Well-Grounded A horticulture program grows as part of Elizabeth Garvey’s mission to help the visually impaired By Shawndra Miller Student-planted gardens dot the leafy sanctuary that’s home to the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ISBVI). Every day throughout the school year, its students — from elementary-age through high schoolers — are introduced into a world of green and growing things. Elizabeth Garvey started the horticulture program 25 years ago. Now the 63-acre campus on Indianapolis’ northside boasts mature crabapple and locust trees that she and her students planted as saplings. A well- established greenhouse, added in 1997, forms the beating heart of the program. Against its front wall, potted vegetables and a lavish bed of swamp milkweed soak up sunshine. Houseplants and herbs âourish in the shelter of a box elder out back. Read more →" /> Read more →" /> Read more →" /> (http://www.farm-indiana.com)
Transcript
Well-Grounded
A horticulture program grows as part of
Elizabeth Garvey’s mission to help the
visually impaired
By Shawndra Miller
Student-planted gardens dot the leafysanctuary that’s home to the Indiana Schoolfor the Blind and Visually Impaired (ISBVI).Every day throughout the school year, itsstudents — from elementary-age through highschoolers — are introduced into a world ofgreen and growing things.
Elizabeth Garvey started the horticultureprogram 25 years ago. Now the 63-acrecampus on Indianapolis’ northside boastsmature crabapple and locust trees that sheand her students planted as saplings. A well-established greenhouse, added in 1997, formsthe beating heart of the program. Against itsfront wall, potted vegetables and a lavish bedof swamp milkweed soak up sunshine.Houseplants and herbs ourish in the shelterof a box elder out back.
Elsewhere, numerous instructional plotsaugment the grounds, inviting curious handsto touch and noses to sniff. There’s a “tiregarden” featuring herbs in tires that werecleaned and painted by the youngest pupils. AShakespeare garden surrounds a bust of thebard with plants appearing in his plays andsonnets. The “alphabet garden” gives avegetative A to Z in a row of upcycled chimney
ue liners. And as of this year, runoff from thebus pad lters through a rain garden plantedwith help from Butler University students.
Garvey and her students tend all of them,keeping the grounds beautiful and enrichingcampus life in the process.
“Our overall philosophy is that we need to getthese kids as much exposure to what theycan’t see as possible,” she says. Her mission isto share her love of the plant kingdom withchildren who might otherwise never encounterit. Like most technology-obsessed youngpeople today, ISBVI students spend themajority of their time indoors. With the addedhurdle of low vision or blindness, many needan extra nudge to go outside and get active.
Under Garvey’s tutelage, some 500 students’worlds have expanded over the past quarter-century. Many start out feeling trepidation oroutright fear in the garden.
The rst time 18-year-old Tyrone Thompsontouched a plant in the horticulture class, hewasn’t sure how to react. The Gary nativedidn’t have much history with gardening, andlittle incentive to start, at least until he cameto ISBVI.
Of that rst brush with unnamed ora, heremembers, “I didn’t know what it was, and Ithought it was going to bite me or something.But I touched it, and I actually felt kind of apulse, because plants are alive; they just takea really, really long time moving.”
That was about six years ago. Now a graduate,he knows more about plant propagation andlandscape management than most youths with
20/20 vision. But his main love is a red cartdubbed the Horticultural Hauler. Thompson,who considers himself the “greenhousemechanic,” found a niche taking care of thisand other carts used to transport plants, toolsand pots from Garvey’s classroom to thegreenhouse and other gardens.
“He loves anything with wheels,” Garvey says.“Old wagons, anything that needs to be movedfrom Point A to Point B, he’s your man.” Notonly did he put new tires on the Hauler, headded a cup holder in front and a hitch inback. When the maintenance man put ameson the sides, the transformation was complete.
Though Thompson couldn’t purchase the cartas he requested upon graduation (because it’sstate property), he has rst dibs when it nallybreaks down for good and needs to be tossedout. Fittingly, he wants to eventuallyrepurpose it as a planter.
Classmate Tori Carmichael, 18, has a physicalimpairment affecting her right arm, but shedoesn’t let that slow her down. For a while,the sophomore was the only girl in class. “Theguys were asking me if I needed any help,” shesays, “and I was like, ‘No, I’m good.’ I managewith just one hand.”
