Second grade teacher Amber Jackson decided to start revitalizing the elementary school’s garden last May after noticing the poor shape it was in.
“It made me sad that it was unusable,” Jackson said. “But there were a few raised beds that were still salvageable.”
A year later, the garden is full of plants, herbs and pollinators, providing a hands-on learning experience for students.
“They’re loving it,” Jackson said. “They’re begging for garden days.”
Before fixing up the garden, Jackson would let students explore her home garden since it tied into their lessons, she said.
“That’s kind of where it started,” Jackson said. “It’s like, if I can do this, I can take what I have at home and kind of bring it here so kids don’t have to go to my house anymore and we can have a space to learn here.”
Jackson and her family spent all summer spreading mulch, creating a plan and helping the garden come to life. Summer school students got the opportunity to place plants in the garden, she said.
Jackson also brought plants from her own garden to put into the school’s garden.
“Because I had a pollinator garden already, I was able to divide some plants up, and my students this fall put them in the garden,” she said.
Students have had the opportunity to plant a seed and track its progress as it grows, Jackson said.
“We come and look at it when it’s dormant and they see it’s not even there. Then a few weeks later, we go back out and their plant has started to sprout,” she said. “It’s really learning about some of those life skills that maybe they wouldn’t get any other time.”
Second grader Hadlyn Jayne said her favorite part of the garden was when she planted her first plant in the fall.
“It was our first ever time going out there, and we got to plant. It was really cool,” Jayne said.
Second grader Hayden Born said she and her classmates have gotten to taste test different herbs around the garden, as well as learn how to pull weeds and plant.
“It’s really fun,” Born said.
Second grader Dom Cork said he enjoys exploring the garden.
“I love going outside,” Cork said. “Seeing all the plants grow and all the bugs, like the ladybugs and roly-polies.”
Jackson received a grant from the Eudora Schools Foundation in October to help fund the garden project. Jackson said the grant allowed them to purchase gardening and measuring tools, as well as magnifying glasses.
“I had plenty of big shovels and big rakes but nothing small and we needed tools that they can use,” she said.
Jackson said the foundation’s grant has allowed each student to be more hands on in the garden like using the magnifying glasses to see the pollen inside the flowers or to look at the anatomy of a ladybug.
“It’s just allowed them to be more engaged in it rather than just walking around it,” she said.
Second grader Lane Carnagie said she likes getting to look closely at the bugs in the garden.
“We’ve learned that if there is a butterfly that we don’t know if it’s a girl or boy, there’s a little dot on the butterflies that you can look at to see if it’s a boy or girl,” Carnegie said.
Monica Dittmer, volunteer and program coordinator for Eudora Schools Foundation, said the garden project received the grant because it allowed students to get outside of the classroom and get their hands dirty.
“There’s really no better way to learn than to actually put yourself in the environment and immerse yourself. It’s one thing to talk about plants and nature and, you know, it’s another thing to go out and be in it,” Dittmer said.
She said the garden helps students feel a sense of belonging and pride around the elementary school.
“It’s like a whole next level when you can say, ‘Well, that’s the garden that we work in, and I was responsible for doing this’ and it really helps our kids learn about being a part of something bigger,” she said.
Jackson was one of 30 teachers who received an innovation project grant from Eudora Schools Foundation in October. Dittmer said these grants give Eudora teachers the opportunity to make their creative and innovative ideas come to life in the classroom.
“We have this really cool opportunity to say, ‘OK, you tell us what you’re dreaming up and we can put some money behind it to make you even more effective in your classroom,’” Dittmer said. “We’ve seen some really amazing things happen.”
The garden is also supported by Monarch Watch which has provided local native milkweed for students to plant in the garden.
Jackson said she wants every classroom to have the chance to be in the garden, not just hers.
“My class has been super involved because I’m kind of heading it so I’m intentionally making it a part of our learning,” she said. “I would like to expand it and figure out ways to get everyone involved.”
Jackson is excited to continue enhancing the garden, as well as finding ways to make it more functional and easy for both students and teachers to use.
“It’s not Mrs. Jackson’s garden. It’s the school’s garden,” she said.
Reach reporter Ryn Drummond at [email protected].
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