Santa Rosa nonprofit helps kids find ‘special magic’ in school gardens

When you walk into the flourishing garden at Binkley Elementary School in Santa Rosa, you will likely be greeted by about 30 kids offering you a taste of their favorite edible plants.

You might try freshly picked fennel, red oak leaf lettuce, mint or Borage Herb, which has edible purple flowers reminiscent of cucumbers.

You will not see carrots or strawberries, however. Those are hot commodities in the school garden and have probably already been devoured.

The crops were tended to by kids in the school’s Seedlings Garden Group, a newly formed nonprofit created by Sara Herrera, a parent who wished to continue a project started by her dad.

How the seedlings grew

About eight years ago, Herrera’s father, Paul Martinez, owner of PDM Landscape and Sonoma Valley Wholesale Nursery, participated in the school’s annual campus beautification day and decided to revitalize the once-neglected Binkley school garden so his grandchildren and their friends could enjoy it.

But he needed people to water it weekly. Thus, the weekly after-school club began with the help of a teacher, Tasha Lopez.

Herrera got involved and ultimately took on the project herself, bringing in other parents to volunteer and encouraging kids to get their hands in the soil.

But they did not have enough funds to keep the garden going and growing.

Herrera, a certified public accountant, thought: “I know how to open a nonprofit. I'll just open my own nonprofit for other schools, too.”

Now the nonprofit has several popular after-school garden clubs at Binkley, Whited Elementary and Austin Creek Elementary. The organizers, which include other parents who volunteer their time, have built gardens for Manzanita Elementary, Village Elementary and Spring Lake Middle, and they support gardens at Sequoia and Madrone elementary schools. The nonprofit’s organizers are looking to help other schools get their own garden groups started, too.

They raise money through weekly plant stand sales and one big annual plant sale, usually in April.

“It’s been a really wonderful, full circle experience,” Herrera said.

She added that the kids get to learn where their food comes from, care for the ecosystem and create a social and emotional connection with the plants they grow.

And they absolutely love it.

Not-so-secret garden

On May 24, about 30 cheery kids got to work in the garden after school got out. They picked celery and tomatoes, watered beds of lettuce and put down cardboard and mulch in the walkways to manage weeds.

The kids usually start out with some structure, said Arianna White, the Seedlings’ board president. Volunteer parents arrange the children into small groups and give them tasks, such as watering the plant beds, weeding, seeding and harvesting.

About 20 minutes in, after most tasks have been completed, the kids usually disperse to play or do other activities, like paint rocks, make fairy gardens, play with critters and create colorful flower bouquets for their parents.

The mentality is “let the kids be kids.”

On that particular day, a group of girls finger painting ceramic pots covered their hands in green paint. The girls roamed the garden aisles with their arms extended, groaning, “brains, brains, brains.”

Another group worked together to concoct a delicious strawberry chocolate mud pie.

Some gave their friend a hairstyle full of small garden-picked flowers.

Alejandro Ocampo, 9, a third grader, said this was his first year in seedlings.

“I like how I’m in nature and I’m not behind the screen,” he said. He said during the pandemic he spent a lot of time at home with just his parents.

“I like all the plants around me,” he said. “It feels nice.”

He also enjoys picking carrots and eating them, catching and releasing butterflies, and planting beans.

“All the group leaders are very nice,” Ocampo added.

Gabriella Schmitz, 10, has been involved in the group for five years, since she started at Binkley. Her favorite activity is watching a seed grow over time.

“I just really love helping out and especially (because) it’s at my school,” she said.

Olin Mendoza, 9, a third grader in his first year in seedlings, said he’s planning on joining the group again next year. He enjoys weeding and watering the most.

“Weeding is like just pulling stuff up so other plants have water so the weeds don’t just soak it all up,” he said. “Watering is like giving plants a shower. Time for a shower!”

He said his favorite vegetable is the carrots but they get “picked clean,” he said. “If they’re fresh, they’re really sweet, unlike the ones you buy at the store.”

One time they ate peas that weren’t ready yet, and they “tasted horrific,” he said.

“I really like it here and I love just getting to be outside with my friends,” he added.

Elliana “Ellie” Dossat, 9, said she also joined the gardening group this year, encouraged by her volunteer mom.

“I like to plant flowers and vegetables,” she said. “Especially peas, and carrots ― because then I can eat them.”

Her favorite memory was when they had a water day, complete with water balloons and buckets for soaking each other.

“Garden club is really fun and it's a good way to get to know people in your community,” she said. “Now I know everyone's name in garden club, so when I see them around school I can talk to them.”

“The garden has a special magic because everyone works on it,” Dossat said.

When you’re leaving the garden the seedling kids will send you off ― if you’re lucky ― with a bouquet springing with garden-grown snapdragons, and yellow and pink poppies.

You can reach Staff Writer Alana Minkler at 707-526-8531 or alana.minkler@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @alana_minkler.