Pinon Hills students help school garden flourish

It's easy for Pinon Hills Elementary School students to eat their vegetables when the vegetables come from the school garden.

Brendyn Hoag, 7, remembers last fall when they harvested turnips.

"They were good. We pulled them out of the garden and ate them," he said. "I took some home to eat with my family."

As a first-grader, Brendyn is beginning to understand the cycle of the seasons.

"It's pretty fun," he said. "I like to come out to the garden when we get to plant stuff."

On May 25, Brendyn joined 15 of his classmates in the Pinon Hills communal garden. Located at the southeast corner of the property, the half-acre site boasts 20 raised vegetable beds, walled in with cinderblock, sunflower and perennial beds, a pumpkin patch, potato patch, and a butterfly garden planted by some gifted and talented students who had researched butterfly-attracting flowers.

Working on a raised bed assigned to Lisa Stiner's first-grade class, Brendyn kneeled down and planted a few Swiss chard seeds in the neat, loamy furrows parent June Heywood had made with her fingers.

Heywood is the garden's newest coordinator. She took the reins from parent Sue Carne who has overseen the program for the last several years. Funding comes from the school's parent-teacher organization.

"It took six years to make it," Carne said. "The beds were made by volunteer work and donated materials."

Drip lines connected to the school's irrigation system provide the necessary water. Because Northern Nevada's growing season is short and unpredictable, as indicated by the Wall O' Waters placed around the tomato plants, the school needs volunteers to help out in the summer with weeding and harvesting.

Lettuce, spinach, carrots and beets were already showing sprouts at the end of May despite cloudy, cool spring weather.

"The squash hasn't made it yet," Heywood said.

She said they're also hosting three open houses this summer to harvest plants that would otherwise spoil in the sun.

"The first year, we had a whole lot of stuff in the summer," Carne recalled. "We had pounds of zucchini and donated a lot to the food closet."

When classes return in August, students hopefully will find a bountiful harvest. The two women said students love reaping what they sow.

"It teaches them where food comes from," Carne said. "Food doesn't come from the grocery store."

"They're the ones out here planting," Heywood said. "Food is more interesting when they grow it. They get to dig, they get to be outdoors and see how different things work. It's a whole life lesson."

Pinon Hills Principal Rommy Cronin agreed.

"The garden has really taken on a life of its own under the direction of our wonderful volunteers," she said.

Cronin mentioned that one of her second-grade classes is raising composting worms, which they hope to eventually use in the garden.

"It goes with the underlying push of our school to be more green," she said. "It also helps us recognize that the PTO is more than a fundraising organization. They're supporting our educational system in different ways that are important as well."

"It's just fun because you get to play with a lot of cool stuff," said first-grader Caitlyn Stephens.

When asked what her favorite food in the garden was, Caitlyn enthusiastically replied, "the carrots!"

The school's first "garden party" is scheduled for 7:30 a.m. June 12. Subsequent gatherings will alternate between Thursday and Saturday mornings at the same time.

The open houses are scheduled for 7-8:30 a.m. June 22, July 20 and Aug. 17.

For more information, contact Heywood at 267-2878.