Plant-of-the-Day (June 11, 2012)

Garden at Kimball Elementary, Anacostia, D.C.

What else? Lettuce, of course. According to Bill A., who helped plan the garden seven years ago, several elements proved unnecessary. As originally designed, each row was designated for a specific grade, and within each row we planted a sign for a specific student. Thus, each student could see the progress their own head of lettuce made. However, students were unimpressed, only wanting to see the whole garden grow. In the case of this garden, simpler is better. Just grow the greens, and the kids will enjoy.

Salad Day

The kids at Kimball Elementary planted lettuce seeds just before spring break, and now, just before summer break, enjoyed the results of their efforts. K through 6th-grade, all the kids seemed to be surprised at how well their garden grew. All enjoyed the salads our crew served: lettuce from the garden, and carrots, goldfish, and ranch dressing, all supplied by Lands and Waters (on hand Monday: Jeanette, Kris, Bill A., myself). Although seemingly not a large garden, there was far more than enough to feed the entire school--one classroom at a time. And reminders to all the students and teachers that there is still plenty of lettuce--and beets, radishes, and potatoes--in the garden--they should all feel free to get their own lettuce from the garden during the summer break.

In keeping with Lands and Waters' environmental focus, we informed the kids that all the plastic forks should not be thrown away, because we would wash them and re-use them for another function; and paper plates would be collected and deposited into a compost pile. In a few classes some kids were excited at being able to put knowledge into action:
"I know what composting is!"
"Okay, then tell your classmates about composting."
The student--whether a kindergartner or a 5th-grader--proudly turns to the classroom and in a public speaker mode, announces (in the words of a K student) that "composting is when you put stuff into a pile and the worms turn it into dirt."

As a side-note: In a school of more than 400 kids, only ONE student didn't want any salad. Many kids didn't want carrots, not a soul refused the ranch dressing (and usually all wanted more), and everybody wanted goldfish. Nobody believed me when I told them that the goldfish came from the stream nearby--but they did enjoy the joke.

Jeanette and Bill harvesting the lettuce. The garden was planted about 7 years ago, and is still going strong. Salad Day has become a tradition.

Kris delivering what might be the most popular part of the meal: the ranch dressing.

Jeanette tells the students about their harvest.

Plant of the Day

Milkweed at Lanier Middle School

Plant of the Day: Common Milkweed. Great teaching tool for the lifecycle of the monarch butterfly.

Walled Gardens

A few of our projects involve creating native plant habitats in a school's interior courtyard. Other than a tree--if even that--in all these courtyards, no plants existed other than lawn grass. We go in, and with the students, change these courtyards into native plant gardens, creating areas such as wetlands, pollinator gardens, wooded areas, vegetable gardens, rain gardens, and other micro-habitats. Some of the students grow as much as anything they and we plant in there. Some kids need the challenge of sports, others need the challenge of music; and some need the challenge of planting in a safe place: a walled garden.

Nearing the end of the school year, and working in the courtyard habitat at one of our middle schools, in Fairfax City/County. Talked with one kid a few weeks ago, and asked if he were looking forward to the end of the school year. Stunningly, he said no, because he wouldn't be able to work in the garden as much, and, to boot, his family would be moving away after the school year. Nevertheless, he said (and I'm still amazed) that he wants to come back and still work in the habitat!

His is only one of several stories I've heard about kids who have somehow "found" themselves inside these gardens. In some cases, the kids themselves have told me how much they enjoy the gardens/habitats, and in other cases, teachers has told me about particular students who have turned themselves around in these courtyard gardens. One story: at this same school--Lanier--a boy from a nearby homeless shelter fit in no where. Failing in his classes meant nothing; being threatened with detention meant nothing (the alternative was going back to the shelter); threats to call his parents meant nothing (one was in jail, the other absent). Failure was a way of life--until, that is, he began to work in the garden. Something clicked, and he began to excel in his science class. Maybe he didn't excel in all his classes, but he found a niche that he loved.

Streambed

On the right is a small rain garden

Butterfly Weed

Dirty Hands: A Sabbatical Beginning

The sabbatical project began about eight years ago, when I started working with a small environmental nonprofit called Lands and Waters. By small, I mean one paid employee--that would be the organization's founder. Call it serendipity: I found by sheer luck an organization that breathed and acted upon many of the thoughts concerning the environment and modern urban and suburban life that I had been mulling for years. For me, that means getting people involved in nature right where they live. Don't get me wrong, I love the outdoors, and when I find time to get into the woods or on the water, I take it. But to get kids and adults truly familiar with nature and the environment means bringing the outdoors as close as possible--and that can mean right outside one's doorstep. The mission of Lands and Waters: protect and preserve the Chesapeake Bay Watershed through hands-on projects with elementary and middle-school students at their schools. Hands-on! That means working with kids to build their own rain gardens, bogs, sponge gardens, wetlands, vernal pools, and forests. In other words--nature on their doorstep. Sign me up!

Another title for this humble blog could be "Dirty Hands: A Sabbatical Year," because there's no doing this work without getting one's hands literally dirty. I've chopped my fingernails down to nubbins so that I don't have to fuss as much with keeping dirt from collecting the fingernails. I kick off my shoes before walking into the house. I have pants, shorts, t-shirts, and shoes which are dedicated to the sabbatical work, because I can't get those clean enough to wear for any other purposes. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Although the title refers to an entire year, the actual length of the sabbatical is six months. But add in the eight years I've already been active with Lands and Waters, plus the application and interview period, which began in July 2011, by the time I began this project in the first week of May, and when I wrap up at the end of October, it will have been more than a year.

I'll wrap up this little intro by stating that faith is probably the most important aspect of this project. I don't mean religious faith. Instead, I'm referring to faith in the environment, with our help, to become healthier. There are times when I'm a doubting Thomas (to use a faith-based metaphor) about whether a seemingly small step will be successful. A good example: About five or six years ago I wanted to plant a tree in front of my condo unit to replace another one that had fallen in a storm. The Lands and Waters president--Jeanette--suggested planting a sycamore, as well as two more in the same general area. Sure, that sounds like a good plan, I said. Then she showed me the trees: they were sticks. Charlie Brown trees. Not the trees that you usually pick up at the plant nurseries. I waited and waited for those trees to mature--faster! faster!--despairing because they remained at the stick-stage uncomfortably long for my impatient self. Jeanette said stick (oops, pun) with it, the trees will come along. And sure enough, they have. The one directly in front of my place, which I'm looking at right now, is about 40 feet high and has leaves that span at least nine inches. Yup, that's it above.

That little stick of a tree is much like Lands and Waters projects: small things that become great things.