Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
News
Students' learning blossoms Cherry Chase has maintained a school garden for a decade (Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer) Stacey Knuckey, left, a second-grade teacher and head garden instructor at Cherry Chase Elementary, harvests wheat from the school's garden that will be made into bread. Helping her is Roxanne Mikes, 8. (By Amy Jenkins) For Cherry Chase Elementary School second-graders, the best part of the day is when they get to run through the school garden, picking flowers, gathering vegetables, making compost and mowing the lawn. The students have fun without even realizing the important lesson they are learning about nature and the life cycle of plants, says Stacey Knuckey, who has taught second grade at the school for three years. The garden began 10 years ago at a school board meeting, when a parent proposed the idea. With the help of parents, community volunteers and students, the garden has blossomed and is maintained year-round. During the summer, families of children from the school adopt a plot. Knuckey believes that the decade-long success of the garden can be attributed to "the huge commitment from parents and volunteers to show up daily and help out." The main garden, located on the side of the school, is divided into various plots that grow everything from sunflowers and pansies to kiwis, raspberries, strawberries and cabbage. The garden also grows herbs, carrots, beans, lavender, an artichoke plant, an apple tree and more. An entirely organic garden, alfalfa pellets, cocoa bean and alfalfa meal are used for fertilization and to add texture. 
Row by Row (Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer) Madison Salom, 8, left, and Kathy Yi, 8, work on separating twigs from their compost heap. The garden allows students to learn where their food comes from, Knuckey says. After picking vegetables, students wash them in the classroom and make a variety of salads. Sometimes they make coleslaw or just dip raw vegetables into dressing. They are also planning to make bread from the wheat they harvest. Roxanne Mikes, 8, says she loves eating the vegetables. Last spring, she and several other first-graders helped plant pumpkins and squash. In the fall, they reaped the benefits when they harvested the pumpkins and made pie. Grants and donations provide the $500 per year needed to maintain the garden. The PTA donates money to the garden, says parent volunteer Linda Eaton, who has bought numerous plants and seeds for the garden. Parents donated and now help maintain the sprinkler system. Local businesses have helped add other amenities to the garden, such as a wooden fence, provided by Home Depot. And the city of Sunnyvale donated six large compost bins that the students throw weeds and clippings into. The children also rake and chop up the branches "in order to make it decay faster," says Kathy Yi, 8, who has a garden at home. Located in the front of the school is a butterfly garden, which features plants - such as milkweed and sticky monkey flower - that attract butterflies. Monarch butterflies tend to visit more often than smaller butterflies, such as painted ladies, because there is too much wind for the small butterflies. The students hope to change this by growing a dense vine in the fence surrounding the garden, which will act as a wind buffer. Soap plant, which Native Americans used to make soap, is one of the native plants in the garden. There are also plants, like bladder pod, that hummingbirds feed on year-round. In April, Eaton applied for certification from the National Wildlife Federation for the garden to be considered a schoolyard habitat that encourages wildlife to live in the area. While they wait to hear back, Knuckey envisions replacing the logs with benches for the children to sit on during lessons in the garden. Volunteer Marla Yonamine, one of the original garden planners and a certified master gardener, plans to install umbrellas on the grassy area for the older classes, which visit the garden to read during the day. The second Saturday of each month volunteers prune large trees, fix the water system and perform other labor too difficult for children. For more information or to volunteer, call 408-522-8241. |
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