Edible School Yard Garden Featured at Einstein Middle School

Raised garden beds of spinach, garlic, lettuce, radish, onions, Chinese cabbage and more welcome visitors to .

 The idea for an Edible School Yard Garden was the brainchild of Marcia Garrett, a science teacher at Einstein.  The school has three very carefully designed, lush gardens.  Garrett and her colleague, Mary Thurber advised seventh and eighth-graders two years ago to start the gardens.

Garrett echoed the words on Einstein’s Web site: “The development of an Edible School Yard Garden program was to engage students and other community members in organic gardening, healthy food choices and water quality training.”

 Here are some community needs the project addresses:

•    Increase student understanding of environmental issues in our community and their awareness of their own personal responsibility for these issues.

•    Strengthen and create community partnerships to more effectively leverage scarce resources while addressing important community environmental concerns.

•    Provide concrete examples to Shoreline families of ways they can get involved and make a difference.

 “There are more than 600 students here at Einstein.  Over 300 plus students take care of these gardens,” said Garrett.  “On Thursday, we have Campus Day.  It is a special day when we invite PTSA members to participate with our students.  Our kids will create all kinds of salads from these gardens and have everyone sample our food.”  

Chipotle Mexican Grill chose to partner with Einstein School.  Chipotle will participate in Campus Days too.  They will bring chips and salsa for the lunch at Einstein.  In addition, Chipotle will supply the students with cilantro seed pellets in special bags so that the Einstein students may bring these cilantro bags home to grow over the summer.

Garrett gave a timeline of how the gardens came to fruition. 

“Last fall, the kids learned about soil.  They added amendments to their gardens and planted garlic in November," she said. "They also planted a cover crop and learned how cover crops add nutrients to the soil.  Later they dig the cover crops in and let the garlic keep growing.  They then plant their peas, greens and onions.” 

The Pacific Science Center brought over their science exhibit called “Harvesting Science” that spoke to the students about the science of agriculture.  All of this helped the students to learn how to plan a garden.  Garrett praised her students and spoke of how the gardens teach her students about leadership.

“Mary Thurber and I teach them how to plant a garden.  From there they go back to their P.R.I.D.E. (Pride, Respect, Integrity, Determination and Excellence) class and show other kids how to plant these gardens.  In between the watering and weeding, different subgroups of leaders emerge to become leaders of the gardens,” Garrett said.

Further, the gardens have taught many of the students about taking initiative. 

“Sometimes, you walk out here and notice that the kids are hard at work on the gardens, nobody tells them to go out here and do it.  They just do it because they really enjoy these gardens," she said.

Most of the ESY Gardens have pea trellises.  The students build their own pea trellises after watching a PowerPoint presentation. 

“Students really need physical activity.  It allows them to be more focused in class when they are able to move about in the fresh air,” Garrett said.

Another unique thing about the gardens, are rain catcher basins also known as rain barrels used for irrigation.   These rain barrels collected rainwater from the rooftop of the school.  A spigot on the side of the rain barrel gives students access to the water.   Plantings for both humans and wildlife were included in the design of the ESY Gardens.  A birdbath and bird feeders attract all kinds of birds to the garden.

This summer Garrett will travel the world (Italy, Malaysia, Istanbul to name only a few places) to visit other eco-friendly gardens.  In the fall, Garrett will become a chef schoolteacher at Einstein.  She will teach one culinary art class and use the gardens to educate students on cooking garden fresh vegetables as part of daily meal.

During Garrett’s travels, Stephanie Clark the principal of Einstein School, neighbors and school workers will water the gardens over the summer.  All who work at keeping up the gardens are welcome to partake in the bountiful harvest.

 To learn more about the ESY Gardens, please visit:

http://learn.shorelineschools.org/einstein/eedible/index.php