away,” shrieks a youngster, as he points to the wood frame above his head. Escapee snails have inched their way from the floor to near the ceiling in fruitless flight from being escargot for the chickens. DuRee simply plucks the offender off solid wood and tosses it back to the chickens.

“Go pick some more salad burnett,” says DuRee to several students. “The chickens and rabbit love it.”

(Note: For those who have never heard of salad burnett, it is an old-fashioned green that students add to their salads in small amounts, and also feed to the aforementioned critters.)

“We have three hands-on science days,” DuRee says. That includes a bird day event. The children obviously thrive on the experiential learning.

“We have salvia for bees,” says DuRee. “And borage, Nigella, agastache and fennel—a lot of plants for the pollinators.

“Many of the teachers turn butterflies loose in the garden,” DuRee states. “We have painted lady butterflies hatching.

Fava beans, roses and artichokes are “aphid farms” that provide plenty of food for the ladybugs the students release in the gardens. While DuRee purchases the ladybird beetles from Garrett Hardware, there is also evidence of a healthy native population in the garden.

Birdhouses also feature prominently in the garden and they’ve had both Western bluebirds and barn swallows nest in them.

One of students favorite social-dramatic play areas is a planted willow house that forms a circle on a little hill inside the fenced garden. In addition, the students enjoy making fairy houses.

The children also compost materials to provide organic matter to the garden. They have an open compost pile, as well as one that tumbles.

While the students are young, they still participate in hands-on gardening—planting, harvesting and seed collecting. In addition, local registered dietitian Nora Bulloch, teaches an enrichment class of nutrition in the garden.

The outdoor kitchen was made possible by a grant from the School Garden Network. In addition, Farm to Pantry, the Slow Foods Movement and Occidental Arts and Ecology work with DuRee and the students.

DuRee relies on plant sales at the celebration in the for her operating budget, along with a small donation from Slow Foods each year.

“One of the students favorite grazing foods is a chard ‘taco,’” says DuRee. “They wrap a borage flower or a piece of calendula in a chard leaf."

During what’s called Friday Garden Club, volunteers come in to work in the garden. The students line at the gate to work along with local gardener-volunteers to move manure and plant seeds.

DuRee walks out the gate to return to the classroom during the children’s lunch period. Carrying a bughouse filled with ladybugs, she’s instantly surrounded by children. They clamor to release the little creatures.

DuRee patiently lets little hands pluck one or two ladybugs from the container and watches as they carefully place them on the climbing rose that hangs full-blossomed on the fence. Smiles abound as the students examine the small creatures before releasing them.

If you’re interested in helping out in the garden or donating to this exciting program, contact DuRee by e-mail at vduree@husd.com.

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