2016 Albuquerque School Gardens Snapshots & Stories Dear School Garden Community,

There are so many incredible things happening around school gardens in Albuquerque right now. Principals, teachers, families, and communities are coming together to build gardens for their students. These gardens serve many purposes. They serve as an engaging outdoor classroom to teach all subjects. Students can measure the volume of a raised bed, observe photosynthesis, connect seeds back to traditional history, and write haikus about their garden space.

These gardens also serve another important purpose. Living in a world filled with fast and processed food, gardens provide food that is fresh and rich in nutrition for students. Statistics are showing that 1 out of every 3 children will develop diabetes, and we see an even higher ratio in areas here. We need to provide healthy environments that will teach students the importance of fresh and healthy foods at a young age. If a student plants a spinach seed and cares for it as it grows, then they are more likely to eat that spinach salad that comes through the lunch line. Or maybe they will make a salad for their friends or family one day. Gardens also provide fresh produce for our communities who have limited access to healthy foods. With gardens, we are not just growing lettuce, we are growing healthy habits for the future.

There are over 80 school gardens in Albuquerque right now. In a place that that gets scarce rainwater and has soil that contains less than 1% organic matter, that is pretty amazing. In an effort to capture what is happening in our gardens and paint a picture, we put together this collection. We asked school garden folks to send the story of their garden along with some pictures.

I hope this collection serves as medium to share what wonderful things are growing and inspire us all to keep on planting, educating, and learning.

Grow on,

Fallon Bader ABQ School Garden Coordinator & FoodCorps Service Member

Adobe Acres Elementary School is an Albuquerque Public School in the heart of the South Valley. We are home to over 600 students in grades K-5, including Pre- K and the Even Start Program. Our school is one of many where 100% of our students receive the Free Lunch Program, and unfortunately a large percentage of our families deal with financial hardships often, if not always. Developing new programs and new ways of learning is on ongoing thing here at Adobe Acres. Annittra Atler (the Principal) and Dubie Baca (the Parent Liaison) work very diligently trying to find ways to help out our families of our community. By teaming up with Road Runner Food Bank, Adobe Acres Elementary is now able to offer 50 lbs. of food each month to 50 families from our school. Our hope is that we can extend that help to many, many more people over time, as our ideas of creating a Community Garden begin to come together. Let me introduce you to our Gardening Crew: My name is Jennifer Jacobson, and I am a parent of two children here at Adobe Acres, and three that have already graduated. I was the PTA President for 18 months and have since resigned to allow more time for my personal health and well-being, and to focus on spending more quality time with my family. I have found so much happiness in volunteering at Adobe Acres and love meeting new parents and people in our community. Melissa Gonzales is a parent of an incoming 1st grader, and has more recently become a super resourceful volunteer, sharing some of her expertise and creativity with gardening. Renay Zambrano is the Juntos Para Los Ninos educator for Adobe Acres, and she also works with our Title 1 program, and Dubie Baca, as mentioned before, is the Parent Liaison. And last, but absolutely not least, is our amazing Principal, Annittra Atler, who’s community leadership inspires everyone to do great things! Together, we hope to break ground on our garden June 6th, 2015. We already have a number of teachers and staff members who want to participate, and one has even donated mulch. Approximately 20 parents have also signed up and expressed interest in participating in the gardening efforts. The goal is to create lots of hands-on opportunities for all students, to provide educational opportunities for classrooms, and to invite anyone to join us as we hope to grow into something magnificent. It would be incredible to be able to use the produce to teach everyone healthy nutrition and recipes, creative ways of eating, encourage kids to try new things, and to send home with families within, and around our community. Again, we are just getting started, but we have lots of ideas ahead of us and we cannot wait to see what everyone else has going on! Thank you for taking the time to read Our Story!

Sincerely,Jennifer Jacobson (with Annittra Atler, Dubie Baca, Melissa Gonzales, and Renay Zambrano) Cielo Azul Elementary is tucked away in the far north corner of Rio Rancho, surrounded by the high desert with many hungry jackrabbits. The children began their gardening experience in winter of 2015 when two fourth grade teachers decided to utilize a much neglected, small (10’ x 5’), greenhouse on the school grounds. One teacher, Mrs. Messenger picked up two hand painted raised beds on a rainy winter day from the Fallon Bader, and the FoodCorps program. Unfortunately, only one of the raised beds fit into the small greenhouse. Mrs. Crunks’ students decided to raise flower for Mother’s Day. With some modifications from helpful and friendly folks, the greenhouse was ready for use. Classroom funds were used to purchase quality soil, seeds and a few supplies. Everyone pitched in to prep the raised beds and plant the first seeds.

