Founded in the 2023-24 school year, the Gardening for Good club started as a small group of students who shared a love for plants. Now, they have brought their passion to life, creating their first mini garden on the Portola High campus.
The club came together when juniors Chloe Shin and Rainie Yao’s idea to create Gardening for Good was merged with junior Driti Rajkumar’s for another gardening club, bringing the three students together under a unified vision. Now, Shin and Rajkumar serve as co-presidents, while Yao is vice president. For Yao, who moved to IUSD as a freshmen, this club became a way to connect with others through gardening, something she already had a deep personal connection to.
“I always thought gardening was fun,” Yao said. “My grandpa used to garden, and when he was living with us in America at our house, he would grow crops in the backyard. I would watch him, so I’ve always been involved in gardening.”
At first, the club faced challenges in securing a space for their garden and raising funds for supplies. However, through fundraisers like Clubapalooza and Clubs and Cookies, they officially started their garden in January near the performing arts building. Their adviser, Visual Arts teacher Mat Pace, provided guidance on planning, and the club successfully installed a sprinkler system and planted one planter of succulents.
“We wanted to create a beautiful space on campus where people can come together to garden and connect with others,” Shin said. “We just want to help people through gardening since it can have good effects on mental health, and we’re also hoping to raise money for charity if we sell some of the proceeds of gardening.”
Gardening for Good also collaborated with the National Alliance on Mental Illness club to discuss how gardening can help relieve stress and promote mindfulness.
“Essentially, we were trying to talk about how gardening can positively impact mental health,” sophomore and secretary Sky Dadash Zadeh said. “It’s an activity that you can do almost mindlessly with your hands, and that can be really beneficial for calming down the mind.”
Looking ahead, the club hopes to expand its garden and activities. Club members are involved in the planning and implementing of new plants, and future plans include introducing seasonal plants, such as flowers, and collaborating with the ceramics club to create handmade pots for plants.
“We have benefited the plant life on campus, and it’s always a good thing to have more plants for the environment,” Dadash Zadeh said. “It also just makes campus look a little nicer, and we hope in the future we’re able to plant more and make our campus look even nicer through that.”
