Author: beanstalk

Britt Tate is the art teacher at Columbia Elementary and Bryan Hill Elementary.  Columbia Elementary is one of Gateway Greening’s Seed to STEM sites, where GG educator Nick Speed teaches weekly garden classes with each grade. 

The second you step into Britt’s classroom, her passion for plants and social justice is immediately obvious.  She has a large collection of plants from various points in her life and is a proud plant mom to “the weirdest, coolest plants.” Her passion for teaching children about the living world inspired her to start recycling efforts at the school, which snowballed into starting a garden and growing vegetables for the school.  

Britt pulls inspiration from what Nick teaches and they often collaborate on what’s happening in the garden. On Mondays, Nick checks in with Britt to share his lesson plans for the week so Britt can connect what she’s teaching in her art classroom with the garden. She keeps a mini-fridge in her classroom to store extra harvested vegetables to use in a lesson or a spontaneous student taste test. 

Britt proudly takes a nonconventional, unique approach in her classroom. Her teaching style focuses on the therapeutic process of making art, why we make it and examines the experience, rather than the end result. Similarly, the garden provides a space for students to learn the journey of where their food comes from and the work that goes into it. The garden is not only inspiration for the art they create, but also allows Britt to teach cross-curricular subjects in a visual way – like a lesson she gave on bees pollinating in the garden.  Britt asked her students to illustrate the role a bee plays in the garden ecosystem, using various styles of art. The outcomes were adorable, but more importantly, they represented how each student learns and expresses themselves differently. 

Britt’s “living classroom” doesn’t just include plants, it is also home to the classroom pet bunny, Vanilla, and two chicks.  This past school year, Columbia participated in MU Extension’s chick hatching program and had three incubators at the school to raise chicks.  During a lesson with the chicks, one student was upset when they made the connection between chicken wings and their new fuzzy friends. Britt believes the students’ daily interactions with animals and animals encourages them to buy responsibly and hopefully makes them more conscious consumers in the future.  The students appreciate the garden for providing food for Vanilla while learning how to care for an animal.   

Britt enjoys finding the overlap between art, science, and sustainability in her classroom and encourages other teachers to not be afraid to fail or try new things.  She says, “life is a science fair project.”  

Written by Rachel Wilson, Education VISTA

Mike Herries and his wife, Paula, are the garden leaders at St. Francis of Assisi parish and school.  As the STREAM Coordinator at the school, Mike is passionate about connecting the garden to his curriculum.  He joined St. Francis of Assisi School as a substitute teacher when he returned to St. Louis after Hurricane Katrina destroyed his family’s home.  His engineering background (and excitement for learning) allowed him to transition easily into his current full-time position leading the STREAM curriculum. In 2017, he discovered Gateway Greening’s Youth Garden Program and decided to start a garden. The parish and faculty were immediately on board and continue to be huge supporters of the garden. 

The St. Francis of Assisi garden is particularly busy this spring with Gateway Greening’s First Peas to the Table Contest!  Using Gregor Mendel’s pea plant studies, Mike’s students performed their own crossbreeding experiments with peas they’d grown in the garden. Though Mike doesn’t expect a large harvest of peas, (last year, they won the award for “Most Patient” peas!) the contest has attracted more students to participate in the garden. 

Mike found that sending out a monthly email with garden updates has engaged more teachers to get involved.The students enjoy getting outdoors and are often shocked to learn where their food comes from. They’re always excited to try new vegetables growing in the garden! Several teachers incorporate the garden into their classrooms and try to get the students to walk through the garden every day. The pre-K teachers take their students through the garden each day and are growing tomato seedlings in their classrooms. 

While Mike works primarily with middle schoolers, he’s able to interact with students of all ages in the garden. He and Paula are particularly proud of their pumpkin graveyard lesson in the fall, where the students observed their pumpkin harvest decompose. 

Mike prides himself on the fact that the St. Francis of Assisi garden “is all about learning, not production!”.  He is not afraid to lose some vegetables to pests and says that “bugs are a learning opportunity!”  Most of the produce is eaten right off the vine, but when there are leftovers, the harvest is given to members of the parish. Providing experiential learning for the students is very important to Mike, and the garden plays a key role in his lessons.  Mike hopes to include a pollinator garden, sensory beds, a chicken coop, and bees in the future. 

His advice for other school garden leaders: “Collaborate with other teachers to find out what they enjoy doing.  If the garden doesn’t feel like a chore, they’ll be more eager to participate.”

