Articles

By ELIZABETH LEE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/25/07

On the kind of sunny, clear fall afternoon that torments children cooped up in classrooms, a group of fifth-graders is living every kid's dream.

They're roaming around a courtyard, soaking up the sun and talking with friends. And their teacher couldn't be happier. As first one, then another runs up to her with an assignment, Marsha Cherichel checks their work and urges them to plug away at the solution.

The right answer to this math word problem, which involves multiplication, division and decimals, means more than just getting a check mark on a paper. It means within a few weeks, the students will harvest radishes from the garden they're designing, getting their first taste of one of the hottest trends in hands-on education.

School gardens are enjoying a revival energized by the local food movement and concern over childhood obesity. Growing fruits and vegetables, the thinking goes, will teach science, math, even literature — and, garden organizers hope, a lifetime of healthier eating habits. The idea is promising enough to have caught the attention of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is studying school gardens as a way to promote a more nutritious diet and to boost produce consumption. California chef Alice Waters, founder of what's likely the most well-known school garden project, the Edible Schoolyard, is talking to CDC employees about sustainable food on Nov. 14.

"Kids that grow food are more likely to request it from their parents, and they're more likely to try new foods," says Joel Kimmons, a CDC nutrition scientist.

Stanley Casadonte, a parent volunteer who helped spearhead the new organic garden at E. Rivers Elementary in Buckhead, sees students embracing unfamiliar tastes and experiences, popping tomatoes into their mouths like candy and getting excited about the worms they're cultivating.

To keep them interested, she selected fast-growing radishes for fall planting. Cherichel's fifth-graders can't wait to get started. After they plot out how many squares they can fit into each raised planter, they'll put in tiny plants that Casadonte started from seed just days before. Before Christmas, they'll harvest the first crop.

"It's pretty cool," says Ariel Bong, 10. "I really want to try the radishes when we finish growing them. I've never had one."

He's in for a treat, Casadonte assures him.

"I guarantee when you taste these," she says, "they won't taste like anything in the grocery store."

Getting growing comes with challenges, though. School gardens have boomed and declined over the years, with habitats giving way to butterfly gardens and now vegetable patches. If the teacher or parent who organizes a garden moves on, the program can wither away.

Working gardening into the curriculum, whether it's in science classes or the more recent trend of spreading it throughout core subjects, is crucial.

"Gardens go through cycles of activity," says Sarah Pounders, an education specialist with the National Gardening Association.

To sustain a garden requires enlisting school employees as well as parents and community volunteers, she says. That's especially important for vegetable gardens, which yield their largest harvests when students are on vacation.

"There's been a lot more interest in school gardens than there have been successes," says Fred Conrad, community garden coordinator for the Atlanta Community Food Bank.

"The school calendar and the garden calendar are completely opposite of each other."

Still, he believes the gardens are valuable because they teach children about nurturing life and help boost confidence. He advises planting cool-season crops, so students can follow a plant's life cycle from seed to harvest.

At High Meadows School in Roswell, a seven-year-old organic vegetable garden thrives in summer thanks to a school culture that makes it a priority. Family volunteers and a summer camp program keep it in shape. This year, High Meadows donated 200 pounds of produce to Plant a Row for the Hungry, a food drive.

When children plant in spring, environmental studies teacher Chris Robie warns them they may not see any of the vegetables. Some will, because they tend the garden in summer with their parents. Others share the harvest in the fall, when students dig up sweet potatoes, make them into pancakes and chow down as part of their health studies.

Learning about sustainability ties in with the fruit and vegetable snack scraps tossed into compost bins. Plant parts? Students pull weeds and check them out.

"You don't have to sit inside and look at page 40 in a biology book," Robie says. "You can go outside and see the real thing."

Getting a garden started isn't easy. Keeping it going after the first season may be even more challenging. Here are some suggestions from Chris Robie, who has shepherded the gardens at High Meadows School in Roswell for seven years; Fred Conrad, community garden coordinator for the Atlanta Community Food Bank; and Sarah Pounders, education specialist with the National Gardening Association.

• Make the garden part of the school culture to ensure a commitment that lasts beyond its founder.

• Teachers need to embrace the idea and work it into their lessons.

• A lead teacher or parent should take responsibility for the garden's continued existence.

• Start small and grow as you add resources.

• Give students real responsibilities for planning and maintaining the garden, so they learn the importance of taking care of their plants.

• Get whole families involved. If a family is leaving the school or can't volunteer anymore, ask them to find a replacement.

• Look for free help, especially with big projects. Master gardeners and other landscaping experts can assist with design, such as xeriscaping, which involves grouping together plants with similar water needs to make maintenance easier. The food bank's community garden program can round up volunteer labor and lends tillers for initial garden design and planting.

• Concentrate on plants that will grow and produce during the school year. For vegetable gardens, that means cool-season crops like broccoli, radishes, lettuce and greens.