Student’s first lesson was that not all plants survive. They had to figure out a watering system but with additional funding, several types of lettuce, spinach, and radishes were planted and began to grow and flourish. The student had rotating jobs, and everyone pitched in to care for the garden.

Everyone was looking forward to a “garden party” where the greens and radishes are harvest from the greenhouse. We harvested a surprising amount of food. We shared the greenhouse with a lizard and also had a few plants with aphids; all part of learning about gardening. It has been a good experience to let kids “get their hands in the dirt!”

Warmly Yours,

Mrs. Liese Messenger

4th Grade Educator, Cielo Azul Elementary

Cien Aguas International School

In the school’s second year, 7 years ago, the garden boxes we still use today were built by Chuck O’Herron of Veggiegrower Gardens. Since then, the 1st grade has been learning how to plant by raising radishes and greens in the spring.

Three years ago, our first Foodcorps member, Kendall, expanded garden activities and made them year-round. She also coordinated moving the garden to the school’s new location. That year we purchased a large storage container, expanding garden education even further. Two fruit trees and native perennials were also planted. Desert bird of paradise, globe mallow and sage bloom gloriously near the dead fruit trees in a reminder that we must respect the restriction of our place and embrace what mother nature provides for us.

The following year we got a shade structure put up over two large tables creating an outdoor classroom. Our garden is on the undeveloped south side of the school building in an environment harsh for growing but perfect for exploring. Cottontail rabbits live among the rocks and shrubs and come out during all seasons to nibble on unguarded vegetables. After returning from fall break one year, we discovered that our first grade boxes which had been bursting with spinach, lettuce and baby carrots, had been mowed to the ground by feasting bunnies. Luckily, our raised beds are equipped with hooped lids and once covered with shade cloth or row cover, our rabbit friends had to find dinner elsewhere.

In the past year, we have added two more raised beds (thanks Fallon and Nissa!), repaired a damaged garden bed, set up two 550 gallon cisterns for rainwater catchment, covered our garden storage container in student art, planted more native shrubs, built community partnerships and had a family garden workday. Most importantly, we have found more ways to get students into the garden and outdoor classroom.

If we can keep the goatheads that infested the garden at the beginning of last year at bay this summer then the Cien Aguas school garden should be off to a fun and bountiful start in August.

A few final garden details: we water primarily from buckets filled by a hose from a spigot on the side of the building. Little hands use repurposed cups and yogurt containers to get water into garden beds. We mulch using pulled weeds, dried perennial bits and purchased straw. Most of the food grown is consumed by the classes or clubs involved. During especially bountiful moments, we have thrown harvest parties and shared salad with entire grades. Coronado Elementary School

Coronado Elementary has a well-developed garden program that is an integral part of instruction. Every student in the school (307 students) has garden class twice a month. Instruction is designed to target and extend learning in the classroom, and in this way it is responsive to need and differentiated by grade. Garden instruction also targets multiple content areas, weaving together science and social studies standards with math and literacy.

Students in grades 3-5 measure water and label buckets in pints, quarts, and gallons.

The materials from the Bernalillo County NM Clean and Beautiful Grant have allowed us to cover five of our raised beds in order to extend our growing season. This has provided the opportunity for great conversations with students related to their science curricula. Recent conversations with garden classes have focused on the topic of length of day. Our plants have survived, but have not grown at all, for many weeks now. Our original belief was that it was the cold affecting plant grown, but upon further investigation we have discovered it is the length of day – the number of daylight hours – that is preventing plant growth. This has led us into conversations about the seasons and plant food production through photosynthesis. In response to this new learning, we have purchased a grow-light that has been installed in our greenhouse. Currently, we are planting in the greenhouse for transplanting outside in the Spring, as well as outside in covered beds.

The Coronado garden flourished through the fall. Late in the fall, after receiving grant materials, garden beds were covered. Photos taken in late January show plant growth through the winter.

In addition to using grant materials to cover our large vegetable beds, we also made small covers for some boxes in our herb garden. These small covers were assembled entirely by students who worked together in groups to figure out how to put together the parts they were given effectively. The activity was challenging, and it required that students communicate well in order to make their corners square, their piping fit tightly, and to be sure their gluing was clamped accurately.

Fourth grade teams work together to secure square corners for mini cold-frames. Student-assembled covers in our “Jardin de Abuelos” herb garden.

