Growing UP Green

by Brandi Sikora
In the side yard of E. E. Jeter Elementary School in Millington, TN, we found ourselves surrounded by a lush garden of raised beds.  Brimming with both food-producing and flowering plants (designed to attract pollinators), this is a classroom a child of any age would thoroughly enjoy.  It’s here that Denton Pearson, the fifth and sixth-grade science teacher at E. E. Jeter, and Sarah Burns, a representative with Big Green, are in their element—teaching kids how to tend to crops and grow their own food.  
Big Green, a national nonprofit, has a goal and it’s a BIG one!  Their vision is to build Learning Gardens in every low-income school across the country in order to build a healthier future for kids.  In these outdoor classrooms, kids connect with real, unprocessed foods and even go on to make healthier decisions when they’re away from these gardens.  Some of the kids are exposed to fresh foods they might not otherwise have a chance to taste.
Mr. Pearson began the lesson by introducing the kids to a new acronym to remember when gardening.  LAWNS: “L” for light, “A” for air, “W” for water, “N” for nutrients, and “S” for space. “If plants have these five elements, they will survive,” he explained.  He then showed them the irrigation system that had been newly installed. “How many hoses do you see? How many groups of raised beds are there?” The children responded excitedly, practicing their mathematics skills, right there among the plants.
This is the first year for a Big Green Learning Garden at E. E. Jeter and with the Kickoff/Planting Day being May 21st, to say that the garden has seen some excellent growth in only a month is an understatement. Tomatoes, peppers, and herbs are already producing.  The cucumbers, watermelons, and cowpeas won’t be far behind. If cowpeas aren’t something you’ve ever heard of before, they are similar to black-eyed peas.
Founded in 2011 by Kimbal Musk and Hugo Matheson, Big Green (formerly The Kitchen Community) built their first Learning Garden in Denver, Colorado and has since expanded to Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, and Memphis.  Sarah Burns was the Big Green representative on-site this day and you could tell she not only knows her stuff as it pertains to gardening, she knows how to get kids excited about it! Touching on companion planting, she asked, “Do you know why we plant tomatoes and basil next to each other?”  Both the kids and parents were surprised to learn that although tomatoes attract pests that can damage the fruit, basil puts off an aroma that helps to deter them. And bonus, tomatoes and basil are often used together in recipes, so harvesting is made easier when they’re cultivated together.  

It was then time to harvest!  With watchful eyes and a careful touch, the kids and their adult helpers harvested bell peppers, jalapenos, and cherry tomatoes.  “Don’t eat it!” yelled out Mr. Pearson. “We have to weigh it all first!” The harvest is weighed, recorded, and reported to Big Green.  The organization then compiles the information in order to track how many pounds of produce has grown in each of the Learning Garden regions.  This day, they huddled around a produce scale, and keeping in mind that it’s very early in the season, proudly proclaimed a reading of 0.125 pounds for this harvest of tomatoes.  The peppers weighed 0.5 pounds, so the garden leaders quizzed the kids on how these numbers would look as both fractions and decimals. Last fall, the city of Memphis harvested over 400 pounds of produce collectively!  The tracking is done in groups so they’re able to track how many greens, how many fruits, how many veggies, etc.

Before leaving, the team harvested some basil and learned to pinch off the flowers from the top of the plant in order to preserve the best flavor. They placed their harvest into baggies and weighed it—a whopping 0.25 pounds!  The children were encouraged to take home their earnings and to help turn them into a meal. This day, pesto was suggested as “homework”.
They also took the time to pull weeds so as to ensure the plants have priority access to all available nutrients in the soil.  Completing the garden tour, Mr. Pearson pointed out the rows of sunflowers that should grow to produce a little shade in the hotter months and a specific species of milkweed that will attract the monarch butterflies when they migrate through the Mid-South.  The monarchs will not only eat the milkweed but will lay their eggs on it as well. Garden leaders are anticipating a ‘life-cycle of the butterfly’ lesson that could come at any time now.

Mr. Pearson had some words to say about this new program at his school: “We try to make education as hands-on as possible and gardening helps students better grasp the concepts of plant growth and development including photosynthesis and healthy ecosystems.  During the school year, we are planning to bring our produce into the cafeteria for a larger group of students to try.” Big Green supports four planting seasons, and while most schools only take advantage of three out of four, Mr. Pearson lives in close proximity to the school, which enables him to put together a Summer Garden Team.  Judging by the prolific attendance at this weekly meeting, he made the right call.
Mr. Pearson and Sarah aim to work with the kids several times during the school year.  BIG Green Learning Gardens can be found scattered throughout the Memphis area, mostly in public schools, but also in some charter and private institutions.  Sarah explained, “The main focus is bringing gardens to the urban communities first, the food deserts.” Thanks to a good relationship with Shelby County schools, they have been able to put gardens in about 100 schools in the area!  Sarah would love it if they could be in all Shelby County schools, but they’re not quite there yet. In elementary and middle schools, a garden-based curriculum focusing on the basics of gardening is utilized. In the high school gardening programs, they work on entrepreneurship.  High school kids actually have a farm stand at which they sell what they grow and harvest.
This group meets on Wednesday mornings at 9:00 AM but is considering including some evening meetings in order to gain the participation of working parents.  Either way, they plan to meet once a week to tend to the garden as a group. If you are interested in learning more about Learning Gardens and how to bring them to your school, visit www.BigGreen.org.  Donations are also accepted through the site for those who recognize the importance of a program such as this and want to help ‘grow’ the future of our children.

Wrapping up our visit we learned it was one little boy’s birthday as one of the adult helpers proclaimed, “Happy Birthday, you get a tomato!”  Everyone giggled but the birthday boy looked very pleased with his gift.