Written by Rachel Wilson, Education VISTA

Girls Inc. is a nonprofit that provides educational and cultural after-school and summer programs in safe environments for girls and encourages them to realize their potential.  They offer after-school and summer programs for girls K-12.  Learn more about the organization here.

Sheila Irving has been the garden leader since she started with Girls Inc. over seven years ago.  She had no gardening experience prior to the job, but saw they are empty, forgotten raised beds as a challenge!  Since her very first planting of tomatoes and onions, the garden has grown to 12 raised beds, producing a variety of vegetables.  Sheila proudly shares that they’ve grown everything from watermelon and cantaloupe to broccoli and cauliflower!

Students in the Girls Inc. After School and Summer programs contribute to the garden’s maintenance and are able to use the produce they’ve grown to experiment in the building’s kitchen.

In the spring, the students start seeds at the school and take them home to care for until they are ready to transplant into the garden.   The seed starting “homework” empowers the girls to be responsible for their seedlings and allows them to observe the plant life cycle.

Sheila is also involved with the Eureka! STEM Career Development program at Girls Inc. and finds ways to incorporate the garden into the curriculum.   The program provides hands-on STEM experiences and personal development activities, increasing the likelihood that they will pursue higher education and careers in STEM fields.  Sheila encourages the girls to dream big – this winter, a group of her Eureka! students designed a 3D model for a future garden plan that included an irrigation system and greenhouse. The project won a Eureka! STEM competition and the girls plan to use their prize money to make their designs a reality in the Girls Inc. garden.

Over the summer, the garden is still buzzing with excitement from girls K-12 who are a part of the Girls Inc. summer program.  Having this program allows the students to interact and learn in the garden during the summer months when a school garden is often forgotten.

What Sheila enjoys most about being in the garden is seeing the girls outside working hard and having fun.   Throughout the gardening season, Sheila and the students hold mini-market stands to sell their produce to parents during after-school pick-up. Sheila credits these interactive moments for the success of the garden: “The students are excited, so the parents get excited, and they all go and tell their friends about the garden, and it spreads throughout the community.”  Sheila hopes to continue promoting the garden into the community and providing opportunities where the students at Girls Inc. can teach their peers about gardening.

Sheila proves that you don’t need horticultural experience to lead a school garden, just dedication and not being afraid to get dirty!

By Rachel Wilson, Education Americorps VISTA

Wendy Bell and Karen Flotte, CRC Co-Garden Goddesses

Karen Flotte and Wendy Bell are very involved at the Central Reform Congregation, but their role as “co-garden goddesses” is what they are best known for.

CRC is one of the largest public green spaces in the area, but growing food wasn’t part of the garden until Wendy installed vegetable beds in 2016.  However, Wendy credits Karen joining her gardening efforts in 2017 as when “the magic happened”. Together, the two of them created a plan to grow produce at the CRC garden solely to donate to local families in need.  They recruited a team of volunteers and during that first year, grew 80 lbs. of produce. In the last two years, that number has increased exponentially, but 100% of their produce is still donated. (Karen is known for her unwavering stance that their produce is for people in need, not for the congregants!)

 Something unique about CRC is the story of their orchard planting.  In 2017, CRC (along with many Jewish communities) was experiencing safety concerns and for security reasons, they decided to remove the bamboo wall near their entrance that blocked visibility towards the street.  In its place, they planted an orchard of apple and pear trees from the Gateway Greening Giving Grove Community Orchard Program.  Jewish tradition views Saturdays as a day of worship and rest, but on this particular Saturday morning, the rabbi at CRC encouraged the gardeners to plant and said they were “praying with their hands and feet.”  There was a morning prayer at the orchard for everyone in the congregation to participate in.

In addition to the install, Wendy and Karen attended an orchard pruning workshop with Gateway Greening where they learned that gardeners should not harvest fruit from their trees for the first 3-4 years.  Waiting to harvest allows the tree to grow branches and roots before bearing fruit and harvesting too early can stunt a tree’s growth. This information was particularly significant for Wendy and Karen because it coincides with the teachings of Tu Bishvat, the new year for the trees.  According to Tu Bishvat, fruit from trees may not be eaten during the first three years and the fruit of the fourth year was to be offered to the priests in the Temple as a gift of gratitude.  It wasn’t until the fifth year (and subsequent years) that the fruit was finally for the farmer. Seeing this connection and having the congregation embrace the orchard was a special moment for Karen and Wendy.