Students are mixing compost into garden beds, and we have placed five of our new clay ollas in a single bed. Our plan is to observe the difference in plant growth between a bed without the ollas and the bed that has many ollas. We have left one olla out in order to observe it and measure the rate at which the water filters through and out of the pot. As a school we are excited to continue in this work and cultivate the ongoing expansion of this program to deepen student learning and experience. We are grateful to Bernalillo County for providing us with materials that have aided in this mission.

Students work with master composters from the Bernalillo County Extension Office to create our own composting system and vermiculture bins for classrooms.

Students engage in close study of leaves: sorting leaves by their characteristics and studying, drawing and describing tiny details with jeweler’s loupes. Close leaf study was taught in integration with Language Arts, engaging students in discussion about analogy.

Our first sweet potato harvest. 3rd graders working with area and perimeter.

Kinder and first grade making our seed mosaic/mural.

Making adobe bricks to repair our adobe waffle bed.

Cooking with second grade. The recipes prepared were all included in our garden book, which students across all grade levels wrote about garden-related topics to contribute to a Coronado Garden Book. The book was published professionally this spring!

Cutting prickly pear cactus fruit (tunas).

While all these material components of our gardens have been exciting additions to our school campus, the most exciting part about the growth of our program has been the development of garden classes to align with classroom learning, and the students’ excitement about their own involvement in garden work. Ongoing improvement of our outdoor spaces, integration of garden and classroom goals, and the dedication of our Coronado team make our garden program one of the things that defines what we do at Coronado.

New Mexico School for the Deaf

Inez Elementary School

Fall 2003 – The decision was made to make a garden in a small plot of land off the kindergarten wing. The principal and PTO president made an agreement with Home Depot to come out and help us start building the garden. Home Depot came and along with parents and volunteers they built a designated herb garden, vegetable garden and a pollinators garden with a butterfly bush, zinnias, and marigolds. Home Depot donated the butterfly bush and the photinia plants.

Spring 2004 –Students planted a Three Sisters Garden. The squash didn’t survive.

November 2006 – A long time volunteer applied for a $5000 Keep Albuquerque Beautiful grant. In February 2007 $2500 was awarded. The grant was received in June of 2007. A trip was made to Plant World to purchase plants. One parent was able to get a post-hole digger and a Saturday was spent planting the plants. A parent at the school helped to set up a drip system.

In 2012 the school was building the new cafeteria and the garden had to be moved. Raised beds were designed, built and installed in the interior quiet zone area by the three 3rd grade teachers and parent volunteers. The corner of the quiet zone was established as a National Wildlife Habitat.

Since this time the vegetable garden has been used as outdoor classroom where teachers and students and community work together. We also have an afterschool garden club that uses the garden throughout the school year.

In October 2014 Sandia National Labs volunteers came donated a day of labor in our garden where we installed tree stump seats and began a meadow area. Also in the Fall of 2014 two teachers applied for a Whole Foods Grant. The grant was received and during the summer of 2015 garden sheds, tools, irrigation supplies, and plants were purchased. In October 2015 students from Albuquerque High Schools volunteered for Make a Difference Day in the garden. Another teacher applied for Bernalillo County Outdoor Classroom grant. From this grant we received materials to make two raised garden beds, soil and compost. The school also received two garden beds from Team Adventure who donated many beautiful painted garden beds to APS school gardens. This school year Comcast Cares Volunteers volunteered a day of service and many, many plants to improve our garden area.

In the 2013/14 school year longtime community volunteer and Albuquerque Area master gardener assists students to work in raised bed gardens during recess and works with students in special education programs to participate in garden activities. An after school garden club is started, supported by Children’s Choice program staff and Albuquerque Area Master Gardener volunteers.

In the 2015/16 School year the Master gardener and intern continued working with twelve to fifteen multi-grade level students in the after school garden club, teaching the students about, botany, soil, irrigation techniques, how to raise plants from seed and cuttings then transplanting seedlings to the raised bed gardens and into pots to take home.

Our school garden is the centerpiece of our school grounds. It attracts wildlife and beautifies our campus. Presently the garden is used for the garden club and outdoor classroom. Plans are being made to develop a real community garden. This beautiful school garden is thanks to many parents, business partners, volunteers and community members hard labor throughout the past 13 years. Lew Wallace Elementary School

The story behind our School Garden … Lew Wallace is a historical school in the heart of downtown Albuquerque with limited space for a garden (but enough space!). After years of the school wanting a garden, we finally broke ground on the North side of the school in March 2016!

