- State College Area School District
- State College Area School District
Houserville Pollinator Garden Program
At Houserville Elementary School, they literally plant the seeds of knowledge.
For the third year, students are carrying out the school’s annual Pollinator Planting Project, which helps propagate native plants. In February, for the winter portion of the project, third and fourth grade students planted seeds in hand-made greenhouses fashioned from milk jugs. Fifth-graders involved in the project for the past two years served as “pollinator ambassadors,” assisting their younger classmates with the plantings.
Over the next few weeks, the students will tend to their seedlings before transplanting them in the spring.
“As native plants, these seeds need to experience the natural ‘wintering over’ process of being wet and frozen in order for the seeds to properly germinate and hopefully grow into plants that can be planted within our community,” teacher Linda Andrews said “These native pollinator friendly plants provide an important part of the ecosystems that sustain and support our native pollinator animals.”
While national parks and forests “encourage varied and healthy ecosystems within our country,” Andrews said, they’re not enough.
“By creating community-based habitats for native pollinators by planting seeds, nurturing the plants and providing much needed ‘wintering over’ environments for pollinator animals, we are providing small habitats that are greatly needed by these animals,” Andrews said. “Most native insects spend the winter in a garden protected by the dead leaves and branches within our pollinator garden landscapes.”
As in the past, the Centre County Master Gardeners program organized the project, with master gardener Pam Ford acting as the school’s coordinator and advocate. This year, however, the plants won’t beautify Houserville. Because of impending construction to build a new school, students decided to donate their plants to Renovo Elementary School in a “pay it forward” gesture to help the school start its own pollinator garden.
“Our students aren’t doing all this work for themselves,” Andrews said. “They are doing it so that others can learn, experience and hopefully continue the tradition of giving back to the environment through the creation of such gardens.”
By Chris Rosenblum