Heritage students enjoy experts' work in creating gardens

HOMER – Master Gardener Joan Lane, with support from naturalist Suzanne Smith, designed and maintain the prairie courtyard garden at Heritage Elementary School in Homer.

The two women volunteer their time in this and two other gardens at the school.

Lane said they enjoy bouncing ideas off one another for the gardens.

Of the more than two dozen native plant species represented in the garden, most are prairie, and all are indigenous to East Central Illinois. These are the plants that were here in our area from pre-settlement times, Lane said.

Assistant principal Tom Davis said the junior high and fourth-grade science classes use the prairie garden for learning about native eco-systems and their history, but all the students benefit from the school's three courtyard gardens.

"It's wonderful! You see kids looking out the windows into the gardens, even as they're rushing down the halls. It's fantastic – it really beautifies the school," Davis said.

Students have access to the garden, which is just off the school cafeteria. Lane said students sometimes help with special projects, like creating the rock path through the garden.

"One advantage of prairie plants is that they're pretty hardy if the kids go tramping around through them," Lane said.

"Not all kids can sit at a desk all day. Research shows that natural environments are particularly helpful for autistic kids. I think there's a definite need for this. It's part of learning that isn't book learning. And it's a space for the kids to wiggle around in and explore. I think we all need our green spaces," Smith said.

After next year, the cafeteria will be renovated for use as the new library, and access will be through the library. Smith said one of their goals is to provide a book list for the librarians about the prairie from both ecological and historical perspectives.

The prairie courtyard garden concept was to provide natural, native plantings for the kids to enjoy and learn from, Smith said. It was first planted more than 20 years ago by former art teacher Sandy Bales and her junior high students. Bales, now with the UI Art Department, said her students had raised funds to purchase the first plants at a discount from Ingram's nursery.

Former science teacher Jim Farney took over the garden when Bales left the school. Farney divided the garden into two plots with wooden planks, Smith said. One side served as an identification plot, where plantings were separated and labeled. The other side was natural, like prairie.

Lane and Smith volunteered to take over the garden in 1999, when science teacher Jim Farney passed away. The planks have since been removed and the prairie has grown and evolved, Smith said. Lane and Smith work hard to maintain the natural appearance of the garden, without allowing it to become overgrown. Smith said native plants will quickly get out of hand without careful control.

Four or five years ago, a pair of kestrels nested in the garden, under an air conditioner on the third floor, Smith said. They were there for two years, she said, and their young dropped into the garden and explored. She said that experience provided one of many teachable moments for students at the school. Some students worried that there was no water source in the garden for the fledglings – they were able to learn that the parents would provide all that the young ones needed, Smith said.

"Butterflies, bees, crickets, grasshoppers – it's just amazing what finds its way into the courtyard. The insects pollinate the flowers and they thrive," Smith said. "It's a discovery opportunity for the kids. And I know the teachers appreciate that there is this beauty there for them to enjoy."

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