Digging lessons

Seven Springs Elementary students show enthusiasm for dirty work when they plant flowers to attract butterflies.

By MICHELE MILLER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 6, 2002

[Times photo: Brendan Fitterer] Katherine Jacobs, 7, left and Hailey Lopez, 8, plant milkweed, which they hope will feed monarch caterpillars. Teachers say the students learn science as well as good citizenship.

NEW PORT RICHEY -- The weather was looking a little precarious last week. But during an overcast Friday sandwiched between low temperatures and weekend rain, the kids from Seven Springs Elementary School managed to get their planting done.

"I was getting a little worried," said Jeannette Luman, who was overseeing the schoolwide planting project. "But it looks like we're going to be okay."

Some 500 plants for a butterfly garden were delivered to the school last week. It's the second part of a school beautification grant from the Southwest Florida Water Management District. In two years, the work has turned a grassy courtyard area into a not so very secret garden of sorts.

"This used to be the ugliest piece of grass you've ever seen," Luman said. "All we used to do was yell at the kids to stay off it."

Now stone pathways, paid for by Seven Springs families, trail through the courtyard, which is lined with a variety of perennial and annual plants. Nearby are a small fish pond and a wooden bench that have been used countless times for counseling sessions, Luman said.

"This is where the action is," said Luman pointing to a long row of milkweed plants that monarch caterpillars feed on. "Everyone goes down this pathway at least once a day."

And with the help of some very busy hands, the garden continues to grow.

When the butterflies are out, Luman said, "sometimes there are so many you practically have to bat them off."

"It's a good citizenship project as well as science," she said. "The children learn to respect their school, to take responsibility for it."

And while flowers thrive there, so do some of the children.

[Times photo: Brendan Fitterer] Chelsea Whah, 9, left, and Helen Liu, 6, plant flowers in the Seven Springs Elementary School butterfly garden last week. The New Port Richey school has replaced a grassy courtyard with the garden.

"You'd be surprised," Luman said. "But some of the kids who don't like to be in school, well, they're my best workers."

For a few minutes Friday, second-graders and best friends Michael Tancreti and Avi Hershkowitz were allowed to take a break from their lessons, pick up a shovel and get their hands dirty. Their job was to plant some daisies while Katherine Jacobs and Hailey Lopez prepared to put more milkweed in the ground.

"This is fun, with all the butterflies and stuff," Michael said.

"I think it's wonderful," said their teacher, Hilda Martin, who took the job of supervising some eager planters. "I think this gives the kids a sense of citizenship; it keeps them connected in realizing that they are a part of their school and their environment."

Michelle Marcantoni, a mother and volunteer, said she really enjoyed the time spent helping youngsters plant.

"I think it's terrific," she said. "I think the kids really learn from it. They learn how to nurture and how to teach each other -- to work together." "It's wonderful," said Renne Montgomery, a former landscape architect who also came out to volunteer at her children's school for the day. "I think it's great. It's just wonderful to have this creative outlet."

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