A:shiwi Elementary
Experts on Gardening
Ms. Holmes' Class
Our school
Our school literally blew up in January so we have had to relocate our classroom several times while the reconstruction was going on. We are 400+ elementary students in a high desert school in western New Mexico. Over 90% of the school are Zuni natives. The average rain fall is 9-12 inches per year. Our class is made up of 20 students of whom two-thirds speak Zuni. Our class harvested crops from last summer's garden and we are now planning this year's garden.
Our area of expertise is waffle gardens
We choose waffle gardens as our area of expertise because we want to learn more about them and we have waffle garden experts in our community. Waffle gardens are a way of planting crops that conserve water and make efficient use of space in a village setting. Tradiitonal Zuni waffle gardens were terraced (like waffles), often on the banks of the Zuni river. Drought resistant varieties of corn, squash, beans, melons, cilantro, and chili were grown in the gardens as well as other crops. Woman and children would carry water to the gardens in earthen pots. Here is a picture of us working in the waffle garden.
What we have learned so far
We read about traditional agriculture. We compared Zuni waffle gardens to other native people's agricultural techniques. We experimented with how to control erosion by building check-dams.
What we want to learn
Plan with the director of Zuni conservation, the Americorps workers and the Save the Children Foundation to plan this year's garden. We hope the grant we wrote will allow us to hire fourth and fifth grade students this summer to work in the garden.
Questions you can ask us
- What did we learn about traditional native peoples agriculture?
- What is a waffle garden?
- Why was the waffle garden used in Zuni?
- How can elementary students write a grant for a gardening project?
Send your questions to Jennifer Holmes.