CONTRIBUTED ARTICLE
GREENFIELD — Designed to be used as an outdoor classroom and integrated into the curriculum for all grade levels, the Green Grizzlies Garden and Outdoor Learning Lab at Vista Verde Middle School is being built in part with a grant from Look at Agriculture Organically Garden Grant Program, plus donations of 1,000 plant starts, topsoil, vermiculture bins, worms and composting bins from Green Giant Fresh, Growers Express and Farm Day Organics and Comgro Soil Amendments in Salinas.
Nicolas Meyer’s summer school classes and Mr. Bacon’s extended learning classes contributed the labor to build raised garden beds. In addition to these raised beds, Vista Verde’s newly formed Garden Club students will begin vertical growing projects and will also create an “open field” planting area, experimenting with a variety of outdoor and indoor greenhouse type structures. Celestina Rocha’s SDC class will sow wildflower seeds for pollinators.
Brenda Hoffert’s Alternative Education classes will water the plants daily and monitor the growth of the fall planting.
On Oct. 25, the Garden Club hosted its first all day “planting” event, which included moving topsoil into beds, cultivating soil and planting 1,000 vegetable plants, including broccoli, kale, lettuce, cauliflower and red cabbage.
Midday, the students enjoyed a healthy, fresh meal of green salad, berries and gourmet style sandwiches provided by Uriel Mendoza, coordinator of the Kids Eat Right Program at County Hospital of Monterey Peninsula.
“Our students are thrilled to see the transformation taking place,” says Beth Meyer, vice principal. “Their excitement is palpable, and they can’t wait to start harvesting.”
On Nov. 3, the Garden Club traveled to Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo to partner with the Ag Ambassadors Club at Cal Poly to learn about careers related to horticulture and dairy science. Students completed labs in the campus greenhouse and learned about growing commercial decorative plants like poinsettias. They collected specimens in the botanical gardens and learned about plants that grow in climates similar to our central coast climate.
Teachers and administrators plan to use the garden as an extension of the classroom, as well as using the garden-grown produce in the school cafeteria. So far, students have actively participated in the garden plans by making posters in a contest to name the garden.
Students also are learning about environmentally-friendly gardening (permaculture) and construction techniques; repurposed materials are being used for the garden walkways and edging and to continue to grow starts as they move into winter growing season.
Recycle Club will be working with Mr. Juarez in the school cafeteria to collect green waste and paper waste to feed worms and to create healthy compost.
