This tidy 22-foot dome is known as Jessica's Garden to honor her vision to have a place for students, from kindergarten to middle school, to learn about everything from plant cell biology and genetics to how crisp and sweet a freshly picked spinach leaf can taste. With the unflagging support of the P.T.O., teachers, students, boy scouts, and Evergreen families, it happened.
After the shell was constructed, the interior design of the greenhouse was a special project of the middle school Greenhouse Club Class involving paper models, various lay-outs, and materials options. The thoughtful winning design features indented bays so the 1st graders can reach further into the beds and wide corridors to accommodate Ethan's wheelchair. Cody earned his Eagle Scout Rank by organizing and finishing the interior construction including handicap access. Perimeter beds were built using composite decking, filled 2/3rds with local dirt, and topped off with donated compost. During interior construction, sunflower and morning glory seeds were planted just to see what would happen. The morning glories wrapped themselves around the sunflower stems, bloomed continuously, and both eventually grew to over 8 feet. An interior pentagon-shaped bed received the deluxe donation of rich composted-manure soil where, right now, a bumper crop of spinach, kale, and lettuce are growing. On this late spring day, in various stages from just-planted to eating-ready, are tomatoes, spinach, kale, lettuce, radishes, Johnny jump-ups, cabbage, carrots, pumpkin (that will be interesting), green beans, nasturtiums, foxglove, peppers, beets, sage, basil, and a hop vine that could easily climb 20 feet across the ceiling. Mr. Reynolds' 5th grade class came in to observe and record the progress of new seedlings. Then Mr. Bryant guided a group of 1st graders as they got up close and personal with roly-poly bugs and freshly picked spinach. Tony Bryant, the middle school science teacher, also, created a greenhouse status record form and tracks vital signs including temperatures for the inside and outside air, water and soil. Through its first long Colorado winter the dome has needed no supplemental heat.
New projects include an innovative plan to include the greenhouse harvest into the school's lunch program. Tasty.
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