Growing Veggies - and 5-Year-Old Gardeners

Now that I’m the editor of the D.C. Master Gardener News, I actually get paid to visit and report on cool projects like the following, and I’m loving it.

The Children’s Studio School in downtown D.C. was built in the old-fashioned style of schools-as-prisons, so it’s no easy task to humanize, to enliven, to make kid-friendly.  And as recently as January of this year its side "yard" was covered with asphalt and rubber and was a functional - not to mention aesthetic -  wasteland. 

But thanks to Master Gardener Ed Bruske and his team of parents and neighbors, it now holds 40 raised planters of various sizes containing 18 yards of topsoil and compost.  Not to mention dozens of 4- and 5-year-olds watering the planters with their cute little watering cans.  Indoors there’s a sophisticated seed-starting set-up where the plants began, and a worm composting operation where worms produce castings for the garden.

Another Really Cool Person Who Gardens: Ed probably never imagined he’d someday be creating and managing a school garden.  As a Washington Post food writer and caterer, Ed’s interest in gardening naturally began with growing herbs and expanded to vegetables.  So when he noticed the empty space at his daughter’s school, the idea of the schoolyard garden was born.  Luckily, his search for help of all kinds led him to the D.C. Extension Agent, who suggested he enroll in her 2006 Master Gardener class. So Ed attended and recently became the class’s first graduate to achieve official Master Gardener Certification. Congratulations, Ed, and no hard feelings about your beating the pants off the rest of us, including yours truly.

Some Really Cool Sources of Funds:  The project’s roughly $3,000 in funding - to date - began with Garden Resources of Washington, the community and youth garden group, and spread to the local political body (think mini-city council) and even included a mysteriously anonymous neighbor (please, no paparazzi).  Next, the ever-resourceful Ed discovered the Mantis Corporation, makers of the marvelous compost bin in the top photo, and hit them up for a freebie. Got it!  This model retails at about $500 and creates compost in a month, as long as the kids keep turning that handle.  So add fighting childhood obesity to the many benefits of this aah-inspiring project.

[Click-to-enlarge photos:  Ed with freebie composting bin; and his 5-year-old daughter Leila with her watering can.  Readers, I can't show you the other incredibly cute photos I got because, I found out later, I needed parental permission.  Sorry to say, that's the age we live in.]