        An exciting, new project for the pair is to utilize a donated fridge and invite home gardeners at CRC to bring their excess produce to be donated.  (Produce from Gateway Greening’s Demonstration Garden will be dropped off at CRC, too!)  While the CRC garden prides itself on donating produce to those in need, Wendy and Karen acknowledge that they’ve overlooked that are also families in need within the congregation.  To fill that void, they’re adding two new “gleaning” beds that will be open to congregants in need.

        Knowing that they can’t lead the garden forever, Wendy and Karen are currently developing a committee of young congregants to build longevity for the garden and identify the future leaders.  Each person in the committee is responsible for a specific area of the garden, like compost or pest management. In addition, Wendy and Karen are working outside CRC with other Jewish congregations in the area to promote their garden model and strategies.  Their goal is to reach all congregations in St. Louis!

Wendy and Karen credit much of their success to the collaboration between the two of them.  Though they come from different backgrounds and have contrasting personalities, they find a commonality in the garden and making a difference in their community.  Wendy notes that her proudest moment in the garden was meeting and teaming up with Karen. She says, “There is no ego (between us), we have mutual respect for each other. It’s all about the garden!”   

Their advice for other gardeners is to build relationships first and be okay with starting small.  Growing your garden will be a process but it’s important to have a foundation of trust amongst the gardeners.  They engage their own community by constantly talking about the garden and they believe that “if you build it, they will come”.  

Gateway Michael Elementary has always had a school garden but in recent years, it has taken on more importance. Edward Scruggs, Oliver Tindle, and Rosemarie Schelling are three teachers that have been vital in the success of the school garden.

When Edward Scruggs started at Gateway in 2000, the school had a small garden that was mostly led by teachers and PTA members.  Over time, those responsible for the garden retired and weed overtook many of the beds. In the spring of 2013, Edward Scruggs decided to bring the garden back to life. With the help of a group of volunteers, he spent the next few months digging out the weeds, planting new crops, and – because there was no irrigation system – hand-watering the entire garden himself.

He soon recruited Rosemarie Schelling and Oliver Tindle to help with garden maintenance, since they were both avid home gardeners. Rosemarie Schelling had started garden beds at Gateway Michael over 20 years ago and was eager to start the garden back up.  Mr. Tindle describes the revitalization of the garden as a “catalyst for change” and it brought new energy to the school. The garden inspired the entire staff to start a faculty exercise program to encourage each other to stay active. This enthusiasm spread throughout the building and in 2018, Gateway Michael received the Silver Award for America’s Healthiest Schools! President Bill Clinton praised Gateway Elementary and Gateway Michael as “one of the healthiest schools I have ever seen,” during his visit to the school in 2017.

Gateway Michael is a unique St. Louis Public School that serves students with severe deficits in cognitive, motor, and speech areas. In 2017, Healthy Schools, Healthy Communities (HSHC), an initiative funded by the Missouri Foundation for Health, helped make the garden space more accessible for students. They installed double-high raised beds and a wheelchair accessible pathway around many of the garden beds.

Scruggs, Tindle, and Schelling have found ways to incorporate the garden into special education, like having the students use hand shovels to move soil and directly observing weather patterns. In addition to being an outdoor classroom, Oliver Tindle says “The garden provides peace of mind and physical expression for the staff and students.”   The garden allows the students to feel responsible for something while being supported in a safe space. Rosemarie Schelling proudly shares that during a MAP test this past winter, one of her students was able to make a connection to something they had learned while being in the garden.

When asked about the garden, Edward Scruggs enjoys telling the story of giving a group of students a packet of cucumber seeds. One student was so excited because he knew pickles came from cucumbers from his time in the garden. Though he no longer has to hand water the garden, Edward Scruggs often spends hours working in the garden each afternoon. His initial goal “to make the garden look good” has grown into something much more. Scruggs wants to continue expanding the garden and dreams about growing enough for parents and community members to take the produce home. 

By Rachel Wilson, Education Americorps VISTA

Albert Sanders teaches preschool and the Saturday morning classes at Adams Elementary. In partnership with Connie Myers, from Washington University, Albert leads the school garden, Sun Patch Garden at Adams. This past summer, Albert was selected as one of the Missouri Regional Teachers of the Year for 2018-2019. They work with the students, volunteers, and community to create a space that everyone enjoys, utilizes, and are proud to be a part of.

