LITTLE SPROUTS; CHILDREN GROW, LEARN AND GET THEIR HANDS DIRTY AT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL GARDENS.

Byline: Carol Bidwell Staff Writer

Some people take a lifetime to figure out how to apply the lessons they learned in school to real life.

Not Auni Hovanesian. The 11-year-old Encino girl, who studied flower, herb and vegetable gardening at school this spring, can't wait to get her hands into the soil in her back yard at home.

``My mom and dad plant a garden in the summer, and we have tomatoes and squash and lettuce,'' Auni said on the last day of classes at Encino Elementary School. ``I'm going to have my own little plot and grow things. I want to grow a peach tree; I like peaches.''

She's proud that she had a hand in the success of the class garden.

``The best part is when you see the seeds start growing,'' Auni said. ``I feel proud that I was the one who grew something.''

In April, the class carefully planted tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers, artichokes, herbs and a variety of flowers in eight raised beds built on the school's asphalt playground by local U.S. Marine recruiters and parent volunteers. The kids helped dig up a narrow strip of asphalt along a fence to make a home for more plants. They planted - and, after a few of the younger kids pulled up the seedlings, they planted them all a second time.

It was hard work, sweating in the hot sun, lugging potting soil and mixing fertilizer. But that's what you do when you plant a garden.

``You have to pay a price to get the good stuff,'' Auni said matter-of-factly. ``It doesn't just come without you doing anything.''

Auni - whose attitude many adult gardeners might envy - is one of dozens, maybe hundreds, of Valley kids who are taking what they learned about growing things home for the summer.

By mid-August, they may forget the fine points of long division, but they'll remember that if you don't keep seeds moist, they won't sprout. They may not remember all their history lessons, but they'll know plants won't grow crowded by weeds or without sunshine. They may not recall who wrote which poem, but they'll know growing things need plenty of water and care in the Valley's harsh summer.

And those are just a smattering of the lessons the school garden has taught the kids, said Auni's teacher, Laverne Potter.

``They've learned a lot of science, but they've learned more social skills than anything else,'' Potter said, watching her fifth-graders study an interesting-looking bug on a tomato plant. ``They've learned sharing; they've learned self-control; they've learned self-esteem. When the little kids pulled up their plants, they talked about posting `garden police,' they'd developed such a pride of ownership.

``Another thing we've found is that the kids who excel in the classroom are totally lost in the garden. At first, they didn't know how to dig a hole. But the kids who maybe aren't so good in the classroom, who don't read or do math as well, compensate for it by being a whiz in the garden. So they can see everybody has something they're good at. It has nothing to do with who's the best at taking tests.''

Another benefit: All the kids can't wait to come back this summer, bringing bags of chips and salad dressing, to enjoy the salsa and salads they'll make from the garden's contents, once everything's ripe.

``It tastes better when you grow it,'' said Chas Domike, 11, Auni's classmate, who has his own strawberry patch at home. ``It's so much better picking strawberries and eating them five minutes later than the strawberries from the store. They just melt in your mouth.''

The kids are reacting just as the National Gardening Association hoped when it gave Potter's class $750 last fall to be spent toward seeds and gardening tools. Encino Elementary and seven other Valley schools were among 300 schools nationwide to get one of the 1998-99 grants.

``I think these grants are one of the best things we do,'' said Valerie Kelsey, vice president of education and programs for the nonprofit, 250,000-member gardening group. ``It's of small monetary value, but it's just enough to get them started. And wonderful things come out of it.''

Whether they learned at school or from green-thumbed family and friends, more kids are gardening at home. Fifty-four percent of adult gardeners polled this spring at a Chicago flower show said their children get involved in the garden, and 43 percent said their kids have a special section of the garden just for them. Nearly 80 percent of parents recommended getting children interested in gardening before age 6.

Fifth-graders at West Hollywood Elementary School also have been lured into the world of gardening, courtesy of a class study of how seeds grow, how sunlight and water affect plants, and which containers make good homes for plants. In raised beds on the playground, they planted radishes, onions, peppers and strawberries, and even made their own compost to make them grow.

At home, Danny Nerio, 10, has planted spinach and watermelons; Farrah Palma, 11, helps her parents tend rose bushes and orange and apple trees; Beatrice Rodriguez, 10, sowed tomato seeds in a big pot on the balcony of her apartment.

Gardening is fun - and it's even more fun to eat what you grow - but it's no job for lazy people, the kids emphasized.

``If you really want to have a good time with your garden, you have to work really hard,'' said Farrah.

At Montague Charter School in Pacoima, the staff's efforts to beautify the school have encouraged the students to work hard at their gardens - both on- and off-campus.

The school used its $750 grant to fill new flower beds with flowers, plant vegetables the kids could tend, and enhance the narrow swath of greenery along an ugly alley that teachers and students alike call the Secret Garden.

``(The Secret Garden) started as a very small dream of one teacher (Tullio Picardo),'' explained principal Diane Pritchard. ``He wanted a nice place for his students to read, so he put out a pot of flowers. Pretty soon, he had five pots, then he had 10 pots, then he put up a little bird feeder. It just grew and grew and grew.''