The after-school garden club has taken ownership of the garden, but the rest of the school is slowly catching on! They have been able to try many new vegetables and recipes, and have enjoyed watching their plants grow. We planted a bunch of greens and just harvested them at our 1st ever “Garden Harvest Party!” The students of our garden club and their parents enjoyed harvesting and making food with our spring plants! We are so excited to continue growing our garden this summer and beyond!

Our first planting was transplanted greens donated from Albuquerque Academy’s greenhouse

View of our urban garden in downtown ABQ!

Some pictures from our Garden Harvest party. We harvested spinach, kale, swiss chard and arugula!

We used the spicy arugula to make an arugula pesto. Here is the simple recipe (all kids loved it!)

Arugula Pesto Ingredients

• 1/2 cup walnut pieces or pine nuts/pinons • 1 garlic clove, minced • 2 cups packed arugula leaves • 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese • Kosher salt • 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Preparation

In a food processor, combine the walnuts, garlic, arugula, Parmesan, and 1 tsp salt and pulse to blend. With the machine running, pour in the olive oil through the food tube in a slow, steady stream and process until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Taste and adjust the seasonings.

Garden Club at Matheson Park

Matheson Park’s garden Club is the result of several teachers ideas, Natalie Donnelly’s professional development, a grant from Bernalillo County, Fallon Bader's support which included garden beds, Volunteers such as Gloria Henderson and generous donations from Lumber Inc., and Osuna nursery. Garden Club started off small but in two years we’ve created an outdoor space where students are learning about Gardening.

First garden bed, April 2015 --

Followed by 5 more beds that the club was able to build from the Bernalillo County grant. This grant allowed the students in garden club to study plants that are pollinators, plant and grow vegetables.

The following photos show in chronological order the progression of our garden.

Watering and caring for the garden

Observing and working in the garden has been an invaluable hands-on learning experience for our students, and next fall the garden will remain available for students to study and experience. We plan to collect seeds and to learn about plants and nutrition, which will be tied to healthy-eating lessons. We also hope to study weather and climate and to make a weather station. We plan to cover our garden in the winter, creating a hoop garden which will allow us to enjoy vegetables all winter. Finally, we hope to get more teachers, as well as community volunteers, involved with the garden.

One of our garden beds is planted with pollinating flowers The plants are native and drought-resistant, and provide the students with an ideal opportunity to discuss water conservation and to learn about our native plant life. Seeing native plants of the southwest and experiencing first- hand the plants’ tolerance for hot, dry weather gave students more of a concrete connection to the region of the country in which we live, as well as an appreciation for its natural beauty. In addition to learning about our unique climate, students learned about ollas and about how Native Peoples watered their crops using a drip technique.

Lettuce we picked today

Escuela Del Sol

The Outdoor Classroom at Escuela del Sol has been expanding for the past six years since we hired a full-time Garden Guide. She is a resource for the toddler, primary and elementary classes—in both student- and teacher-directed projects—and serves as a “critter momma” for the whole school. The gardens include veggies boxes, fruit trees, a nature habitat, an herb area, edibles, and flowers tucked in all around the campus.

Regular tasks include children collecting eggs from the chicken coop, compostables from the classrooms, and hair from the local barber shop. Parents contribute donations of coffee grounds and horse manure, as well as support the garden through purchases of eggs and seasonal produce.

Every year the Garden Guide makes two presentations to the elementary children on a special topic. This year she celebrated the “Year of Soils” and also made a timeline of the “History of Earth Day.” The Thing, this spring, has been the mixed greens—by the bowl-full! The jr el students bravely tasted the slightly spicy mizuna leaves. And radishes. Throughout the spring the kids have made salads, kale chips, and herb omelets. They also sold greens and herbs at our popular egg stand.. We are now planting: a 3-sisters garden, potatoes, and all the summer favorites—basil, tomatoes, sunflowers.

We were also able to rejoice in our hard work last autumn—all the flower bulbs that we planted emerged and our campus looked beautiful. Children were able to use them in bouquets for spring tea and lessons on parts of a flower. There were experiments with a new cold frame, attempts to grow wheat sprouts for the rabbits and chickens, and a collaboration with the art teacher to make a wildflower garden from seeds embedded in clay sculptures. Currently, there is a lot of effort to create a garden area for the growing Montessori program—a new Junior High. After we received a donation of garden boxes, some senior students went to the county extension office and brought back lots of summer veggie seeds. We also planted two new fruit trees, thanks to another donation.

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The Monte Vista Elementary Garden

The garden at Monte Vista began in 2009 with the help of parent donations and a PNM grant. At this time, an area was cleared, a fence was built, and two raised beds with benches were constructed.