The Sun Patch Garden has a variety of annual and perennial vegetable, flower, and fruit beds. The Saturday School at Adams – led by Albert and Connie – includes “Rooted in STEM” classes, where students are able to make scientific connections to the garden. This past spring, the students built a geodesic dome greenhouse to start seedlings. The greenhouse looks like a much smaller version of the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Climatron!  The greenhouse extends the growing season into the winter, so they can grow more produce for the school and community.  

In addition to Saturday School lessons, the garden is used as an outdoor classroom by Albert and other teachers at Adam’s Elementary.  Albert’s preschoolers help out with the planting and celebrated Halloween with a Pumpkin Patch Hunt (check out the garden’s Facebook page to see the adorable photos!). Throughout the year, Adam’s teachers have access to produce from a tower garden and are encouraged to incorporate it into the classroom.  Parents of Adam’s Elementary students are also welcome to the produce.

With the help of Adam’s teachers and a team of Washington University volunteers (and of course, Albert and Connie), the Sun Patch Garden is maintained throughout the summer and school year. They hold monthly work days on Saturdays (even in the winter!) that are open to the public and gardeners of all levels. They recently set up a rain barrel irrigation system to make summer maintenance easier – Albert shared how to install a rain barrel irrigation at the Gateway Greening Community Agriculture Conference this past February!

Albert’s favorite memory in the garden is the first harvest of lettuce with the Rooted in STEM students. They grew lettuce, carrots, and radishes and had a salad party!  Connie enjoys seeing the students’ smiles and a sense of accomplishment as plants grow and are harvested throughout the year.  Connie says, “It inspires me to see the students share what they have learned with other students and proudly show their friends and parents, explaining in great detail what they have done in the garden.”

Albert and Connie’s collaboration and teamwork is undoubtedly a huge part of their success. Both are passionate about working with the students in the garden and making an impact in their community. They do acknowledge the need for “support from the administration and staff, and for them to believe in the importance of the school garden.” Perhaps, what the Sun Patch Garden can teach other school gardeners is that in order to have a thriving garden, the most important thing you need is a strong foundation!

To learn more about Albert, Connie, and what’s happening at the Sun Patch Garden, visit their website or Facebook page!

I recently read Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been combing through the book and blown away at all of the topics included. Each topic is centered around people of color, their contributions to agriculture, and the history of systemic discrimination in American agriculture.

The author, Leah Penniman, is the founder of Soul Fire Farm in New York. Her goal for the book was to create a manual “for African-heritage people ready to ready reclaim our rightful place of dignified agency in the food system”. Farming While Black also details her experiences as a farmer/activist, and how people with zero experience in gardening and farming can find real power and dignity through food. This comprehensive piece highlights topics including finding land and resources, restoring degraded land, healing from historical trauma, youth programming practices, and tangible ways for white people to build equitable authentic relationships with people of color and institutions/organizations led by people of color.

One of my favorite quotes can be found in the introduction and sets the tone for the book. “To farm while Black is an act of defiance against white supremacy and a means to honor the agricultural ingenuity of our ancestors.” To me, this quote highlights the importance of acknowledging not just the legacy of slavery and plunder of black and brown people in America, but the innovation, perseverance, contributions by people of color that helped advance American agriculture and our food systems.  

Simon Amies, Pattonville School District Webmaster and leads the youth garden at the Pattonville School District’s Learning Center. 

After joining the Pattonville School District team, Simon Amies, an avid gardener with vegetable, berry, and herb gardens at home, noticed the absence of community and school gardens in the northwest area of Saint Louis County.  He approached the district with the idea of putting in a youth garden at the district Learning Center.  They not only approved the project, the district supported it with the installation of a sturdy perimeter fence, irrigation infrastructure, and a tiller that the district owned but had been gathering dust in a garage. Gateway Greening donated compost and trellises, and Simon’s Pattonville co-workers helped till the garden its first year.

The Pattonville District Garden is a great example of community members coming together for a common goal.  Since its creation, the garden has developed strategies for engaging people throughout the Pattonville community. The district, community, Chartwell’s food services, and Gateway Greening continue to play a large role in the success of the garden. In previous years, the garden has hosted annual seed swaps, seedling sales, gardening classes for community members, and community garden tours. The produce from the garden is used in school lunches, and Chartwell’s has conducted a series of veggie tastings with the students.  Kohlrabi went from being an unheard of vegetable to one of the kids’ favorites – especially if it’s dipped in ranch dressing! Even the local Starbucks donates coffee grounds each day.

