Julie Swank
Julie Swank, gardening teacher at La Honda Elementary School, shows off the hidden corners of the school’s productive garden.
Posted: Thursday, September 5, 2013 10:34 am
Half Moon Bay Review
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September 5, 2013
Like the garden itself, the gardening program at La Honda Elementary School needs attention in order to grow. That is why a steady trickle of parents, master gardeners and local residents turned out Saturday for the first of what may be many workshops in the school’s productive garden.
The event was organized by school officials and master gardeners who earned their titles through a 13-week course provided by the University of California Cooperative Extension Service. Kelly Greenwood, whose daughter Helen attends the school, is a master gardener and landscape designer. Janice Moody is a master gardener as well; her kids graduated from La Honda Elementary School years ago. Both have deep roots in the school’s garden.
Saturday’s topics included soil and plant bed preparation, year-round gardening in the coastal mountains and other tips for local planters. There was also something for the kids to do. The school’s gardening teacher, Julie Swank, worked with young students to create “seed tape” — seeds stuck to strips of newspaper with a sticky cornstarch slurry — that could then be planted in the garden.
The garden has existed for about 25 years. Originally, school administrators received grants to plant small beds on land adjacent to the classrooms. Today, the project has grown to nearly an acre and Swank incorporates math, science and nutrition lessons into time students spend in the garden. It costs about $20,000 a year and is largely funded by the La Honda Education Foundation.
“Our goal is to receive enough money to make this self-sufficient, but we haven’t gotten there yet,” said Principal Kristen Lindstrom.
It isn’t for lack of ideas. On Saturday, she and Swank traded money-making schemes. They have considered renting land to someone interested in growing the peaches that seem to grow nowhere on the coast but at the school. They talk about creating a large pumpkin patch that would funnel money back to the garden. They already sell eggs to parents and sometimes take food to the Pecadero farmers market.
Saturday’s event was free, but organizers hope to hold future master gardener workshops — and those may be fundraisers.
“We have lofty ideas,” Lindstrom said.
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