ROCK CREEK — When Rock Creek Elementary’s students return to class a week from today, they’ll find a garden growing in front of their school.
The plot, about 8 feet wide and 35 feet long, is located between the sidewalks that lead to the front entrance. The dirt area was not included in the new school’s landscaping plan and cried out for attention. Rachel Wright and Bobbi Dalton, who have students in the school, heard that cry and went to work this summer planning and planting a garden there.
Dalton and Wright became friends several years ago while attending Master Gardener classes. That friendship was further strengthened by having students in the same school, starting at the former Jefferson Elementary, where Dalton’s daughter Hollie was an open-enrollment student, and Wright’s daughter Roselind and son Richard Price were students.
The mothers adopted an existing garden at the school and worked with teachers and other parents to enhance it. Dalton and Wright also developed a lesson on seeds, which they share with students during the winter months.
When the former Jefferson Elementary closed and their youngsters were re-assigned to Rock Creek, the women looked for an opportunity to continue their gardening education beyond the classroom. The barren section of land at the entrance of the new building caught their attention, and they sought and received from administration permission to transform it into garden.
The process was time consuming, and it was July 1 before all the hurdles were cleared. That presented the gardeners with the challenge of finding plants that could be successfully transplanted during the hottest, driest days of summer. Additionally, because of snow removal issues, they could not plant anything in the garden that would winter over.
“You don’t want to make somebody’s life miserable just because you want to plant flowers,” Dalton said of their decision to bring the custodian’s needs into the discussion.
Yet another was issue was height. They didn’t want plants that would obscure the entrance to the beautiful school or be on a level taller than the youngest students.
“I’m very child-oriented,” Dalton says. “Having only one child, you think of things at their level and you want to do things at their level. When the little kindergartners and first-graders come up this walk, I want them to be able to see things.”
Fortunately, the women had the training they needed to do the job correctly.
“That’s where our Master Gardener training comes in,” Dalton says. “Rachel and I put our heads together to come up with plants that would be hardy enough to be transplanted in this heat and still look nice the first day of school. You got to know your plants.”
Dalton selected reliable annuals like cosmos and marigold for the flowering plants. Wright introduced the idea of adding vegetables to help students understand where their food comes from and give the garden an element of practicality and environmental relevance
“We thought we’d do vegetables because the kids would recognize a lot of them,” Wright says. “(The school) is in a rural area and ties in with the whole community.”
A small corn field at the center of the garden provides a backdrop for watermelon, pumpkin, soybean, lettuce, tomato, pepper and other vegetable plants. There are even oats and herbs growing in the garden. Most of the plants came from Wright’s and Dalton’s gardens.
Decorating touches complete the work. Wooden fence sections from the former Jefferson Elementary garden were given a fresh coat of paint and placed in the garden. Dalton painted an old chair for another decorating touch, made a “Welcome Back” sign and created a “pot girl” from plastic flower pots. She painted concrete lady bugs and scattered them around the garden. A scarecrow will soon be added to the decorations.
“Bobbi knows how to do everything,” Wright says. “She can paint, she gardens.”
The women were assisted by the building staff, particularly fourth-grade teacher Terry Moody and school secretaries Barbara Hale and Loretta Panzarella, who helped water the plants and donated a bird house and planter. Orwell Supply donated the mulch; Frye Sand and Gravel also contributed to the project.
The mothers envision the garden becoming a school-wide project once other Rock Creek Elementary parents see it and buy into the concept. Next year, they’d like to involve students and have them plant flowering annuals and lettuce around the border from seeds. Dalton envisions using the border garden as a math lesson requiring students measure off the length of each section planted.
For now, Wright and Dalton are focused on keeping the garden alive and fresh for the first day of school. Dalton carries a watering hose in her car and, when she brings her daughter to school or picks her up, she’ll give the garden drink as needed.
“It’s something we enjoy and its something the kids enjoy,” Wright said. “Bobbi and I work well together. We’re a good team and we’re hard workers. We want to make it look nice.”
Next Generation
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Discussion
Filling the gap
Moms, teachers and staff at Rock Creek
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