In the district, Simon’s main “thing” is technology, and he enjoys teaching the connection between science, technology, and gardening.  He uses problem-based learning to provide students opportunities to use science to tackle an obstacle in the garden.  For example, one class used a raspberry pi computer to create a web-based sprinkler application for the garden that uses weather forecasts and past rainfall data to adjust watering schedules.  The application also allows the garden to be watered from any location. Pretty cool!  Having tangible results, like seeing the garden being watered by a system they created, inspired students.

Simon thinks of his role as being the “seasonal clock” for the gardens, facilitating the correct timing for various garden tasks, and empowering the faculty and students to get involved.   Teaching the kids that putting in a little bit of work in the garden early in the year can lead to big rewards come harvest time. When asked what his secret to success was, Simon replied that “There are fun things to do in the garden, but there are also not-so-fun things to do. By creating automated systems (like the sprinkler app) for those not-so-fun things, more time can be spend doing the ‘fun stuff’.”  

Simon wants to increase gardening across the district and make it easier for other teachers to incorporate the garden into their classroom. 

A new, exciting project at the Pattonville Learning Center is the installation of a large, glass-fronted refrigerator near the front desk.  During the growing season it will be stocked with excess garden produce to distribution to school families in need and to encourage healthy eating in the district.

Simon’s advice to other school gardeners: You need support! Ideally on an institutional level, but support from anywhere you can find it is extremely beneficial. Build relationships with people and find ways to work with people on their level.

Simon will be sharing his wisdom and strategies he’s used at the Pattonville Youth Garden at our Community Agriculture Conference in his session called “Youth Garden School Integration & Maintenance Strategies.”

Kerry leads the Agriscience component for the Saint Louis Science Center’s Youth Exploring Science Program.  

The Youth Exploring Science (YES) Program is a work-based youth development program that uses science investigation to foster academic and professional skills.  The Agriscience component focuses on increasing the teens’ knowledge of plants, comfort with nature, and healthy eating habits.

Kerry originally joined the YES Program as part of a Climate Change grant, educating the teens’ on global warming.  When the grant ended, she took over the Agriscience component of the YES program. Though Kerry studied Biology in undergrad, she never took a botany class and had very little gardening experience.  But she loves being in nature and was inspired when she realized that the teens had little exposure to nature in their everyday lives.  Kerry recalled that during a gardening lesson with the teens, she pulled a persimmon from a tree and when she took a bite, the students were shocked that it was okay to eat fruit right off a tree.  

The garden is a large part of the Agriscience classroom and incorporates outdoor education into their indoor curriculum.  Teens have access to microscopes to observe plant cells and are able to interact with worms, salamanders, crickets that live in the classroom.  The teens use the gene editing technique CRISPR and raspberry pi computers in connection with the garden for their advanced science curriculum. For one project, in collaboration with the Danforth Center, the teens are using raspberry pi computing to create a “vegetable piano”.  Using vegetables from their garden, sensors are transmitted from the vegetable “keys” to activate sounds as if playing a piano. The teens are also currently applying for a grant for a hydroponics system they designed to grow clover for the Wildlife Rescue Center.

In addition to science, Kerry uses the YES garden to build a connections to food, health, and nature.  Since joining the department, she has incorporated a heavier focus on nutrition and healthy eating, even bringing in guest chefs to show teens how to use the food they’ve grown.  She believes it is important to have teens draw connections between food from the grocery store and food from the garden. In one lesson, the teens compared basil from the garden and the grocery store,  and they were able to see how much fresher basil from the garden was.

The teens enjoy harvesting their garden crops, but they also really like being able to teach younger children what they’ve learned in the outdoor classroom.  The opportunity to facilitate their own lessons empowers the teens to become the teachers. In collaboration with the Saint Louis Science Center GROW Exhibit, the teens were able to lead a lesson for children making “rice cake pizzas” using fresh basil picked from the garden.

Kerry’s favorite thing to plant with her students is tomatoes because she likes eating them! But she also enjoys working with native plants because even though they’re local to Missouri, it’s often the first time the teens are interacting with them.  

Her advice to other school gardeners is to get students to appreciate the little things in the garden like worms and bugs.  It’s all connected and it’s important to get students comfortable with being in nature!