This article originally appeared in the July/August 1998 Children's Advocate newsmagazine, published by Action Alliance for Children.

Good bugs, bad bugs

Organic gardening comes naturally at a Vallejo Unified School District farm

By Stephanie Kim

Digging their hands into the soil, finding wet worms and red gleaming ladybugs, kids at the Loma Vista Farm and Garden Center learn about organic gardening by doing. Loma Vista is one of hundreds of gardening programs for children that have been sprouting up all over the state. Rooted in Vallejo, 40 miles north of San Francisco, this farm and garden functions as an outdoor classroom for adjacent Loma Vista Elementary School and other nearby schools. Kids come here to wash and spin wool sheared from sheep on the farm, feed an array of farm animals, cultivate an eclectic garden, and cook dishes with the vegetables they grow.

Run by the Vallejo Unified School District, the center stands on a former military housing site. Since 1974, teachers and students have transformed these five acres into an agricultural enclave. "All the buildings were built by kids," says Thom Arcadi, Teacher-in-Charge of the center. Arcadi and two assistants instruct and guide about 100 students a day, year-round.

On this late spring day, Phoebe Holbrook's kindergarten class from Loma Vista is spending their weekly half-hour visit planting pumpkins in the garden. "Mother Nature sets the lesson plan," says Rita LeRoy of the center staff. Rainy weather, exploding weeds, or an insect attack can determine the day's activities.

These five- and six-year-old children learn to garden without toxic pesticides. Six-year-old Zaire explains integrated pest management: "Sometimes the bugs—aphids—eat the plants. We search for ladybugs and we throw them on the plants. They eat the aphids."

When a child brings a roly poly, ladybug, or worm to "Farmer Rita," as LeRoy is known, she shows the creature to the whole class and discusses the role it plays in the garden. Five-year-old Emily has already learned about worms. "Worms make the plants grow," she explains, "'cause they are wet and they make the ground so wet 'cause they be sliding all around." Meanwhile, someone shouts, "Another worm!" and the kids hurry to see.

Farmers Thom and Rita find fun organic ways to solve pesky problems. The Center has a "weed race," in which kids "pull weeds by hundreds of pounds a week...it's so fun!" says LeRoy. When aphids attack, the kids take paper cups to hills beyond the farm for a "ladybug roundup."

The center is not trying to teach kids how to be farmers. Rather, it is a hands-on environment that teachers can use to teach their curricula. "It's up to the teachers how they want to use the farm," says LeRoy. The farm allows kids to explore math and science problems and provides a subject for creative writing.

Kathie Stats' and Mary Piper's kindergarten class from Davidson Elementary School in nearby Richmond have come to the Center to cap a month-long science unit on farming and plants. On their visit, they feed hungry farm animals, cook "Farm Foo Young" with freshly picked Swiss chard and green onions, pot succulents in the greenhouse, and plant sunflowers in the garden. Amid sounds of roosters, goats, and pigs, LeRoy shows Stats' and Piper's class how to plant the sunflower stem. Stats adds, "We were only able to make one field trip this year, and this was it. We saved up for this one."

LeRoy and Arcadi make it sound easy to keep the Center organic. "We don't use any chemicals. The ducks and geese eat the slugs and snails, and the ladybugs eat the aphids," LeRoy explains. After twenty-five years, Arcadi says, "We're at an equilibrium with the things around us—even in the greenhouse. People sterilize greenhouses and that causes an imbalance. Well, ours is totally unsterile—it's such a kid place. It's sort of wild in a way, but I think it's really worked out fine."

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