Healdsburg Elementary School

Our school garden currently includes 12 fruit trees, 10 raised veggie beds, a perennial fairy garden, a living willow hut and a small chicken coop with 5 resident bantam hens. Our school is a K-2 school with a preschool program on-site, with students from ages 4-7. Last year, our school added a garden nutrition enrichment program to our enrichment offerings. The students have responded enthusiastically to the opportunity to be in the garden on a regular basis, gathering eggs, watering plants, and enjoying on-the-spot tasting of fruits and vegetables. Our three current goals are to implement a schoolwide composting program, to upgrade our irrigation system for year-round food production, and to create a spiral herb garden where students can study pollinators and participate in creating pollinator habitat. To promote our recycle and composting program, we would like to bring in a community theater group that has developed a play, ""Worms and Watersheds,"" about composting with worms and the importance of local watershed health. Additionally, coming up with funds for purchase of seeds and organic soil amendments is a challenge every year, and we would like to secure funds to provide for this.