School is out for the summer but the gardens at Evergreen Elementary are just getting started. Fifth-grade teacher Holly Padilla is the current caretaker, and she acknowledged that the growing season doesn’t necessarily fit the school calendar.

“We can get started in the spring with our classes, and they do the harvest in the fall, but there’s a long summer stretch without much student participation. I’d love to find a couple of community champions,” she said. “The garden has really transitioned from a curricular element to more of a volunteer project.”

The gardens have a long history at the school, starting in the late 1990s as the Evergreen Agricultural Testing Site (EATS), relying on community support and business donations. Over the years, primary oversight has passed to the greenest thumbs among teachers and staff.

The community has always had a stake in the gardens.

“The high school shop class built the greenhouse, and more recently Kim Wickman of the WCA has helped to clean out the compost system, and Jill Privett helped clean out the hydroponic tower,” Padilla noted. “But I’d like to have some consistent help. Gardens thrive on regular schedules.”

The students at the elementary school benefit in as many ways as there are varieties of produce. They have done science experiments by testing seeds and have created starts with a grow-light tower. They plan their class time by planting beds and, best of all, they participate in harvesting and eating their results.

“I’ve heard students get really excited about a batch of cucumbers. They all ask if we’re going to make pickles. They get excited about things like purple carrots, things they don’t see in the store,” Padilla said. 

Each class gets a particular part of the harvest to use in making a dish for an open house in the fall. Current plantings include strawberries, squash, tomatoes, zucchini, melons, green beans, peppers, basil, beets, potatoes, romaine lettuce, chives, garlic, rhubarb, radishes, carrots and celery.

There is also a range of flowers, including dahlias, daisies and sunflowers to encourage pollinators. The bright yellow flowers of the calendula plant can be used for teas and healing balms.

Padilla is looking to not just maintain the garden, but to expand it.

“The greenhouse needs some upkeep, and there’s still more planting to do. I’d like to add covered tunnels to some of the raised beds. I’d love to get more raised beds — we have plenty of space. We don’t need a lawn, we need food!

“This is such an important way of teaching kids about local food systems, in addition to fishing and hunting. It’s great to watch them working in the dirt, learning where their food comes from,” she said.

Anyone interested in being a garden volunteer, contact Padilla at hpadilla@wpsd.us.