A few years later, an Intel grant enabled us to build another raised bed, install a weather station, and fund two year-round covered beds. We also have a number of pots for herbs and flowers, a sandbox for playing, and benches and chairs for lessons and reading spaces. We have two rain barrels for water harvesting. The water collected is used to water the plants. We have a compost tumbler and a compost pile.

A teacher and her class maintain the garden. A number of classes use the garden for growing plants, exploring science, and for reading. We have wonderful support from our community and PTA to help with work days, composting, funding, and summer maintenance. We grow edibles such as basil, oregano, rosemary, and mint, as well as tomatoes, onions, garlic, radishes, chard, carrots, and salad greens. We also grow flowers and succulents.

Students harvest herbs and veggies from the garden and have enjoyed “garden pizza,” salsa, and salads. We also enjoy tasting foods right from the plants during work times. Our future goals include having more classes use the garden and sharing more of our produce with the community.

Our flower and succulent bed in the spring. Rain barrel in the back

Colorful zinnias for office staff

Garden Preparation Party!

An original raised bed with two covered beds in back.

Fall Work Day

Montezuma Elementary

Last year we applied and received a Whole Foods Garden Grant. We are very pleased, especially since the store is 2 blocks away.

In August of last year, we purchased wood from Home Depot and created 12 garden boxes around the school. We had parents, students, teachers, volunteers, and staff from Whole Foods assist.

Shortly after we received a City grant for soil and we also received plants from you all. Parents and students then inserted soil in the beds.

Anita, a parent, has been adding straw and creating tomato planters.

In spring of this year students have been putting seeds in the beds.

For the next few months parents and students will be watering the beds so that we can cultivate in the fall.

We are so excited to have a community garden at our school. Future projects include composting and worm bins.

Sandia Vista Elementary, Rio Rancho

Zia Elementary Gardens

We are so fortunate to have many established gardens at Zia Elementary! Over the years, a number of gardening projects have been funded by our PTA as well as by grants from the McCune Charitable Foundation and the Keep Albuquerque Beautiful Program. Recently, Zia received funding from the State of New Mexico for capital improvements. These funds allowed for the addition of more xeriscape plants and trees, the instillation of drip-systems to various gardening areas, and the addition of electric pumps to our large rain collectors.

At Zia Elementary, many parents and community members are actively committed to taking care of our school gardens. During the school year, two parents chair the PTA’s Outdoor Environment Committee that coordinates campus and garden clean-up and improvement efforts. During the summer months and first few weeks of the school year, families volunteer to water and tend to the gardens.

For 30 weeks during the school year, Zia offers an afterschool Garden Club, funded by the Community School Initiative (CSI) Program. Every year, the club is open to 15 students in grades three and four. In the fall, the Garden Club planted cool weather crops to enrich the soil. Recently, the club planted tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, lettuce, radishes, and a huge variety of flowers! The club also maintains the Rock Garden and the Pollinator Garden, where a peach tree, that was donated by the School Gardens, recently was planted. This spring, the club also added a new garden bed that was donated by Fallon Bader, also from a School Gardens workshop. This bed has been filled with marigolds to prepare for the Marigold Parade on Día de Los Muertos in early November.

The gardens at Zia Elementary are incorporated into the daily curriculum. All third grade students at Zia participate in the Life Lab Program. Funded by the PTA, the Life Lab program is a garden-based program that includes lessons that integrate and support the third-grade curriculum standards and enrich the classroom experience by providing research-based, hands- on learning experiences. This year’s Life Lab Program was taught by Farmer Jack West, an experienced organic farmer.

The Zia Garden Club would like to thank Fallon Bader who provided the club with a barrel full of loving support and help this year! We appreciate her resources and friendly newsletters that have connected us with literally hundreds of FREE garden supports and opportunities in Albuquerque.

New Futures Garden

New Futures is an APS "School of Choice” for pregnant and parenting students both male and female. We are committed to the needs of the whole student and believe we offer a learning environment that creates autonomous life-long learners who are prepared for post-secondary education and successful futures.

New Futures garden, Los Jardines, started with an idea and blossomed into a thing of beauty! I saw it as an opportunity to bring everyone together- staff, students, family, community. There was a negative tone and distance that seemed to have developed over the years from the impact of teacher evaluations and testing. I felt that pulling all entities together would be a great way to learn from one another, support each other, let go of bad mojo, and create a healthy, positive community garden.

