RJDS gets the gardening bug

MICHELLE DODEK

Malki Moshkovitz, the school counselor at Richmond Jewish Day School (RJDS), sat in her office surrounded by art supplies and interesting creations. An accredited art therapist, she often uses art in this room to help children work through difficulties. However, it is a small, overgrown garden plot just outside her window that was the key to turning a little boy around five years ago that she finds herself thinking about these days. This plot was established by former teacher Daniella Marks eight years ago but became neglected when Marks made aliyah in 2005.

“I had this young boy here with behavioral issues and I couldn’t connect with him,” remembered Moshkovitz. “Then I thought about this small garden ... it was an amazing experience to see how he connected with the garden.”

The plants this boy began to lovingly tend needed to be watered by hand with buckets carried from inside the school, more than 100 metres away. Moshkovitz recalled, “The physical [aspect] was very good for him.” The boy’s behavior at school began to really turn around.

This experience gave Moshkovitz the gardening bug. Then, a few years later, Mary Cohene, a Van Dusen Botanical Garden master gardener and friend of RJDS, came to speak to Moshkovitz about expanding the garden. “She wanted to give back to the school through the garden but her plans required too much work and there was not enough money at the time,” Moshkovitz said. With seed money from the RDJS golf tournament, a pilot project began in the spring of 2011 with Grade 1 children.

Sophie Tate and Lily Cohen were in Grade 1 last year. They loved the project. “I liked planting the plants and I didn’t care about getting super duper dirty,” said Sophie. The girls recalled carrying buckets to water their plants and standing guard over their plants at recesses to make sure no one from other grades disturbed them. This year, they are looking forward to another growing season, culminating as it did last year, in a herb sale.

Luckily for Sophie and Lily, there will be a garden plot for Grade 2 children this year, as well. The stars aligned when Ralph Blasbalg, a grandfather of students at RJDS, took an interest in the garden. Once Blasbalg stepped in, Moshkovitz explained, things really began to take off. Working with Cohene as the garden expert, Blasbalg offered to take care of the financial side.

This left Moshkovitz to coordinate the gardening schedule and to secure the buy-in from the teachers, ensuring that the project would flourish.

“Everything became so easy suddenly! The teachers were all excited,” said Moshkovitz. “I contacted the Kehila [Society] of Richmond to find seniors to volunteer with the kids and to make sure the garden was tended over the summer. The Kehila was happy to partner with us.”

Cohene gave the school a manual produced by Van Dusen garden called Turning the Earth: A Month-by-Month Guide to Your School Garden, which is full of activities for teachers. A garden can have applications for many Jewish holidays, for example, and Moshkovitz said she believes that the number of ways a garden can connect with curriculum is unlimited.

Currently, Grade 5 students are in charge of the school-wide composting program, in which one student each day is responsible for collecting food waste from a dedicated bin in each classroom and depositing it in the composter. This composter is located beside the site of the new, enlarged garden area. Although the boxes for the various grades are not yet in place, the ground has been tilled.

“Mary and Ralph got big machines to prepare the soil and soon they will be bringing new soil, building the boxes and getting the hose connected,” explained Moshkovitz. The plan is to have boxes ready to begin planting this month. Each class will paint their box and make their own sign.

A number of mason bee boxes have already been painted as part of Moshkovitz’s art therapy program. Mason bees are pollinators indigenous to British Columbia (unlike honey bees) that do not have stingers, so there is no chance that they can harm any of the students. They like to live in small houses with tubes inside, where they lay their eggs and then seal the tubes with a secretion until the eggs hatch, hence their name. Blasbalg is arranging to acquire live mason bees once the houses are set up and the weather is a bit warmer.

“This garden is a magnet for kids and the Kehila,” Moshkovitz noted. “There are so many opportunities for personal and social development: teamwork, collaboration, turn-taking, along with all of the connections to the curriculum. It’s a great vehicle.”

Moshkovitz can see so many benefits as a counselor, but the children have a different take. Lily said, “I feel happy and excited because I can’t wait for the plants to come out.”

Michelle Dodek is a Vancouver freelance writer.

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