St. George’s teacher cultivates values
Kim Hoover believes in growing her own vegetables organically and sustainably – important values that she instills in her students at St. George’s School each year.
Hoover, a biology and environmental science teacher at the North Spokane school, is in her 15th year of teaching. She has established a garden on the campus that serves as an outdoor classroom for her environmental science students.
The garden is one of many hands-on projects for her students. Over the years, they’ve made birdhouses and bat boxes with recycled lumber, raised and released trout into the Little Spokane River, planted thousands of native trees and have been involved in wetlands restoration.
After hearing about Grow Biointensive farming methods fostered by the nonprofit Ecology Action group, Hoover attended a workshop to learn more. Based in Willits, Calif., Bountiful Gardens – a project of Ecology Action – is a research farm that offers seeds, classes and publications to promote this technique. Their book, “How to Grow More Vegetables,” by John Jeavons (Ten Speed Press, 288 pages, $19.95) has become a valuable resource for Hoover.
Ecology Action reports on its Web site, www.bountifulgardens.org, that “Grow Biointensive is a sustainable solution to growing food.” This program involves growing crops in raised beds, double-digging the soil, composting and intensive planting to reduce weeds and the amount of water the plants need. They suggest planting 60 percent of the garden in grain and seed crops for their nutritional value and to provide carbon materials for building compost. This method also includes growing 30 percent of the garden in “calorie crops” such as potatoes, parsnips and garlic, which all provide a high amount of calories in a small amount of garden space. Hoover says it is her goal to have a garden that follows these principles, which she has been teaching in her classes.
The garden at St. George’s is about 30 feet square and has 12 unframed, raised beds. “In the spring, the students prepare the garden, repair the fences to keep the deer out and plant everything,” Hoover explains. “I maintain the garden during the summer. In the fall, the next year’s class harvests the garden and takes the produce to the food bank. We try to plant crops that will hold well, like winter squash, potatoes and carrots. Our record haul of winter squash so far has been 90 pounds.”
After the harvest, the students clean up the garden and add compost to the soil. But not just any compost, mind you. Her students handle all of the recycling on campus to create rich compost. “Everything from school is put into our five compost bins: kitchen scraps, leaves from the trees on campus, coffee grounds from the teachers’ lounge and food scraps from kids’ lunches. I believe healthy soil is the key to everything. If plants are weak, they’ll be eaten by insects,” Hoover says.
The school garden has very few insect problems, thanks in part to the abundance of birds in the area. The students put bird houses around the garden to attract birds and also set out praying mantis egg cases and ladybugs to help control pests.
When asked if she has any advice for other vegetable gardeners, Hoover says this: “Do your own watering. While I’m watering, I’m weeding the beds or squashing a bug I’ve found, and so on. If you pay daily attention to the garden, you nip everything in the bud and you’re in tune with everything.”