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| Photo by Sonya Templeton |
I recently spoke to Sonya Templeton, a Natural Resources
major at Oregon State University, about the work her Soil Science class is
doing in the community. According to Sonya, her soil Science class focuses on “how
soil development and land management affect soil quality and sustainability”.
Last week Sonya’s class went to Jefferson Elementary School in Corvallis,
Oregon where they helped the school build gardens for the children to plant
seeds. These beds can be used as teaching aids for the teachers to build
classes around and will also provide an opportunity for parent involvement.
The class used a raised bed method when building the garden
because the soil was “poor and compact”. In order to build the beds, they had
the City of Corvallis bring in leaves to use as a base compost and then used
fertile loam as the main soil topped with a layer of compost. Sonya said that they
“used [their] knowledge of what a healthy soil is "loam" which is an
even mix of sand, silt and clay and stores nutrients and water that is always
readily available to the plants.” After the class was finished building the
beds, they laid seed on top which the kindergarten class had previously sorted.
The opportunity for the students at Jefferson Elementary to
learn how to plant and take care of a garden will be beneficial to the future
of this community. The more time we spend teaching our children how to take
care of soil and grow healthy foods, the healthier our land and children can
become.
By: Amber Page
I do not understand the choice of location along the Circle side of the school property close to the street. Three shade trees that we planted by the neighborhood as part of a city street tree program were torn out to make the raised bed garden, whereas there are better spots to put a garden at the school. Circle Boulevard has been a busy street for many years, and the soil close to Circle likely contains lead and other contaminants. Exhaust from vehicles will contaminate the garden plants and produce. There are other spots more appropriate for the garden. The school should plant three trees along Circle to replace the ones that were destroyed.
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