Green thumbs welcome

Schools use gardens to boost learning

DUSON — Turnips, mustard greens, strawberries, carrots and swiss chard are all part of the learning labs growing in six area schools.

The school garden movement in Lafayette is in bloom with teachers linking classroom lessons to seasonal vegetables and fruits cared for by students.

“They’re learning math, science and English without even knowing it,” said Loretta Williams Durand, principal of Burke Elementary.

The school started its garden last year with the support of John Fontane, Lafayette Parish master gardener, whose grandchildren attend the school.

“They’ve gotten excited about growing their own fruits and vegetables and are enjoying them,” Durand said. “It’s a wonderful educational experience for them.”

Burke is one of six schools in Lafayette Parish with gardens that receive financial and hands-on support from the Lafayette Parish Master Gardeners program, the LSU AgCenter, Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service and the Lafayette Parish School System. This year, those efforts have been boosted by a Walmart Foundation Health Living grant for schools that focus on exercise and nutritional lessons for students.

So far this year, more than 700 students are involved in the schools gardens at: Burke, L. Leo Judice Elementary, Judice Middle, Carencro Middle, W.D. Smith Career Center and St. Thomas More Catholic High School, said Charles Hebert, a county agent with the LSU AgCenter who oversees the 4-H Youth Development program in Lafayette Parish.

Burke Elementary hosted a gathering of the Lafayette Parish Master Gardeners last week. The group has provided funding and its expertise to the students. Master gardeners work directly with schools as “advisers” or “enablers” and have provided nearly 300 volunteer hours at the schools, Hebert said in a presentation given at Burke last week.

The gardens offer many students new opportunities, said Sarah Schoeffler, a master gardener who works with students at L. Leo Judice Elementary.

“So many of these children have never had their hands in the soil before,” she said.

She said students are also sharing what they’ve learned with first-grade students at the school.

“They are learning and they are retaining it,” Schoeffler said. “They’re truly interested in getting their hands in the garden.”

The goal is to expand the school garden program to other schools, and the program is currently seeking sponsors, Hebert said.

“It’s a true partnership with the community and the schools,” he said of the program.

Across the state, the LSU AgCenter supports about 215 school gardens, said Kathryn Fontenot, a LSU AgCenter assistant professor and school gardens specialist.

The program provides teachers curriculum materials to adapt lessons using the garden, including measuring the heights of plants, mapping the garden to determine planting for next season, learning plant origins, and about plant growth and reproduction.

The garden is also a focus for journal entries and other writing exercises at some schools.

At Burke, students monitor the weather — temperature and rainfall — to determine their watering needs and whether to protect their plants from colder temperatures. This year, the Burke garden also includes new research: Students are growing wetland grasses and rice in a crawfish habitat.

“We’re learning how to work together as a team,” said Logan Boudreaux, of Carencro Middle School.

The garden plants offer living examples of textbook lessons, said Corrie McCaa, who also attends Carencro Middle.

She and Boudreaux are both part of Carencro Middle’s academy for students interested in the biomedical sciences.

The plants and fruits growing in Carencro Middle School’s gardens are all “angiosperms,” McCaa said.

“That means they use flowers for reproduction unlike gymnosperms, which use cones for reproduction,” McCaa said.

“Like a pine tree,” Boudreaux said.

Many schools donate their produce and time to their communities.

At Judice Middle, students want to create a local farmer’s market to share their harvest with local residents and other students.

At St. Thomas More, senior students work as mentors in the garden with the school’s special needs students.

At St. Thomas More, students with special needs tend the garden to gain life skills and build relationships with members of the senior class who act as their mentors. The St. Thomas More students donate their produce to St. Joseph’s Diner, which serves hot meals to the hungry. The W.D. and Mary Baker Smith Career Center and Carencro Middle made donations to local nursing homes.

The gardens also provide tastes of what students have been missing — like radishes.

“When you eat it, it tastes sour at first,” said Burke fourth grader Cameron Trahan. “When it goes down your throat, it’s spicy.”

Trahan told the Master Gardeners last week that he started a garden at home to see if he could do it on his own.

He already has proof of his success.

“I harvested it last Friday,” he told the crowd of fellow gardeners.