Celina teacher's garden club project blossoms this year

CELINA - Language arts teacher Barb Decker was hoping this year to lure about 20 students to the school's garden club.

Much to her surprise, 120 fifth- and sixth-grade students eagerly signed up to work in the garden and land lab behind the Intermediate School.

Decker, the volunteer coordinator and an experienced landscaper, this year is putting more emphasis on the land lab and garden to teach her students about various plants and how to maintain them properly throughout the year. The children handle the responsibilities during lunch and recess time.

Due to the large number of students and limited garden space, the boys and girls are divided into groups and assigned certain plants and tasks.

Fifth-graders Audrey Albers and Jillyan Finn are caring for a gerbera daisy. Decker said the girls recently thought their plant was dying, until she explained to them it was just reacting to the colder temperatures.

The students this week discovered a new bud emerging through the soil of the gerbera daisy, despite the cooler weather.

"We've had fun and we were excited to see it down there," Albers said. "We've worked on it since the start of the year."

The girls' job is to continue monitoring the flower.

"We'll work on it for the rest of the year," Finn said.

Decker said the kids do the majority of the gardening. She facilitates the process by providing tools and materials, she said. She also creates a monthly land lab newsletter for students and provides them with reminders about what their plants need on a daily basis.

The garden is home to more than 30 different plants and trees ranging from tropicals to annuals to hardy perennials. Roses, coral bells, sundrops, iris, purple asters, mums, black-eyed Susans, a Japanese maple and even bamboo are growing in the garden.

Students this week were moving the tropical and annual plants inside due to the threat of frost. They have trimmed many of them to collect seeds for planting next year and will keep them alive by watering and a grow light, the teacher said.

The land lab and garden are more than just hands-on teaching tools. Sixth-graders have used them to complete experiments from their science book. Decker incorporates in her classes the use of metaphors, personification and alliteration by asking her students to describe the plants.

Garden club members also have used their experience to compile research reports, journals and graphs, and have even written poetry about plants and insects. A poetry reading session was tentatively set to take place today in the garden.

Decker said she has contests that allow students to win garden figures and decorations to place next to their plant.

The students will continue to work in the lab over the course of the school year, mostly graphing and charting data during the winter months, she said.

Decker said the projects have helped improve the students' attitudes while providing them with a fun way to learn.