Coronado's Hidden Goals

By SUZIE HEAP, UCCE MASTER GARDENER EMERITUS

Each year, connected with our Spring Coronado Flower Show, I so enjoy visiting with Coronado school students and their advisors in their garden areas. The garden clubs at the Middle School and the High School grow produce for the Food Bank in Imperial Beach. Their advisor is our Coronado Library Teen Librarian, Tara Davies, who is also associated with Emerald Keepers.

The High School Garden Club has about 30 members, boys and girls, who work the garden every other Saturday. They grow a Fall Garden crop and a Spring Garden crop. On my visit the student gardeners shared their tangerine and lemon trees and their compost bin with me. Their garden is used to grow crops of Spaghetti Squash, Brussels sprouts, Lettuce, Artichokes, Cucumbers, Broccoli, and both Russet and Sweet Potatoes depending upon the season of the year. They use only natural pest control in their gardens.

When I spoke with the young members of the High School Garden Club, I found many who also have home gardens and are thrilled to provide garden-to-table produce to their family dining tables. They are having fun, learning, and helping others.

The Middle School Garden Club has about ten members who garden on their lunch hour after eating lunch. Lettuce is currently their main crop. Clare and her fellow club members, on the day I visited, were very busy pulling mint from around a Pineapple Sage plant. They were learning quickly that mint has a strong personality and will take over wherever it is planted. Next time, the mint will be planted in a container all of its own.

Strand Elementary’s visiting day was a short day for students, so I was guided through their garden boxes by Sophia Frost, a faculty member, and their advisor.

This is a special site for a garden in a large open area between the Bay and the Ocean. The garden looks like it is in a resort. Children can enjoy the seating areas in the garden to come and read or, of course, work the garden. The garden club members work the garden weeding and transplanting during lunch on Friday and on Wednesday after school. I saw a “berry berry quite contrary” garden box holding blackberries and strawberries. The young gardeners grow borage there also as a companion plant. Borage is said to make strawberries sweeter. I saw a succulent garden box and a pollinator garden box with lavender, lantana, parsley, and dill for swallowtail butterflies. All pollinators are welcome here. An aromatherapy box close by has scented geraniums, rosemary, lemon grass, peppermint, chamomile, sage, and carnations.

Christ Church Day School has two garden areas: one for the kindergarten area and one for grades first through sixth. Each classroom is very proud of its garden bed. Two Kindergarten students, Will and Grace, took me straight to their Nasturtium box and explained that the flowers can be “put in your salad to make it pretty and to eat.” Yes, there are no chemical pesticides used here in the student garden. The students showed me succulents that are ready to bloom. The garden has a hummingbird feeder. Will and Grace made sure that I knew that hummingbirds are the only birds that can fly backward. Other boxes in the garden contain Lavender, Tomatoes, Petunias, and California Poppies. The work area of the garden has many colorful watering cans.

On to the first grade, where I was greeted by Giuliana and Hannah, who shared their Healthy Snacks garden. There are many healthy-looking plants in this gardening box: Rainbow Carrots, Tiny Tomatoes, “the tiniest in the world,” they told me, as well as Kale, Cucumbers, and Arugula. A tasty garden indeed; Evie and Max of the second grade were showing great pride in sharing their “Brighten Your Day” garden, which is the first garden box one sees upon entering the overall garden. So many beautiful flowers grow there.

There is an All School Strawberry Patch close by and a Hibiscus bush and a Rose among the boxes. Ava and Charlotte shared their third-grade class Pizza Garden. Yes, they do have a Pizza Party during the year. The moms bring dough and cook lunch. The Pizza Garden grows Thyme, Tomatoes, Bell Peppers, Basil, and Oregano. They have Strawberries for dessert from the All-School Strawberry Patch. I saw Cosmos in the garden, too. Of course, one has to have flowers on the table for a Pizza Party.

Grace, from the fourth grade, was very excited to share the class Salsa Garden. This class box grows Red and White Onions, Cilantro, Tomatoes, Cabbage for Tacos, and Tomatillos to make Salsa Fresca; they have a plant sale each year with sucker tomato clippings along with Arugula from the first-grade garden. No chemical fertilizers are used.

On to the fifth grade, where Asher and Georgia explained their garden in great detail. I saw Nasturtiums growing there, and they explained to me that this versatile and attractive plant can add color and vibrancy to the garden. Basil grows in this box, too. They started it from seed indoors and transplanted it into the garden. They gave it regular pruning to make it bushier.

Their Marigolds were also started indoors from seed and are in the garden thriving in full sun. The Cosmos in the garden is coming along nicely. It will have a colorful daisy bloom and will thrive through the summer, attracting birds, bees, and butterflies.

Taylor shared the sixth-grade garden box with me and talked to me about companion planting. Zinnias and Tomatillos grow there. When discussing the tomatillos, she shared about learning about the Mayan and Aztec civilizations. This garden uses wild native daisies as a cover crop.

Christ Church Day School uses a Fall and Spring garden planting schedule. They do a soup and salad meal for the Parish in the late fall. They have made a very tasty Broccoli with Cheddar soup. Broccoli and Lettuce are cool-season crops.

Our Coronado students are certainly lucky to be learning life skills with their work in these beautiful gardens.