Young Plants, Young Minds Growing In Local Gardens

The seeds of change are growing all around Larkspur and Corte Madera, where digging in the soil has become a part of the curriculum in some local schools.

Hall Middle School science teacher Rebecca Newburn studied permaculture at UC Berkeley before arriving in Larkspur five years ago. The philosophy of permaculture is to use native species to create a garden that can sustain itself and the gardener. Ideally, it would reduce the need for commercial fertilizer and could protect itself against drought, disease and pests as much as possible.

"I took that idea and brought it to campus. The school garden is based on the idea of a food forest," Newburn said. "It imitates a natural ecosystem."

Hall Middle School's Food Forest is certainly eye-catching along Doherty Drive, with flowers and vegetables. The food forest doesn't produce enough vegetables to supply an entire cafeteria, but it does provide a good introduction into gardening and a healthy lifestyle. Newburn will introduce a new class of students to permaculture in the fall, but don't expect the garden to lie completely untended during the summer.

"We haven't had a lot of stuff come from our garden yet. It's been a small harvest," Newburn said. "We have tastings in class of what we're growing, so the students can enjoy it. It's still a fairly young garden in terms of produce."

The Hall Middle School Food Forest has another lesson to teach students — and their parents.

"We want to start educating people about seed saving … growing our own plants and saving our own seeds from those plants," Newburn said. "We've already lost 90-plus percent of the varieties of heirloom plants that were available 100 years ago."

Marin Primary and Middle School on Magnolia Avenue also has an on-campus garden for the benefit of its students. Teacher Molly Myerson does a lot of the heavy lifting in the David Heath Outdoor Education Center, while the students have a chance to harvest organic foods and study plants and insects.

The OEC design goes beyond the scope of a normal garden to include a native wildlife habitat, solar project and more.

"The kids play a lot, but they also learn a lot," Myerson said.

Larkspur gardeners are starting to see the early results of their hard work at the community garden in Piper Park. Members can rent a space within the garden to plant flowers, vegetables, or other plants. The gardeners encourage composting to add nutrients to the soil.

A proposal for a community garden in Corte Madera Town Park met with some resistance last year. Alternate sites were suggested, but the sides did not come to any agreement.

Marin Country Mart, host of a farmers market every Saturday, has its own small plots of vegetables and legumes in the Larkspur Landing shopping center. Soybeans, a useful cover crop, grow especially well and can be harvested by staff then later sold during the market.

"The more we can grow our own food locally, the better, I feel. Besides, it just tastes a lot better," Newburn said.