Sharon, Expert Gardener

What grows in the garden?
The Fall 2005 harvest resulted in the following:
6 pounds of carrots
7 ears of Indian corn
5 cucumbers
22 onions
60 pounds of potatoes
4 pumpkins
over 150 straw flowers
12 ears of sweet corn
2 watermelons
3 cups of wheat
5 winter squash
We did not measure the harvest of the following: herbs, eggplants, green beans, peppers, raspberries, strawberries, and tomatoes.

This year we also grew gourds and straw flowers to make crafts to sell for Eastside’s Helping Hearts Project.

Where does the food go?
Over the last three years, our harvests have been so successful that, even after cooking and eating a bunch of our produce in project class and serving it at our garden tours, we have still been able to donate 250 pounds of organic produce to Food for Lane County.

How many children help in the garden?
About 22 kids work intesively in the garden each fall in the Harvest Garden Project. Five of our seven Language Arts classes worked in the garden last spring, and the whole school has the opportunity to sign up for Wednesday Workshops in the garden, which are offered throughout the year.

Do other schools have gardens?
Yes, 31 other schools in the three local school districts (Springfield, Bethel, and 4J) have gardens. Most of these gardens are described on the website of the School Garden Project of Lane County. This non-profit organization helps local schools create, maintain, and use school gardens. Eastside is a member school of the School Garden Project. Eastside regularly loans tools and provides extra plants to other school gardens through this network, and the School Garden Project has used the Eastside garden for a teacher in-service on school gardening and for tour events to generate public support for school gardening.

What other benefits does our school garden provide?

In the corner of the garden are three large compost bins. Recently, Eastside and Parker Schools were awarded a Waste Reduction Grant, which includes funds for building a roof for our garden compost bins and starting a program of composting fruit and vegetable waste from our cafeteria. Not only will this save the district money on trash collection, but now our food waste will be recycled into compost, a product that we used to buy to enrich our poor garden soil! Students will have the opportunity to be involved and learn the science of composting. This composting project is part of the process of Eastside and Parker working together to become an Oregon Green School.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Yes! We need volunteers! In particular, I am very interested in finding one or more parents to begin training with me to take over the role of Garden Coordinator, since my daughter will graduate from Eastside in 2007. We also need volunteers to help with the composting project.

To contact Sharon Blick, go to the "Contact Us" page of the School Garden Project.

More About Our Eastside garden