As Bev and I toured the many gardens in Dallas, the most wonderful learning experience was the Stonewall Jackson Elementary School, located in East Dallas. For the full story you can go to www.stonewallgardens.com The school uses the twenty thousand square feet of intensely cultivated area as a living science lab. It is one of the most celebrated gardens in Dallas and for good reason. In the Stonewall Garden and Science Lab, all the students from kindergarten through fifth grade, as well as the students of the Dallas Regional School for the Deaf housed at their school, enjoy garden classes each week. In the garden, students plant and care for their crops, conduct science experiments, and observe the ecosystem (which includes a beautiful wildscape as well as rows of student plants).

I was intrigued by the chicken coop. It houses a handful of hens hatched at the garden. The only difficulty with this arrangement is that the students want to give the chicken names, and that means that Charlie might well wind up for lunch. The laying of eggs, their hatching, and feathering are all studied by the children. Each student keeps a note book on the crops that they plant from amount of water needed to the actual harvest and the composting of the remains. The notebooks keep track of the weather, including wind and precipitation. The program is 15 years old and it continues with the spirit is began with—helping students underdtand science and connect with nature in a garden they tend themselves.

In these days of tight funding, the parents have stepped in to take up the slack. The efforts are led by community members as well as parents and other volunteers. The city has partially funded some of the operations and what Bev and I saw would be the envy of just about any garden projects found in schools. I recommend you visit their web site (above) and learn a lot more.