A few years ago I chaperoned on an elementary-school field trip to a nature preserve. Guided by a wizened, stick-straight docent, we hiked up and down some moderate hills for about an hour, looking at plants, insects, and birds that he pointed out. It occurred to me, as I watched them, that many of the students had never gone hiking before. Some of them tired quickly, huffing and puffing while the 80-year-old guide high-stepped up the rocky slopes without breaking his stride. Being outdoors in a wild place—not a soccer field or a back yard—was a novel experience for them.

If the woods and fields no longer beckon (or even exist), schools like Austin’s Gullett Elementary (pronounced guh-let’) try to bring nature into the classroom. Small animals (there’s a gecko, snake, tarantula, and chinchillas) kept in the main hallway introduce students to a variety of creatures and their feeding and nesting habits; caterpillars on display in aquariums harden into chrysalises, then hatch into butterflies; a large, outdoor pen houses turkeys and ducks for a farmyard feel near several classrooms.

And then there are the gardens: a butterfly garden, vegetable garden, xeriscape garden, and new teaching garden. For many years Ned Martin, a retiree whose daughter taught at Gullett, tended and expanded the school gardens, volunteering his expertise for many hours each week. Although Mr. Martin retired from even his volunteer duties several years ago, his legacy lives on.

How many other schools display a bust of a gardener? The plaque on Mr. Martin’s statue reads:

NED MARTIN
Gullett Gardener
and
Volunteer Extraordinaire
Statue made and
donated by the
1997-1998
5th Grade Class
With the help
and guidance of
Art Teacher
Dottie Cartwright

How cool is that? Doesn’t it inspire you, dear reader, to get involved with your neighborhood school and help bring a garden to kids who may otherwise never experience nature except on a manicured soccer field?

School gardens are popular now, and many schools already have them. But having a garden isn’t enough. Volunteers may be few, and a school garden always needs not just worker bees but also a leader willing to manage the maintenance (and round up other volunteers). Teachers may be enthusiastic but unsure about how to incorporate the garden into classroom studies; a gardener with a background in education can help with that. Or maybe an after-school gardening class could be offered.

That’s my plug for getting all you gardeners out there into your neighborhood schools to show the next generation the joys of digging and growing.

In part two of this post, I’ll show you Gullett’s latest garden project : a native-plant teaching garden.