Directory of Gardens

Rusk Elementary School Garden

 

Location East of downtown Houston
Main Purpose Education of the students at Rusk
Established 1996
To Visit or to Volunteer Contact Rusk - call Urban Harvest at 713-880-5540 for contact info

Rusk Elementary School is located on Garrow Street just east of downtown Houston. Urban Harvest has worked steadily with Rusk over the years to build an outdoor classroom learning environment. The partnership began in 1996 with the first vegetable garden planted next to one of the portable classrooms. The next phase will be to refurbish the vegetable garden in time for fall harvesting.

 

Urban Harvest has worked steadily with Rusk, constructing and shaping in the form of a butterfly a habitat filled with plants to attract monarchs and other butterfly species. Teachers at Rusk have plans to expand that concept into a small nature plot, to attract birds and other small earth creatures, where the students can study nature up close in an outdoor class setting.

 

Urban Harvest, using a grant from the Episcopal Diocese of Houston, was at Rusk in the spring of 2004 to assist with a planting of citrus trees. Urban Harvest taught the children that fruits and vegetables come from the ground, not just grocery shelves. But more importantly, the children were learning that there are rewards to the physical activity of planting trees, especially citrus trees.

 

Sixth graders at the school learned the basics of gardening, from digging correctly sized holes, to using newspapers for mulch and weed protection. A separate table was set up filled with juicy samples of the tangerine, grapefruit, Satsumas and mandarin oranges that will blossom on the trees in about three years time. The children first planted, and then sampled the fruit, learning nutrition and gardening simultaneously.

 

The earth at Rusk Elementary is rich and brown, where earthworms, mice and newts make their home, and it is earth that is fertile for growing food and beautiful plants. It is also a good place to nurture children and watch their faces, serious in concentration, smiling at their accomplishments, and to know that they planted more than trees that day, but seeds in the minds of children, that the earth and plants need special care and with that care will reward us, no matter how small the plot or where it can be found amid the concrete and glass buildings of a large urban cityscape.