Today, the garden has a concrete path down its center, dotted with tables and benches under shady pergolas where students can read, teachers can conduct counseling and ``time out'' sessions for unruly children, and the school staff can have a quiet lunch. Lilies, perennials and native herbs add a riot of color, luring bees and butterflies, and there's a tiny pond and a manmade waterfall.

The students love the garden so much, the school now has a plan to pry up as much asphalt playground as possible over the next few years and replace the hard surfaces with trees, flowers and vegetables to illustrate lessons in nutrition, science, art and history - and to just provide grassy areas for kids to loll on. One area, already planted with trees whose branches grow quickly and spread sideways, will be a reading forest where kids can retire with a book.

All the growing things have not only perked up the campus, they've piqued the students' interest.

Vincent Uribe, 8, says he hops on his bike after school most days and rides to a local community garden, where he helps his father tend a vegetable patch.

``It's my special time with my dad,'' Vincent said. ``We grow corn, carrots, radishes.''

Armando Anaya, 10, helps his grandmother grow roses and tomatoes and tend her lemon trees.

``I like to be in the garden because you get to dig,'' he said, a big grin crossing his face. ``And you get to eat stuff.''

Books help young gardeners' dreams grow

Most kids don't need help getting excited about digging holes and getting dirty, but if you want to channel that natural energy into a productive pursuit, try these gardening books as inspiration.

``The Surprise Garden,'' by Zoe Hall (Blue Sky Press; $15.95).

This picture book is colorful, dramatic and full of suspense. Youngsters plant tiny seeds, not knowing what will happen. The word ``surprise!'' is repeated throughout the simple text as the children and a brown dog discover their harvest. In tone, this book is reminiscent of Eric Carle. Strong illustrations by Shari Halpern help ``The Surprise Garden'' capture the excitement of growing food. The book mixes in a few painless lessons about horticulture. Ages 2-6.

``New Junior Garden Book,'' by Felder Rushing (Meredith Books; $15.95).

This wire-bound hardcover guide written for Better Homes and Gardens' ``New Junior'' book series starts with the basics - bright, cartoon-style illustrations of plant parts, garden tools and gardener lingo. The rest of the book is devoted to 40 garden projects - from picking a rainbow of flowers to growing a sunflower house. All of them are kid-tested.

A skill scale (one flower to three) helps determine projects kids can tackle themselves and ones that will require adult assistance. Resource pages and a diagram indicating the best plants for best results in each region of the United States will increase chances of a successful planting.

``Down to Earth,'' by Michael Rosen (Harcourt Brace; $18).

This is a good read for a good cause. Rosen enlisted 41 children's book authors and illustrators to donate their work. Sales benefit the community gardening project of Share Our Strength, the anti-hunger organization.

``Down to Earth'' has one-page essays - a perfect length for reading at bedtime - from Donald Hall, Carole King and Maxine Kumin, among others, each focused on the writer's favorite plant. They range in impact: entertaining, interesting, funny, goofy, nostalgic. At the end of this book are activities to go with the stories, including some recipes. This book is a winner both for those doing the reading and those being read to.

``The Zoo Garden,'' written by Chris Hastings, illustrated by Janet Hamlin (Longstreet Press; $19.95).

If your child loves animals, here's a great way to translate that affection to plants. From the Leopard Flower, whose blooms are orange with darker spots, to the Canary Creeper, a high-climbing vine that bursts with flowers as bright a yellow as the birds for which it's named.

``The Zoo Garden,'' succinctly written to be part dictionary and part instruction manual, sparks the imagination and will inspire readers - young and old - to add a few ``animals'' to the yard.

``My Backyard Garden,'' by Carol Lerner (Morrow; $16).

This book, written and illustrated by Lerner, is for the already motivated youngster or perhaps one doing a science project on plants. Even though it is practical and straightforward, it is not the book to convince a non-convert that gardening is fun.

That's OK. Even adults launching a vegetable garden may learn a thing or three from ``My Backyard Garden,'' which includes plot diagrams for two gardens, a month-by-month guide to chores and lots of information along with short botany factoids and gardening strategies, like a recipe for homemade garlic-onion bug spray.

- Staff and Wire Services

CAPTION(S):

7 Photos, Box

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) FRUITFUL ENTERPRISE

School gardens teach kids lessons on nature, nurturing

David R. Crane/Staff Photographer

(2--Color) Gladioluses are among the flowers grown by students at Encino Elementary School.

(3--Color) Tyler Keskey, Eugene Oktyabriskiy and Shaun Farrell examine a leaf at the garden planted by Encino Elementary School fifth-graders.

(4--Color) Andrea Long, left, and Natasha Smith examine one of the garden plots at the Encino school. The class received a $750 grant from the National Gardening Association last fall.

(5--Color) ``They've learned a lot of science, but they've learned more social skills than anything else. They've learned sharing; they've learned self-control; they've learned self-esteem,'' says fifth-grade teacher Laverne Potter.

(6--Color) Encino Elementary's Auni Hovanesian, 11, also enjoys gardening at home with her parents during the summer.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News

(7--Color) Fourth-grade teacher Douglas Buhr's students read in the Secret Garden at Pacoima's Montague Charter School, which also received a grant.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer

(8) no caption (Book cover - THE ZOO GARDEN)

(9) no caption (Book cover - New Junior Garden Book)

Box: Books help young gardeners' dreams grow (See text)