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  • Anna Huang, left, and Kimberly Laguna cut basil from Dalton Middle School’s student-maintained garden last week. Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen

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September 9, 2012

Students reap bountiful results from cultivating school garden

Rachel Brown rachelbrown@daltoncitizen.com

Tomatoes, basil, green peppers, jalapenos, cayenne peppers, marigolds, banana peppers, blackberries and one pawpaw tree are growing in a small lot just outside the doors of a science classroom at Dalton Middle School.

Seventh-grade life science teacher Sarah Ott said this is her second year having the garden. Her spring students helped grow most of the plants from seeds and get the garden planted. Now, her fall students — and the rest of the school — are reaping the benefits.

Some beg her to come outside and check on the garden. They enjoy picking, watering, tending and watching it grow. Many of the vegetables make their way to the school cafeteria where they’re used at lunch. The class also gave several vegetables to at least one family in need of food.

Seventh-grader Habibah Bikhit said she helps her family in the garden and loves to work in the school garden, too.

“It’s because we just get to pick out and look at all the beautiful vegetables and the flowers,” she said.

Ricky Perez said he likes tomatoes and peppers best and loves just getting to cut the vegetables.

A class of English language learners joins Ott’s science students periodically. Ott said working in the garden is a good way for students to learn new English words since they can associate them with things they’re looking at, touching and working with as the words are being introduced.

Volunteers provided a tiller and a few of the supplies for the garden. Ott said she and her husband paid for most of the garden themselves, but the cost was minimal and the rewards have been great.

They talk about photosynthesis, about predators and prey and about how a snail created a hole in one of the red peppers they picked.

“A snail?” one student asked incredulously.

“Yep, it’s a snail,” Ott said. “It’s harmless. It’s not going to hurt you.”

While many students who help in the garden also have experience working in gardens their family has, not everyone has seen vegetables growing in the dirt.

“Mostly, I want them to learn that their food comes from the ground,” Ott said. “You’d be surprised how much of a revelation that is for some kids.”

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