Mountain Meadows shows off school garden

Mountain Meadows Elementary School will host a Community Garden Party/Work Day from 8 a.m. to noon Sat., Oct. 27 at the campus, 4200 Mountain Meadow Drive, Moorpark. The public is invited.

During California School Garden Week, Oct. 20 through 26, schools throughout the state will participate in special garden activities to celebrate the success of school gardens and raise awareness for programs like the California School Garden Network.

The Mountain Meadows garden has been used as an outdoor classroom with hands-on learning to enhance math, science, reading, writing and social studies since 2005.

The students are harvesting giant 8-foot sunflowers for seeds, tomatoes, sweet peppers, squash, cucumbers, watermelons and marigolds. They are composting the old plants and getting the garden ready to plant winter vegetables.

In October the California Department of Education delivered more than $10 million to California schools for gardens through the Instructional School Garden Program.