Geneva Heights Elementary opened its doors in 1931 as Robert E. Lee Elementary. This charming Title One DISD School has 360 culturally diverse students. In 2005 it became Dallas County Master Gardeners’ first school garden project.

What began as a desolate courtyard has bloomed into 5 distinct learning areas: a perennial garden certified as a wildlife habitat, a spectacular vegetable garden, an herb garden, a pipevine swallowtail garden, and a monarch garden. The school also has rain barrels and a compost area.  Garden upkeep and instruction are overseen by a gardening team and an education team.

The gardening team maintains the gardens and makes the habitats available for the students and education team. They meet every other Wednesday morning from 9 to 11am.

The education team works with retired garden educator, Mark Painter, to teach students K – 5 about vegetable and herb gardening, garden cycles, and how all the gardens support each other.  The lessons are taken from the Junior Master Gardener and the Learn Grow Eat & Go curriculums and support the school’s International Baccalaureate program. Classes come to the garden one at a time for 30-minute sessions the second Thursday morning of the month.

At the end of the 2021-2022 school year, Geneva Heights will be closed for reconstruction and is not expected to reopen until January of 2024. Our goal is to continue the garden programs as usual for the children while planning and preparing to dismantle and salvage all that is possible from the garden program. Some plants will be sold to raise money for the school, and the rest will be saved for the new campus.