I started with a core group of teachers I knew would assist me in rolling the idea out to other staff members and students. Even though they were a bit taken back with the broad and vague idea, I knew I could count on them to carry it forward. Once the teachers and students became interested, it was a matter of trying to find an individual that was experienced with gardening to assist in bringing the idea into fruition. That person was Travis McKenzie, from Sembrando Semillas. I was aware that Travis had assisted other APS schools with community gardens and knew he would be the right person for New Futures. Travis suggested that we take a fieldtrip to Cornelio Candelaria Organics Farm, a 400 year-old family farm in the South Valley.

I knew this was needed to hook everyone and help the staff and students start to understand the beauty we could create as a community by establishing a garden of our own. What I did not know, was that working with teenage parents on gardening was a long-time goal of the owner of the farm, Lorenzo Candelaria. The fieldtrip became the catalyst for launching what now is called the Los Jardines at New Futures.

After several pre-meetings with Travis, staff, and students, we broke ground. Students gave input on what they wanted to plant, how they wanted it to look and how we could accomplish our work within the school day as well as outside of the day. We created a schedule so that students could assist with the gardening through their core and elective classes, where they learn about how gardening connects to various subjects. (check out the school website for more information). Families of the students started contacting me (after outreach through students and the school newsletter) wanting to provide their time. I’ve also received volunteer offers from additional staff members, their families and the community.

Today, the garden continues to be a work in progress. We see it grow and flourish with a richness that comes from collaboration, and love for what has evolved. We encourage other schools to come visit and share in this experience. We will share ideas, show off the toddlers play area, the butterfly garden, the “egg maze”, the story bench, the garden mural (dedicated to Mr. Candelaria) and many more exciting parts of Los Jardines. Please call the school for more information and to set up a time to come visit.

- Jinx Basekrville, Principal

Breaking ground!

Summer weekend workday

 Students working during the school year

Our flourishing garden!

Native American Community Academy

Wilson Middle School, Wildcat Blooms Garden - Brief History

Year 1 Began in the school year 2011-12 with a donation of 80 bales of hay and about 35 bags of leaves. We had two shovels and no water hoses-watered for one year with gallon jugs! We outlined the various garden areas (divide and conquer) and began to build areas where hay bales were set into the ground to help retain moisture and to backfill the area with topsoil and compost from Soilutions; planted with strawberries. During that year I begged and borrowed tools from home, friends and neighbors. I ended up with a total of three water hoses, five shovels and one hoe. At the end of that year, we coordinated with the Youth Food Action Project and they brought a team of five young men who had the materials for a drip irrigation system that could be tied in to the school via a long water hose. We planted for our first big crop in the last week of school in May of 2012. That summer, we invited the Summer of Service group to have a camp stationed at Wilson. These kids watered and weeded and made our sign. They also reached out into the community to explain what we were doing by creating an informational flyer and magnets to hand out. Year 2 In the fall of 2012 we held our first growers market. We sold, peppers and chilies, black-eyed peas, basil, watermelon water. We made $100.00! In the school year of 2012-13 we continued to improve the soil with the addition of 10 yards of compost from Soilutions and 35 more large bags of leaves. We planted winter crops and used covered hoops. Planted too late in the season so little of it germinated, except lots of spinach, and some carrots. Added to our tools. We now have a total of 10 shovels, 8 hoes, 3 rakes, a wheelbarrow and a hose cart. We planted for our summer crops in earlier May which gave some things a head start before the worst heat started. Planted: Pumpkins, watermelons, tomatoes, basil, potatoes, peppers, eggplants, onions, sunflowers, zinnias, corn and black-eyed peas. Had a Vista program worker to assist with watering and weeding. Two students came in inconsistently. Too hot! Donation from the community of $5000 to buy tools! Year 3 Growers Market this fall we sold: onions, basil, watermelon water, pesto, black-eyed peas and made $65.00. Got a donation of an almost brand new rototiller! We co-hosted a community workday sponsored by Whole Foods. Planted peach, plum, apple and cherry trees as well as 10 grape vines and constructed a flower planter with mums, bulbs and next spring plan to add roses. We also began the planning phase of our new edible urban forest and will begin to write for grants to fund this project. Year 4 We hired our first student farmers to care for the garden during the summer. Finished planting all of our perennial vegetable beds-asparagus, strawberries, sunchokes, onions and raspberries and elderberries. Got a shed moved from another APS property to hold all our tools. Mr Duran’s students began building our deck and installed our rain gutters and water harvesting barrels. Began building (and selling!) our octogardens. We planted a variety of native and non-native plants in ‘guilds’ with tall trees, medium bushes and lower grasses and other ground cover and Mr Daly began his afterschool program to add pollinators to our forest. Year 5 Added a pond to create more habitat niches for students to study and observe. Built a new system for creating compost-stackable, colorful Lots of maintaining-harvesting spinach, kale, chard, cilantro, onions, peaches, cherries, raspberries LOTS of sunchokes (5 gallon bucket). We are now cooking and tasting what we grow and donating the surplus to our school food bank.

