Seeds 'n' Things

Most students at the Girls Middle School in Mountain View have never been to East Palo Alto, although the urban city is in their backyard.  During a visit to Collective Roots’ flagship one-acre organic garden at East Palo Alto Charter School on Oct. 21st, 54 girls from 30 elementary schools across the Peninsula worked together to prepare winter vegetable garden beds.

Humanities teacher Gaby DiMuro sought to unite her two classes of sixth graders into one school community through a garden work day, inspired by Paul Fleischman's Seedfolks.  The 1997 children's book chronicles the transformation of a littered lot in a Cleveland immigrant neighborhood into an urban oasis, a process that changes the gardeners' lives, too. “Seedfolks is about a community coming together ... and talking to each other through the garden.  It’s about building a community,” DiMuro said.    

As part of their garden chores, the girls harvested 50 pounds of squash and turned the soil for winter crops, such as Brassica vegetables. “There’s a community of soil below the surface, and there are communities of plants that grow well together and rely on each other.  For example, onions keep pests away from the lettuce, and calendula bring in pollinators and deter insects,” Program Director Eron Sandler told the girls.

“It’s helping us get a broader idea of a community garden,” said Gwen Howard, 11, of Palo Alto.  "It’s bringing us together – we’re helping each other pull up weeds, working together in the ecosystem."

-BY EMILY GONG, CITIZEN JOURNALIST;
REPORTING AND PHOTO BY ANNE-MARIE MCREYNOLDS