gardening
BY RACHEL FOSTER
Green Tracks
Growing plants and
evolving young minds
PHOTO BY ROB SYDOR • DIGITALLATTE.COM
R
ed fl owering currant and Oregon grape were
blooming abundantly in the native garden when I
visited the Martin Luther King Jr. Education Cen-
ter (MLK) in April. Buds were bursting everywhere on
trees and shrubs. A number of burned tree snags, standing
tall throughout the garden, created a striking and moving,
feature among the springtime fl owers and greenness. This
display of native plants and snags, I learned, is named
Phoenix Rising. My guide Alan Butler, who directs the
center’s horticulture program, said the snags were sal-
vaged from burn sites and erected here “to symbolize that
Nature can recover from devastating events and so can the
human soul.”
The Lane County Department of Youth Services
(DYS) campus houses a juvenile detention center, a drug
treatment program and MLK, a vocational school serving
secondary students who currently have an active case with
DYS. The mission is to provide students with opportunities
to develop skills needed to succeed in school, work and
the community. The school offers three vocational tracks:
horticulture, technology (computer stuff) and culinary arts.
On May 22, the horticulture program and its gardens will
be the focus of the third annual Native Plant Garden Tour
sponsored by the Emerald Chapter of the Native Plant
Society of Oregon. The event is titled “Green Tracks:
Community Service in the World of Native Plants.”
Butler has worked with DYS for 12 years and took over
the horticulture program two years ago. He explained that
students attend school while learning vital job skills through
the vocational programs. Students in the horticulture
program work in the farm and native garden or join an
off-site crew doing trail work, campground maintenance
or habitat restoration with the Forest Service, the BLM or
the city of Eugene Parks and Open Space. Students also
engage with the community at the Lane County Farmers
Market, where they have a farm stand part of the year.
The goal at MLK is to increase reading and math skills
while reducing the recidivism rate — the fraction of youth
who go on to commit further crimes. MLK Vocation
Specialist Piper Barry informed me by email that overall
reading and math scores of students enrolled in the MLK
Education Center have increased by two grade levels and
recidivism has shown a 74 percent reduction.
“Many kids who have repeatedly fl unked out of other
schools have been successful here,” Butler said. I asked
Alan Butler and crew work with seedlings
how he thinks the school achieves that. “We engage the
kids with the community. And we give a lot of positive
reinforcement,” he replied. “For some of these kids it’s
the fi rst time they’ve accomplished something tangible,
something they can actually see at the end of the day.”
“Eight years ago all this was just irrigated weeds,”
Butler said, indicating with a sweep of his hand the acre
and a half occupied by Phoenix Rising. Beyond that is the
one-acre farm. “Detention was using less than 5 percent of
this land when we started. We buried the lawn bit by bit and
started planting. There are now 35 species of plants in the
native garden.” The programs try to be as sustainable as
possible. The native garden, for instance, gets no fertilizer
or water; kitchen material, sod and so on are composted
on site. Crop rotation is practiced on the farm, and cast off
tires keep tomato plants warm.
Thanks to an on-site greenhouse, the horticulture
program grows its own starts for the farm and will raise
peppers under cover this summer. Butler showed me a
bee hedge newly planted along the farm’s long perimeter
fence that will beautify the area while it attracts benefi cial
insects. There are fl ower beds within the farm area too, and
giant sunfl owers will be added to this year’s corn circle.
Fall leaves cover the garden beds when crops are done. An
innovation this year, a deep bed of leaves along the inside
of the fence is gradually fi lling up with potato starts.
At the free event on May 22, visitors may tour the
gardens and purchase food prepared by MLK’s Culinary
Arts Program. There will be live music and a sale of native
plants propagated and grown at MLK. Knowledgeable
members and friends of NPSO’s Native Garden Awareness
Program will be on hand to answer questions about bees,
birds and the benefi ts of gardening with native plants. All
proceeds benefi t the vocational programs at the Department
of Youth Services.
ew
‘Green Tracks: Community Service in the
World of Native Plants’ features the MLK
gardens from noon to 5 pm Sunday, May 22,
at John Serbu Youth Campus, 2700 MLK
Blvd. (directly across from Autzen Stadium —
follow signs to MLK). For more information, email
ngap@emeraldnpsoregon.org
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EUGENE WEEKLY MAY 12, 2011 33