Planting seeds of renewal at Eagle Crest Elementary

Gloomy skies to the west and a chilly wind failed to dampen the enthusiasm of Eagle Crest Elementary fourth-grade students to dig in the dirt and create their “square-foot gardens” on April 22 at the school.

“We’re planting cold-weather plants, because they will grow in our weather right now,” said Mackenzie Farmer.

She and her garden mates - Hannah Bruce, Rylee Anderson and Lyndsey Johnson – had an elaborate diagram of where to plant each kind of plant in their plot. They were planting lettuce, cabbage, radishes, spinach and marigolds.

“You have to have the marigolds because they attract the right insects and repel the bad ones,” Bruce said. “And they’re pretty.”

The gardens are part of the fourth grade’s G.R.O.W. project, which stands for Gardens Renew Our World, explained fourth-grade teacher Stephanie Potter. The gardens were created as part of the St. Vrain Valley School District’s Math, Engineering, and Science Achievement program. Potter and fourth grade teacher Mick Huiet serve as the MESA advisors for Eagle Crest.

Funding for the G.R.O.W. program was provided by the Colorado Division of Wildlife, St. Vrain Valley Education Foundation and the Eagle Crest PTO. Students also held a “virtual plant sale” in March, which allowed parents and others to order nursery plants online and have a percentage of the sale go to the G.R.O.W. project, Potter said.

The G.R.O.W. project has been underway for much of the school year. After planning was done in September, the students celebrated a “Leave No Child Inside” day in October by holding a garden groundbreaking. About 63 students emptied a 20 by 20-feet area of all the landscaping rocks covering the soil in preparation for the square-foot gardens project.

In December, parents, teachers and students from all grades built and placed 20 planters for the project.

“It was pretty awesome,” said Theo Ditillo. “There was an assembly line going.”

Students have been planning their gardens all spring, Potter said. They researched and chose the seeds they wanted to plant, and worked with landscape designer Cherie Stringer of TLC Gardens to discuss gardening concepts such as microclimates, soil preparation, using compost and planting tips. They also put together wheelbarrows to carry soil to the gardens.

On planting day, teachers and students used huge tarps to mix the planting mix of peat and vermiculite, and added some compost to the mix. Students carried buckets of the soil mix to the garden beds to fill them, and then gridded off the beds into nine 1 by 1 foot squares for planting.

“One cabbage plant can take up an entire square foot,” Ditillo said. “You have to give them a lot of room.”

Ditillo and his garden partners – Adrian Gomez, Alex Eskridge and Wes Zamudio – carefully filled their garden plot and gridded it. They spent time making sure the soil was completely mixed and then planted their seeds.

The former landscaping rocks were put to new uses as decorative stones and “thermal rocks” in the gardens. Some of the rocks were painted by the fourth grade students and glazed so that they can be used as stepping stones and decorative accents.

“It looks really pretty,” said Madison Mauldin.

Along with learning plant biology, math, climate information and ecology, the fourth grade students also honed their technology skills on the G.R.O.W. project. The students created podcasts for the projects, and teamed up to write the scripts, narrate the podcasts and add the music. They also documented the garden project’s progress with photos, and learned how to add comments on a blog about the garden.

The G.R.O.W. project also inspired Anderson and Jenny Weygandt to create a worm compost project. The girls used a worm compost box and earthworms supplied through EcoCycle’s Green Star Schools project, then added the compost materials, mainly consisting of newspaper strips and dirt.

“We have to rake the compost materials and spray it all with water every day,” said Weygandt. “We also add in things from our snacks like banana peels, apple cores and orange rinds.”

“Mold is really good, because it means that the worms are breaking down the materials and making good compost,” Anderson added.

The girls also taught second grade classes about worms and composting, and helped them create composting materials.

“The second graders really liked seeing the worms,” Weygandt said. “They had lots of questions about the worms.”

Anderson and Weygandt displayed a poster about their worm composting project at the St. Vrain MESA Expo held Tuesday. Their worm compost also will be used in the square-foot gardens.

The Eagle Crest fourth graders are hoping their gardens grow quickly.

“We want to be able to eat some of the things we’ve grown by the end of school,” Gomez said.

Email: kcglasscock@comcast.net