The 2007 San Francisco Flower and Garden Show
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The 2007 San Francisco Flower and Garden Show included something slightly unusual tucked away in the Sproutopia section for children: a beautiful exhibit featuring the collaboration of seventeen public schools who have or are in the process of creating a school garden program on their campus.

Jean Moshofsky Butler, school garden educator for Lakeshore Elementary School, brought in the renowned garden designer and artist Keeyla Meadows to help design the container garden, with activities for visiting children put together by school garden educators Heidi Jenkins of Rooftop Elementary School and Martha Luna of Lakeshore. Everything featured in the exhibit was decorated by the schoolchildren of the various schools, from banners with tree of life designs to small brightly painted pots to massive mosiac urns. There were a few scarecrows thrown in--miniature to human sized. Nearly all of the plant material was generously loaned to the schools by San Francisco's own Golden Gate Park Nursery. Artwork from Keeyla Meadows was also included.

Activities included a leaf and flower hunt, rock examinations, roly polies to look at with magnifiers, making leaf and flower prints, looking at magnified plant material using a computer microscope, and drawing garden art in front of the exhibit.

The exhibit was successful from the standpoint of adults, who frequently came by to photograph the garden, and the children, who enjoyed all the activities.

The elementary schools included Dianne Feinstein Elementary School, Tule Elk Child Development Center, Lakeshore Elementary School, Rooftop Elementary School, Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, Sloat Elementary School, John Muir Elementary School, Fairmount Elementary School, Jefferson Elementary School, Sherman Elementary School, Alice Fong Yu Elementary School, Sunset Elementary School, Miraloma Elementary School, Alamo Elementary School, Argonne Elementary School, Claire Lilienthal Elementary School, and Willie Brown Academy.

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