Planting a new gateway

Lolita Harper

Some might consider it a dangerous combination: Mixing 107 5- and

6-year-olds with 30 pounds of dirt.

Students and teachers at Sonora Elementary School handled the

potentially messy task wonderfully Tuesday morning as they planted the

school’s first “kinder-garden.”

Replacing dried out weeds in a long-neglected planter at the entrance

to the school, six kindergarten classes -- with the help of parents and

teachers -- planted colorful alyssum, impatiens and lobelia cardinalis.

Destiny Miles, 5, leaned over the brick planter pondering the best

approach for digging the hole that would house her red-flowered plant.

She balanced her jacket between her knees, gripped her shovel with both

hands and plunged the tool into the soil. The colorful barrettes that

anchored a head full of braids flew into her face with each thrust.

“Whoo. My back hurts,” Destiny said in dramatic fashion while taking a

break.

When finished, she displayed a satisfactory toothless grin and went

for a glass of lemonade.

Kindergarten teacher Peggy Phan-Nguyen and Sue Bright, the school’s

office manager, were the driving forces behind the new garden. Each gave

more credit to the other, but both agreed something had to be done about

the previously desolate entry to the elementary school.

Sonora Elementary is a kindergarten through third-grade school in

north Costa Mesa. The school is being considered as a California

Distinguished School and was visited by judges Thursday. Results will be

announced later this month.

Phan-Nguyen said there was a slight rush to get the garden planted in

time for the visit but said that was not the primary reason behind the

garden. Planting fell right in line with the kindergartners’ spring

curriculum, which revolves around life cycles, she said.

Phan-Nguyen and Bright collaborated the last week of March -- just

before spring break -- and threw together the project.

They sent a letter home to parents on March 28, and by March 29 the

school received enough donations to proceed. Home Depot also helped by

donating about 30 plants, and Bright’s husband, Lloyd, offered to build a

white picket fence to guard the new garden.

Bright said she embraced the idea because the school’s exterior should

suit the great things happening inside the classrooms.

“Those planters were just so ugly,” Bright said. “They really didn’t

reflect what really goes on at this school.”

As pleased as the adults were to administer the project, the students

were arguably the most enthused. Jawad Akasheh came equipped with green

gardening gloves, a shovel and hand rake from home. He called them his

“special tools.”

“The kids were so excited,” Phan-Nguyen said. “They came back [from

vacation] yesterday and were asking me, ‘When are we going to start

planting?”’