4-J Falcons rally to build greenhouses, fencing with dads

Shovels, drills, tamping bars, screws and a hearty number of young and weathered hands all came together Thursday afternoon, as dads, students and teachers worked together building greenhouse toppers and fencing for 4-J Elementary School's raised garden beds.

Working outside on the sunny afternoon, students tilled up the packed dirt in the beds, as a skid steer made its way around a measured perimeter, digging holes for fence posts as it went. The goal was simple – build a barrier to stave off wildlife and expand the garden beds into miniature greenhouses, adding hoops and a plastic covering to seal everything in.

Chelsey Eckhardt, 4-J’s third- and fourth-grade teacher, said the “Do-Dads Day” began last year, with the building of the outdoor garden beds. In the past, the school has had events for mothers and Eckhardt said she and other teachers wanted to offer the same opportunity to dads.

The garden beds also expanded the agricultural learning students were completing in the classroom and gave them an opportunity to dive into the reality of plant life outdoors. The latest expansion, funded by a grant through the Sam R. Ratcliffe Charitable Foundation, supplied the materials for the greenhouse toppers, composting bins and even indoor hydroponics kits, all for the sake of education.

Eckhardt and Matricia Vigil, 4-J’s first- and second-grade teacher, said the students have grown everything from cherry tomatoes to lettuce and strawberries, since the project’s humble beginning. And the first test in the new hoop houses will be hardier root vegetables like potatoes and onions, which require less care throughout the summer months.

On Wednesday, students measured the distance between hoops in their garden beds, noting that it was an important job “so the deer don’t jump in.” The hoops and accompanying plastic would also allow students an earlier start to the planting season, come next spring, given the additional warmth and shelter of the greenhouse effect.

Although a fair number of students shared they were already well-vetted in the fence-building arena, they followed their patriarch’s leads. For their part, the dads showed students how to properly hold a drill or tamp down the dirt around a freshly inserted fence post.

At times, they rounded the beds and had students re-work hoops that were off-center or diagonal rather than straight. They did so always with a smile or laugh, repeating instructions when necessary and never taking away from the students’ time to learn.

By late afternoon, the fruits of everyone’s labor sat before them.

Fencing stood straight up around all of the garden beds, compost bins were safely in place within the secured plot and the greenhouse toppers covered the garden beds, complete with handles and hinges to easily swing them open when necessary.

It was all evidence of a hard day’s work and the epicenter of many planting sessions yet to come.