Using Your School Garden AKA Outdoor Classroom  Treat your garden as an actual classroom.  Set up rules and expectations for the use of materials-SAFETY is our prime directive  Tools care and use: never bring the head of the tool above your knee; how to carry the tool; how to store the tool;  Movement in the garden: Using pathways-what is a path and what does one look like?  Compost dos and don’ts: Be explicit, don’t assume-only plant parts, never animal parts or poop (this is true for APS gardens, may not be true in other places)  Appropriate treatment of living things: Even when they are ‘bad or harmful’, weed identification  Make a plan for what you want to accomplish for a given day, week, season and year.

How to create an outline or a plan for a unit:  Within a unit have an overall theme, stated as a Big Idea or Essential Question-in schools we base these off of the Standards that we are required to teach, see PED for LOTS more on this…)  For each unit, develop activities that will help to answer the question-this may lead to more questions (that is one way that you know you are doing it right!)  Begin every unit and activity with the end in mind (this is usually called the objective of the lesson)  Develop units for the year

Basic Planning Process 1. Research-get ideas for your plan based on what others have already done; look for the best out there!

2. Develop your plan. What will your project look like when/if it is successful? Make a scale map of what is there and then create a picture of what you want. Divide and conquer. Think of smaller, distinct parts and phases to begin work. It doesn’t all have to be done at one time.

3. Get constituent input. What do they want? What changes can you make to include their ideas? Don’t ask questions that you don’t want to hear the answer to…

Atrisco Heritage Academy High School Garden

Edible gardens at Atrisco Heritage Academy High School have been around since 2010! The Functioning Skills Program within Special Education have been the garden rockstars of AHA during this time. Partnering with La Plazita Institute, our students engage in nutrition, environmental, and garden-based education while providing a bountiful green space to brighten up the aesthetics of the school’s campus. Students take part in every part of the growing process including seed propagation in our greenhouse, transplanting, daily garden care, and harvesting. As part of the Functioning Skills Program, students learn skills to live independent, self-sufficient lives. The garden program supports this goal in a multitude of ways including the development of cooking skills and practicing growing our own food as well as cultivating compassion toward living things.

Our students also love and understand composting! We look forward to taking food scraps out to the bins everyday and have teamed up with the Culinary Arts program to build our piles even faster to create viable compost for our soil. Students also understand the different functions of the plant parts through interactive lessons and building a relationship with all plants in the garden throughout its growth.

Kale and radishes grow like crazy in our garden! Tomatoes, tomatillos, chile, corn, carrots, swiss chard, onions, garlic, beans, and grapes also grow abundantly in our garden. Students also love our new pear tree to accompany our peach tree. We also love the verdolagas and desert rhubarb that grows wild in our garden. We’re excited to try all of the food that come from our garden and get creative in the kitchen!

Cleveland High School

Hello, m\y name is Kelton McPherson and I am the Cleveland High School agri-science/FFA adviser. My classes started a garden April 4, 2016 in our greenhouse. My Intro to Agriculture students and Plant/Crop Science students were the main ones involved. We used the garden to teach many different things. First of all, we learned how to test the soil to make sure it was ready for the plants. Next, we change the pH of the soil to get ready for the seeds and plants we were planting. Next, we added the soil to the raised gardens.

Mostly, the soil just needed to be more acidic so we added some organic fertilizer until we achieved the correct pH. Before we planted we talked about the different plants that we were planting. We discussed monocots and dicots, how to water, and any other pertinent information. We planted plenty of peas and discussed how it adds nitrogen to the soil. Mint was also planted to keep the mice away.

Our produce has not developed enough to sell yet, but we have thrown around the idea of selling it at a farmers market or to the teachers. I believe the garden has had an effect on students because they want to go outside and see it often and help take care of it. I have attached some pictures to show our gardens progress.

Thanks, K. McPherson

Juvenile Detention Center: La Cocina Verde

Our garden within the Juvenile Detention Center marks the first hoop house garden built as part of our La Cocina Verde program. Built in October of 2014 in collaboration with YDC, Youth Services Center, La Plazita Institute, APS, and the NMSU Extension office, our garden serves a very important role within the lockdown facility.

