Kids Dig It Austin school grows gardens with TDA grant funds

By MONETTE TAYLOR | South Central Texas Edition

First grader Elizabeth Jones pauses while digging a flower bed at Bryker Woods elementary school. She is one of many students at the school who are learning, first-hand, how vegetables and flowers grow, thanks to grant funds applied for by a PTA leader. -Staff photo by Taylor

August 22, 2002 -- Walking up to the main entrance of Bryker Woods (BW) elementary school in the middle of Austin, you realize this isn't just any, ordinary, urban school. There are gardens planted ... not just a bunch of flowers every here and there.

In 1999, the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) started an urban schools grant program to help city kids re-think how vegetables and flowers actually grow and get into the local supermarkets. With the larger population of children being reared in urban areas, many still believe milk, fruit and vegetables just come from "the H.E.B."

Andy Jones, the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) building and grounds committee designee at BW elementary, applied for and received one of the TDA grants, in the amount of $2,500, for the kindergarten through sixth grade students.

The students are involved in the Junior Master Gardener Program, and needed money to purchase the textbooks that go with the program, which "covers pretty much all the bases that are needed for teaching requirements," said Jones. The chapters in the books are on-going so the students will continue to learn for the entire elementary education process.

"My interest came when I started looking around the Web (Internet) and I read something about the edible school yard, which is a project in California, where Alice Waters ... you may recognize the name ... is a pretty famous chef. She was driving by a school one day, and said, 'Look ... such a waste,' and went over there and turned everything into a garden, which was a part of the school yard. It is now used to feed the students through the cafeteria, and then, they also sell their products, I think," said Jones.

He said he started looking around Texas for grants and came upon the TDA program and decided to try to get one of the grants. The desire for a garden project was matched with the Boy Scouts in Troop 9, Longhorn District, Capitol Area Council who needed projects to obtain Eagle Scout status, and the project "provided four scouts the opportunity to take on four key facets of the garden project; beds, compost bins, rainwater harvesting and a French drain.

"We married the Eagle Scout project needs with our garden project needs, and they did the garden beds and big French drain to negate some previous drainage problems," added Jones.

Plans are under way to have the front beds filled with native, zero-scape plants which require very low maintenance, and a butterfly garden is already in place. Last year, the children in several classes were able to plant lettuce and harvest it to eat as a salad, during class.

While all of the teachers are not involved in the program, Jones said there is at least one teacher in each grade who has adopted the program.

"The Junior Master Gardener Program is a very comprehensive program. It is art, science, math, language arts and music," he added.

"Right now it's (using the program) just by teachers choice ... whatever the teacher can handle. The obvious, end product is to include every student."

Jones said the ultimate end to the project will be when students are able to go out into the community and assist elderly citizens or neighbors in need of help, and also get involved in other community service projects.

As far as the plants in the garden, the goal is to have a "xerioscape" program in place where the children will only need to see that the beds are weeded and will move and replace plants as needed.

"If it becomes a maintenance thing, the parents have to do it, because Austin ISD won't touch it," he said.

In the future, Jones said he plans to continue to look for funding, and will be applying for any grants the school qualifies for, since there is still a need for a better selection of gardening tools, seed and plant

materials. In-kind donations, monetary donations and merchant discounts have all contributed to the success of the BW gardens.

Jones said the best thing about the project is seeing how the kids get so excited about plants and agriculture.

"I extend a hearty thanks to the Texas Department of Agriculture for supporting our program and others like it in urban schools, where a better understanding of agriculture is so important," said Jones in closing.