Learning to grow to eat

Orca at Columbia Elementary students Edmel Ronquillo, Tuesday Smith and Taylor Quinn were more interested in collecting roly-poly bugs and daddy longlegs than in weeding their garlic bed on a recent spring day.

After all, the first- and second-graders had a praying mantis in their classroom to feed.

But Orca garden coordinator Kenya Fredie managed to get the students back on task so they were tossing handfuls of weeds into a compost pile before running back to class.

"Everything's a lesson, whether they know it or not," Fredie said.

At Orca's garden, kids plant seeds and watch them germinate. They search for bugs for class lessons. In the cafeteria, they eat leafy salad greens harvested with their own hands. They separate vegetable scraps for use in the worm bins. And they plant using the rich fertilizer from the worms.

"It's life," Fredie said. "You see things die and regenerate."

The garden at this school in Seattle's Columbia City neighborhood was created as an outdoor classroom in 1993. Every student gets a chance to work outside, usually once a week.

Fredie, whose part-time position is funded by the school's Parent Teacher Association, leads the work on the garden, assisted by of parent volunteers who garden on the weekends and lovingly maintain it through the summer.

Some of these teachers and parents, however, are wondering how the garden program will be affected by a potential Orca closure, part of a districtwide proposal to save money that involves several schools. Seattle schools Superintendent Raj Manhas recently recommended moving Orca into the Whitworth Elementary building.

District spokeswoman Patti Spencer said that while she could not say what would happen to the garden program if the school board votes July 26 to move Orca, the district would work with Orca's staff and families next year to try to preserve the program.

Teachers, students and parents who work in Orca's unique garden are getting used to receiving awards.

King County recently picked Orca as an Earth Hero — named for schools working to protect natural resources — for its native-plant program and commitment to the garden by parents, teachers and staff.

The native-plant program is taking place in the garden and along the Duwamish River, where students are cultivating cuttings of native dogwood and cedar trees and transplanting them in the garden to eventually reseed the Duwamish River. Earlier this year, the program also won second place in the 2006 Youth Garden grant from the National Gardening Association out of 1,300 programs that applied. The award is given to programs that show a high level of commitment to youth gardening.

Sharing the bounty

The program continues to expand its reach. This year, all of the produce from one garden bed went to a local food bank.

Fredie plans out a year-long curriculum, with older students working on more advanced projects like the Duwamish River planting.

Students learn to observe and take notes. They rotate crops to keep the soil healthy and, of course, they snack on the carrots, radishes, bok choy and collard greens they're growing.

One of the rewards that teachers and parents use for students is the sweet taste of fresh fennel, also grown in the garden.

Classroom connections

Through the garden, students learn ecology, math, writing and art — and the garden also serves as a quiet place to wind down.

Kindergarten teacher Marletta Iwasyk, one of the program's founders, said the garden curriculum helps students see what they're learning, such as how trees flower and grow leaves.

"When I teach a unit here in the room, they bring back a lot of information they get from observing and participating hands-on," she said. "It's taught them to care more for the Earth."

Iwasyk promotes healthy eating in her classroom as part of a nutrition unit.

"They're getting more interested in trying a new veggie, especially if they've grown it," she said.

A peaceful, urban oasis

Orca is an alternative school in South Seattle, where 34 percent of its students qualified for free or reduced lunch last year and students of color are the majority of the school's population.

Many Orca students haven't had the opportunity to work in a garden before, Iwasyk said. "They want to see more greenery, more life."

Surrounded by this urban neighborhood and sitting adjacent to a blacktop where kids play during recess, the garden offers a calming oasis.

There are beds devoted to vegetables and herbs, others that are covered to make impromptu greenhouses and a demonstration bed for students to learn about new plants. One corner hosts the compost pile.

The garden was one reason Elise Thompson decided to send her two children to Orca.

"It's a great kind of fundamental education about where things come from, and it's a big part of the curriculum, tying it back into what we eat at home," said Thompson, who lives in Columbia City.

Her children are more curious about how things grow and probably know more than she does about gardening.

Thompson has gotten swept up in the excitement of tending the garden along with other parents.

"I'm not really a gardener myself," Thompson said. "I'm learning a lot ... I'm learning valuable things along with my kids."

Nicole Tsong: 206-464-2150 or ntsong@seattletimes.com