Every week, students participate in our Food Justice class and our after school Cooking and Gardening Program with La Plazita Institute. In the Food Justice class, we work to understand our food systems, health disparities within our community, and nutrition literacy. The after school program gets us outside in the sun and then into the kitchen. For many students, stepping foot in the hoop house is the first time seeing where or how food is grown. Heading out to the garden also breaks up their daily routines within the facility and exposes them to a greener, healing environment. Beyond our weekly programming, APS teacher Dr. Jan takes students outside on a daily basis to water.

The initial hesitation to get their hands dirty falls away quickly as they follow suit of their friends planting seeds, weeding, harvesting, and eventually chomping down on some raw tomatoes or onions straight out of the dirt. We incorporate the produce we harvest into the cooking portion of the class and often also gets incorporated into the cafeteria meal routine. Cooking and eating together as a group provides a space for students to share their stories, family memories, and simply connect in a very familial social circle. For many of our youth, the garden and the cooking program provide a connection to their valuable cultural identities in a space where it is easy to become disconnected from the true culture we come from.

This program also works to reconnect students to a healthier lifestyle upon their exit of the facility. Not only does this program encourage students to eat healthy and think critically about where their food comes from, but it also builds a bridge to La Plazita Institute’s many resources youth can access for support outside of incarceration. One of these resources includes a GED program which requires students to work on the farm. By learning some of the basics of farming, technically and the philosophies behind the practice, students can utilize these resources with background knowledge gained while incarcerated.

Sandia Prep Garden

The Sandia Prep Garden was first established in 1998, with the help of a Toyota Tapestry/National Science Teacher Grant by Karen Lyall and Chuck Buxbaum. It sits on a about a half acre plot on the Southeast end of the campus and has a mature orchard of apple, peach, pear, cherry, plum, fig, apricot, and jujube trees. We also have grapes, herbs, and xeric plants such as desert willows, three-leaf sumac, Russion sage, yucca, prickly pear, and chocolate flower. We have continued to make additions and improvements to the garden over the years, with grants from the PNM Foundation, Whole Kids Foundation, and donations from Osuna Nursery and Sandia Prep School families. A continuous support from teachers Karen Lyall, Chuck Buxbaum, Helen Haskell, and Kelly Bull, has been key to its success. During the summer, we have an adopt-the-garden for a week, and weekly workdays, for students and their families. During the Spring of each year, the 6th graders prepare the soil and plant. In the Fall, the same group of students, now 7th graders, celebrate the fruits of their labor with an annual Harvest Festival, where they celebrate the land and native cultures in New Mexico. Students participate in a variety of activities, including harvesting, planting garlic, preparing salad from the garden, stringing ristras, decorating gourds grown in the garden, and baking Pueblo Oven bread in our horno. Many students choose to participate in the garden, year-round, in an activity period twice weekly called the "Dirt Devils." (Our school mascot is the Sun Devil!) Recently, the 7th grade art students completed a tile project (pictured) in the outdoor kitchen.

Rio Grande High School Garden

Rio Grande High School supports a garden that includes 6 raised beds that are supported by 6 rainwater collection cisterns. The garden is operated by students in an after school program in sustainable agriculture. Currently we are growing beets, peas and lettuce. The produce is used by students in the Culinary Arts program. Plants are watered entirely by rainwater.

Sugar Snap Peas

Lettuce Bed

John Wright, [email protected]

Youth Reporting Center & Girls Reporting Center Garden

La Cocina Verde, a collaborative program between the Youth Services Center, La Plazita Institute, APS, and NMSU extension, built its second garden on the Youth and Girls Reporting Center campus in April 2016! Our garden has received a warm welcome from youth, staff, and community alike and all hands are getting involved. Youth and staff work together daily to maintain the garden while La Plazita Institute implements weekly programming to highlight the educational, cultural, and healing elements the garden provides in return to its caretakers. Inside the hoop house, students witness and participate in the growth of all the ingredients we need for summer salsa - heirloom tomatoes, chile, peppers, cilantro and onions. In the boxes outside of the hoop house, students planted watermelon, squash, and lemon cucumber seeds and eagerly await the growth of their seedlings. To support the continued health of our garden and continuous learning, we built compost bins out of pallets for the campus’ staff to utilize. Students made signs to educate composters on .what should and should not be incorporated into our mix.

Our garden program provides hands-on development of skills and knowledge to utilize in potential career paths ranging from a farmer or chef to a biologist or a nursery worker. Beyond the development of marketable skills, we learn from the lifecycles of the garden and reconnect to the land. Whether students work in the garden once or many times, a piece of our cultural heritage is reclaimed through their experience.