Jana Beth Eidson, one of Highland Park ISD’s original garden teachers, retired this year after planting the seeds of learning for countless students.
The Master Gardener and former teacher established the district’s first garden program at Armstrong Elementary School around 2013 with fellow Master Gardener Caroline Trotman.
The roots of Eidson’s interest in gardening date from her own childhood. She grew up in South Texas in a family of farmers. Her teaching skills go back nearly as far.
Eidson, who has a degree in special education, moved to Dallas after college and married former Dallas Cowboys player Jim Eidson, who was a member of the Cowboys’ Super Bowl XII championship team. The couple moved to the Park Cities, where they raised their children and Eidson became an avid school volunteer.
Armstrong Elementary’s principal invited Eidson to help start the school’s garden program shortly after she completed her Master Gardener training. Eidson and fellow Master Gardener Trotman developed plans based on Junior Master Gardener material. But if they didn’t think the curriculum fit their group of young horticulturists, they wrote lessons of their own.
When students gathered for gardening each week, the Master Gardeners taught subjects such as life science and skills including how to grow edible crops.
Tasting became one of the most popular parts of the garden program.
“They wanted to eat kale, they wanted to eat whatever they were growing,” Eidson said.
As Armstrong’s garden program blossomed, its physical space grew as well. The school gave the garden the gift of an expanded footprint for its tenth anniversary.
“It’s just been a joy to watch it develop,” Eidson said. “We morphed into teaching a bird unit, teaching a butterfly unit, teaching propagation, teaching all these things, and such bright children. They were absorbing it, wanting to do it at home, and asking for seeds to take home.”
Now, Highland Park ISD School Board President Maryjane Bonfield said each of the district’s five elementary schools has a garden. The school’s parent teacher association or organization funds a gardener to help them flourish.
“The power of yes turned into the contagiousness of everybody wanting a garden, so they raised their money independent of us to have their garden,” Eidson said.
After more than a decade of teaching gardening at Armstrong, Eidson doesn’t intend to stop educating during her retirement. She plans to spend time with her three grandchildren and teach them about gardening.
The seeds she planted at Armstrong will continue to grow. Elizabeth Moundas, a volunteer at Armstrong who earned her Master Gardener certification last year, will help the school’s gardening program bloom for years to come.
“I just feel so lucky and blessed to be able to inherit her knowledge,” Moundas said. “And just seeing how she interacts with the kids and how she teaches was so helpful to me.”
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