Chickens are clucking and students are digging once again at Pin Oak Middle School. The sights and sounds mark the return of campus gardening efforts led by a new student club. The club provides students an opportunity to learn how to grow fruits and vegetables, care for chickens and hang out with their friends. 

Four years ago, POMS had an urban agriculture class and a farm-to-market class taught by Angela Roth. When Roth left the school, the classes came to an end, causing the plants to start to wither soon after. 

Stepping in to revive the forgotten gardening program is Christal Wilcher, a teacher assistant who now sponsors the newly formed Gardening Club. In her teaching position, Wilcher teaches students with disabilities. Jean Villacis, the teacher assistant for the life skills class for self-contained special education, is also helping with the club.  

Wilcher loves every aspect of the club, “from the chickens to the actual gardening.” 

Gardening, although usually done for fun, is actually very beneficial to your health. According to an article, ‘Digging Into the Health Benefits of Gardening,’ on the UT Health Austin website, ‘Embracing the art of gardening brings forth a myriad of benefits for overall health and well-being.’

“Just in general, putting your hands in dirt can help with so many health things,” Wilcher said. “So, I wanted to bring it to the students.” 

 The Gardening Club is open to any student, even if they don’t have gardening experience. One of these students is sixth grade student Marvin Vasquez.

“I think someone would join to experience gardening for the first time,” said Vasquez. Yet, some students do have experience gardening, like seventh grade student Jordan Ohana.

“It’s really fun and you get to make new experiences with new friends,” Ohana said. 

The club maintains 20 plant beds around the school. Currently, the students are cleaning out these beds to prepare them for planting. Some areas include the flower beds in the A House and B House commons, the area behind the cafeteria, and the amphitheater. 

Students in the club have suggested many foods to grow, such as lettuce, grapes, carrots and strawberries. The club is going to try to grow all these foods. However, Wilcher is most excited to grow tomatoes.

“Currently, we have five different tomato plants,” Wilcher said. “There is a new way of doing some tomatoes with the panel that makes it into a really pretty archway in which the vines can grow.” 

Whether it is sunny outside and the club is gardening or it’s raining and they are inside, Wilcher hopes to teach students the basic aspects of gardening, such as growing common fruits and vegetables.

“I don’t think that many children these days know how to grow their own food and what you can create from that food,” Wilcher said.

Wilcher also hopes to get into more advanced parts of gardening, like hydroponic towers and taking care of animals.

Sixth grade student Eira Mendieta joined the Gardening Club to learn about animals. That curiosity turned into real experience at a recent meeting, when students learned how to safely handle chickens.
The Gardening Club is a club for gardeners and students who want to learn new skills. The club meets Wednesdays and Thursdays from 4:15 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. in the cafeteria near the POMS Chargers mural.