- March 27, 2025
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Ava Olivero, a kindergartner at Tara Elementary School, picks strawberries. Courtesy photo.
Nathalie Lopez Change, a kindergartner at Tara Elementary, harvests strawberries. Courtesy photo.
Michael Morena and Nathan Lopez Chang, kindergartners at Tara Elementary School, sit atop bags of soil the school was able to purchase using a $500 grant.
Daniel Rivas and Landon Flores, kindergartners at Tara Elementary School, take care of the cherry tomato plants. Courtesy photo.
Nathalie Lopez Chang and Kylie Mathis, kindergartners at Tara Elementary School, tend to the lettuce box.
Virginia Lanham and Aubrey Mann, kindergartners at Tara Elementary, take care of the herb garden. Courtesy photo.
Mila Martinez, a kindergartner at Tara Elementary School, spends time in the garden. The garden is an opportunity for students to learn how to plant fruits and vegetables and develop healthy eating habits. Courtesy photo.
Nathan Owen, a kindergartner at Tara Elementary School, loves seeing the banana tree produce bananas. Courtesy photo.
Abigail Garcia, a Tara Elementary School kindergartner, shows some of the bean and gourd plants in the garden.
Brody Winch, a kindergartner at Tara Elementary School, shows off the Bok Choy the students planted. Courtesy photo.
Tara Elementary School kindergartner Grayson Eaton measures the growth of his bean plan and documents it in his garden journal. Courtesy photo.
Landon Flores, a kindergartner at Tara Elementary School, is excited to receive his own garden gloves. A grant helped fund the purchase of gloves, soil, seeds and more. Courtesy photo.
Nathan Lopez Chang, a Tara Elementary School kindergartner, enjoys some of the strawberries that were harvested from the school garden. Courtesy photo.
Emily Weathers, a kindergartner at Tara Elementary School, tries herbs, lettuce, carrots and tomatoes grown in the school's garden.
Benjamin Coronado, a kindergartner at Tara Elementary School, checks the growth of his plant. Courtesy photo.
Nathan Owen, a kindergartner at Tara Elementary School, shows off his plant. Courtesy photo.
Tara Elementary School kindergartner Landon Flores shows his sprouting bean seed. Courtesy photo.
After the pandemic put the garden at Tara Elementary School on hold last year, Josephine Johnson, a kindergarten teacher, was excited to get the garden started again.
“This year we went above and beyond,” Johnson said. “It was a lot of work, but it was fun.”
Johnson as well as Barbie Lane, a pre-K teacher at Freedom Elementary School, received $500 grants from the Florida Agriculture in the Classroom’s School Garden Grant program to purchase tools, soil, seeds and more.
Tara Elementary has a kindergarten garden and an edible garden, and is in the process of creating a butterfly garden.
The kindergarten garden and edible garden have various fruits and vegetables including lettuce, tomatoes, herbs, cucumbers and strawberries.
The edible garden is a garden for all students to use, and Johnson hopes teachers will use the gardens to teach science labs and other lessons.
Johnson said the butterfly garden will include native Florida butterfly plants such as milkweed as well as a lemon tree and dill because those plants attract butterflies such as giant swallowtails and black swallowtails.
“I have one plant in the classroom, but I want the whole entire school to see it, and I want it to serve as a lab,” Johnson said.
Almost every day, Lane’s students are asking to go outside and check on the fruits and vegetables they planted after spring break.
They’ll spend time watering, measuring and learning about the plants.
“I personally love gardening and growing things,” Lane said. “I’m from up north, so I find it a little bit challenging to grow those same things here in Florida. It’s been a learning process, but I thought if I could share my love of gardening with the kids and introduce them to new fruits and vegetables and show them this is easy, this is something you could do at home, and it could be a fun family project.”
Lane and Johnson hope having the students eat what the gardens produce will help students develop healthy eating habits.
“The kids are more open and trying new vegetables,” Johnson said.
Lane will have her students do taste tests and decide which seeds they would like to grow so they can take it home.
“It’s nice to see when you put in all this time and effort, it does pay off and the kids are enjoying it,” Lane said.
With the three gardens at Tara Elementary, Johnson said the school will start a garden club next year.
“This whole place is going to be a Selby Gardens,” Johnson said.
