Novato School Gardens: Lu Sutton Elementary

Last week on Novato Farm To Table, I set the stage for my feature series on Novato's school garden projects.

In the coming months, I will be visiting local campuses to report on the many wonderful garden programs available to our student community. These gardens, run by dedicated teachers and parent volunteers, are affording kids amazing opportunities to learn where food comes from.

My first stop on the school garden tour is located on Center Road in central Novato. I met with first grade teacher Kris Sargent, the enthusiastic force behind this garden project, which currently serves approximately 430 kindergarten through fifth grade students.

Sargent, who discovered gardening herself at the age of 16, was instrumental in spearheading efforts in 2007 to establish the area now dedicated for the project at Lu Sutton. The garden space, a once undeveloped strip of land adjacent to the school's athletic field, currently hosts seventeen numbered, raised beds of varying sizes; enough for each classroom to have its own plot if desired. Open space at the far end of the garden provides room for a compost patch.

Local businesses and Colored Gravel partnered with the school to donate seeds and soil respectively for the project, while parents and teachers constructed the wood-framed beds and installed an irrigation system to provide water.

A recycled wood pergola, sourced by Sargent’s husband Ryan, a local contractor, has also been erected at the site for shade. "It was a real community effort to pull this all together," Kris told me as we surveyed the space.

Garden crops are grown organically using soil amended with compost produced on-site. Beds are planted seasonally with vegetables like radishes, kale, chard, lettuces, turnips, cauliflower, and broccoli in winter months; tomatoes, zucchini, pumpkins, peas, green beans, strawberries, and carrots in the spring. Herbs including cilantro and basil also make an appearance.

Annual flowers including forget-me-nots, mums, zinnias, daffodils, California poppy, and sunflowers are also grown to provide color, attract butterflies and bees for pollination, and are subject matter for "budding" artists.

Teachers at Lu Sutton utilize the garden as a "living science lab" where students use math concepts to measure & chart plant growth, compare & contrast leaves, and estimate the number of seeds in the head of a sunflower. 

Kids also observe birds and beneficial/non-beneficial insects attracted to the garden, recording their findings in individual science journals. Some classes bring sketch books to the site, illustrating garden inspired stories and poetry with vibrant artwork.

For many children, the garden provides their first introduction to the life cycle. Students are enthralled as they navigate the process of planting seeds, waiting for them to sprout, watching them grow, and finally yielding their bounty for harvest. Witnessing this wonderment as the children discover the garden is deeply gratifying for all who have invested in the project.

Of course, some of the greatest rewards students reap from their gardening efforts are the edible ones. "I've watched kids eat raw radishes freshly pulled from the ground and tomatoes picked right off the vine--things they'd never eat at home," Sargent shares with pride. "And they're excited to try them!" she adds. Last year third grade teacher Tom Schaeffer even made pesto for the kids to sample using the garden's basil. 

Teachers and parents work to insure nothing goes to waste. Excess produce is harvested and made available for students to take home, providing yet another opportunity for parents to reinforce healthy eating choices. Seeds are gathered at the end of each season and saved for future plantings.

As we conclude our visit to the garden, Sargent invites me to come back later in the spring when the plot will be at its peak. “You’ll see this space transformed,” she assures me.

I have no doubt of that. I’ll be back!