(The Willows Community School Garden/photo: The Willows School) 

An Urban Private School

The garden at The Willows Community School, an urban school in an industrial area of Culver City, CA, sits on the corner of the main yard. When my daughter started kindergarten, I quickly realized there was a “hidden gem” at our school: a genuine consciousness about the environment among both the school and the parents. 

It all started with the weekly school gardening program. My daughter would come home chatting excitedly about edible flowers, earthworms, composting and various fruits and vegetables she and her classmates had planted that day. It's a gorgeous display of plants, flowers, vegetables and herbs. Designed and created by master gardener and Willows mom, Tessa Nathan, nine years ago, it is now planted and maintained by parent volunteers, under Tessa's supervision.

Our school garden is more than a pretty creation. It's a fabulous teaching tool for the lower school. Student gardeners have sowen seeds, harvested, cooked and eaten swiss chard with rice, slow-cooked broccoli, salad with lettuce, tiny carrots and one single radish. Children also squeezed lemons for lemonade and sampled kumquats. The spring harvest yielded white nectarines, figs, apples and more!

It amazed me when my kids came home talking about creating worm farms, digging for veggies in the dirt and actually eating the food they grew. To help the kids understand the link between freshly grown food and what they eat, my son’s class harvested the lima beans and broccoli, cooked them and ate them with rice for snack. Developing a taste for freshly grown food has been an extra benefit that has stayed with my kids.   

Last week, a controversial opinion piece in the Journal Of The American Medical Association by a Harvard School Of Public Health researcher and a Boston pediatrician recommended removing severely obese children from their homes and placing them in foster care. This is a complex and heartbreaking issue, but there’s one thing we know for sure. There is a severe lack of access to fresh fruits and vegetables among American kids, particularly in low-income families. Equally alarming is the obsession among kids for fast food and processed foods. School gardens won’t solve the obesity crisis alone, but they are one way to develop a taste for the healthiest foods, that kids have grown themselves. 

An Urban Public School

My friend Grace Phillips, a sustainable landscape designer extraordinaire, designed a garden for Edison Language Academy, her kids’ urban public school in Santa Monica, CA. Before the eco-friendly renovation, the school courtyard was uneven and surrounded by dirty walls and chain link fencing. There was virtually no shade and very little color. The “before” and “after” photos offered such an amazing contrast, the school was featured in September 29, 2010 issue of Sunset Magazine.

 (Edison Language Academy: Before./Photo: Grace Phillips)

Grace worked with the PTA and, with a tight budget, was able to transform the play area of this urban campus from run-down, concrete to a gorgeous setting for kids to play and learn. The dingy facilities were transformed into a delightful outdoor space. The new space connects the urban setting to the natural setting by organizing its theme around the Santa Monica Bay ecosystem. The kids learn that what they do in school effects marine life under the pier. Muralist David Legaspi used art to help kids understand the link between the Santa Monica Bay and how what we put into the storm drains impacts the marine life of the ocean.

(Edison Language Academy: After/Photo: Grace Phillips) 

(Edison Language Academy: After/ Photo: Grace Phillips) 

(Mural by David Legaspi/Photo: Grace Phillips) 

If only every school without a garden could benefit from the commitment and skill of master gardener Tessa Nathan and landscaper designer Grace Phillips.