ELEMENTARY Corner
“A garden requires
patient labor and at-
tention. Plants do not
grow merely to satisfy
ambitions or to fulfill
good intentions. They
thrive because someone
expended effort on
them.”
— Liberty Hyde Bailey
“…And
So It
Grows ”
By Kari King,
Elementary Principal,
Daystar Academy
Sanlitun campus
W
hen I walked onto the Daystar Sanlitun campus
for the first time almost a year ago I was struck
not by the white walls and empty garden beds
but instead by the possibility. I saw not only what our
garden could be but also what WE could and would be
with a little time and a lot of love.
I first approached Mr. James Thomason in August to ask
him to take on the garden as a project for the year
and it was clear that he wasn’t sure about the vision I
had for the garden. Nonetheles, Mr. Thomason agreed
to help out getting our garden growing.
An Ivy Education Group Publication
We started out slow and, at first, the garden wasn’t
much to see. It was contained in window sills and
cafeteria tables. With a small garden club, Mr. Thoma-
son began sowing the seeds that would become our
school garden. Much like our school, it was a slow start
with some bumps along the way and it required a ton
of work. Some of the plants died, things had to be re-
planted and regrown and just when it was looking up,
winter came. There were days where it didn’t seem
like our little garden would make it at all. But then
there were other days…. Days where students took
their personal time to keep our plants alive, days where
our staff spent their vacation caring for our garden and
little by little it started to bloom.