In one short year in the program, she’s becomeadept at weeding, pushing a wheelbarrow,transplanting, potting and shoveling. Thewhole rest of her school day, she says, she’s“just sitting.”
“I want to be active and move around and dosomething.”
At her old school, she wasn’t even in classwith her peers but was expected to work insolitude in an of ce. “I wasn’t really part of theclass, and it made me feel uncomfortable,” shesays. “So coming from that experience to here,it’s been a true blessing that I get to do someof the stuff that other people can do, and I getto be involved.”
Another blessing: The very act of gardening,she says, “releases stress for me.”
Graduate Leon Walker, 20, plans a careerinvolving animal care, yet he’s alreadythinking about what plants he should have inhis yard once he’s living on his own. “When Iget a house,” he says, “I’m going to gure outto plant some stuff, but it’s going to beawkward because I’m going to have dogs. Idon’t know what I’m going to plant.” He ticksoff the varied sun and moisture requirementsof different plants, considering.
Would he have thought about landscaping afuture home prior to his involvement inGarvey’s landscape management classes? Heisn’t sure, but one thing is clear: The workhabits he’s gained from the program will servehim well. Working as a team, followinginstructions and showing up regardless ofinclement weather, these skills transfer to anyjob.
Thompson, Carmichael and Walker all havelow vision, but Garvey works with kids with alllevels of visual impairment, includingblindness. She teaches landscapemanagement to upperclassmen and basicgardening to the elementary-age children.Class sizes are capped at eight students toallow her to give targeted attention to hercharges.
“It’s very student-speci c in how we approachwhat they learn and what they need to get outof the class,” she says. Depending on howmuch vision they have, she imparts skills byguiding the students’ hands, modeling thecorrect movements.
“Some kids have really good tactile skills andcan ll pots or wash pots,” she says, “but a lotof kids don’t, so that connection between thebrain and ngers is not there.”
Garvey makes sure to capitalize on each child’sstrengths and interests. She sets her studentsto work in teams, where each one has a rolethat ts his abilities.
To draw the children in, she favors plants thatengage a sense other than vision. Interestingtextures, avors and fragrances abound. Fortheir rubbery texture, succulents are a winner,and fuzzy-leaved plants have great appeal.
In hopes of anchoring children’s schoolmemories through their sense of smell, sheintroduces them to about 20 varieties ofaromatic herbs. Other “scratch and sniff”plants include Giant Iboza, TrailingPlectranthus and Cuban oregano. And one ofthe best-loved plants is an easy-to-growhouseplant called grandfather’s pipe, whichproduces a fragrant ower spike.
Finally, tasting the many varieties of fruits andvegetables grown on-site gives students agreater appreciation of the origins of theirfood, not to mention the sweetness of a ripehomegrown melon, raspberry or tomato. In thefall, the students will make salsa withtomatoes and peppers they’ve grown. Lastyear, their persimmon harvest went intocookies and ice cream using honey from ISBVIbeehives. (Introducing beekeeping and honeyproduction into the curriculum is another ofGarvey’s projects.)
Not only do the students experience the thrillof growing things, they also participate in theprogram’s fundraiser. Several times a year thegreenhouse opens to the public for a big plantsale. In spring, the biggest sale features herband vegetable starts, hanging baskets and
ats of annuals and perennials. Houseplantsare the main event at the fall sale. Proceedssupport the horticulture program, and theexperience gives students a chance to practicetheir social skills while expanding into the
nancial and publicity realms.
Noting that people come from all over Indianato patronize these sales, Garvey says it’srewarding to think of the students’ seedlingsand houseplants going to homes from one endof the state to the other. “We have wonderfulcustomers who come back year after year andlike to support our program because they
believe in it,” she says. “That makes me veryproud because these kids are not just sittingaround. They work very hard.”
Clearly, so does Garvey, whom Thompson calls“the best horticulture teacher.”
Indiana School for the Blind and VisuallyImpaired, 7725 N. CollegeAve., Indianapolis, (317) 253-1481.
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