Kindergarten gardeners get lesson from two masters

Kindergarteners at the James A. Dever Elementary School helped plant shrubs around the district office’s electronic sign on June 10 alongside the Valley Stream Thirteen Education Foundation and two master composters.

“It is never too late or too early to help beautify America,” said Board of Education President Toni Pomerantz. “We here at the district and Educational Foundation truly value volunteering for a worthy cause.”

Megan Ross, a kindergarten teacher at the school and liaison to the Education Foundation, volunteered her class for the planting, and students got hands-on experience.

Master gardeners and composters Cathy and Robert Guzzardo, of the New York City Compost Program, led a class on proper planting and upkeep of perennial flowers at the site.

All of the plants will tolerate dry and sunny or slightly shaded areas. The Guzzardos explained that the plants would attract pollinators, such as bees, butterflies and hummingbirds, and that Valley Stream State Park is a hummingbird habitat.

The plants picked for the beautification project were:

“Pink Double Knockout” Rose — A low maintenance, disease-resistant rose with pink flowers. It requires full sun.

“Walker’s Low” — A perennial with slightly grey, aromatic leaves whose small, tubular, purple flower provides a source of food for hummingbirds.

Achillea “Yarrow” — A perennial with grey-green leaves and flat, compact, 4-inch clusters of bright yellow flowers, which attract butterflies. It grows 24 inches tall in full sun and a wide range of soil types. It is drought tolerant.

Heuchera “Palace Purple” — A perennial that will grow in sun to part shade. It produces spikes of tiny, white tubular flowers, which attract hummingbirds and bees. It is known for its foliage of bronze leaves with an underside of red.