Hawai'i School Gardens: Pa'auilo School

At the Hamakua Alive! festival held at Pa'auilo School this weekend, I saw many excellent ideas demonstrating sustainability in action, but most impressive was the school's garden itself. Above is one of the school's milk goats. (Would you believe it was love at first sight? Sigh.)

Here are the greenhouses and gardens...

...here's Donna Mitts, garden educator,
and the school's ever-expanding vermicomposting facilities ...

I couldn't help but admire the efforts of Donna Mitts. She's gearing up to do mid-scale vermicomposting using cafeteria waste, making this the first school on the island to take this bold step toward sustainability.

Hawai'i Island School Garden Network director Nancy Redfeather counts Pa'auilo among the school garden jewels dotting the island that are part of the Hawai'i Island School Garden Network.

"Donna's 10 year old program is certainly an example of the integration of various types of agricultural work into a small model that can be worked by the children," says Redfeather. "When a public/private partnership is formed, as I hope to see someday, communities around the island will be able to lend their voices to the decision."

To get the full story about this amazing outdoor learning lab -- "Wormville" and all -- read this insightful blog by Hawai'i Island investigative journalist Alan McNarie - click here.

O-bama, O-rganic, Oh!

Hurray! There’s now a kitchen garden on the White House lawn. But no beets – Barack doesn’t like them (uh-oh, remember what happened to Bush and broccoli…). Michelle Obama broke ground on a new organic garden at the White House, something that hasn’t been in existence since the days of Eleanor Roosevelt. See my earlier blog on the campaign for this symbolic support for food sovereignty and sustainability here.

And gosh, what a coincidence – Michelle and I wear almost exactly the same designer black knit pantsuit when gardening. Okay, okay, so I’ve actually been known to wear denim, but no, those aren’t my tats in the above photo taken at the Hamakua Alive! festival last year.

Governor Lingle, it’s your turn to jump on the bandwagon. I’d be glad to come by and give you a hand, as I am sure many school children would, too. The Hawaii Island School Gardens Network is up 50 participating schools now. You'll be hearing more about them on my blog this year.

For 10 easy to grow veggies for kids, click here.