Our Green Steps

Heathwood Hall's recycling program not only provides a vital educational message to students and faculty, but also reduces the school's disposable waste costs. Currently, 4th and 5th grade classes collect paper, plastic, and cans on a weekly basis in the ECLC, LS, and IMS. Upper School students are in charge of the recycling in their division.

Most recently efforts to collect and recycle plastic and tin fruit and vegetables containers from the cafeteria have been implemented. With the assistance of our dining hall manager, we have moved to offering our white milk in plastic recyclable containers, thereby further decreasing our waste production.

Project Pass-It-On was created in school year 2007-2008 as an effort to emphasize recycling of home goods – toys, books, clothes, and games. These items are collected at Christmas and donated to a local thrift store that supports an animal shelter.

Within each division of the school, Green Boxes are used at year's end. Excess classroom supplies are collected from all members of the faculty and staff, and these are redistributed at the opening of school in August. This re-using of materials results in significant cost savings in the purchase of new materials.

Heathwood Hall has established a vermiculture program in the Early Childhood Learning Program as well as the composting of garden organic waste and clippings. The compost produced is used in the preparation of raised beds for seasonal crops that are planted by the youngest students on campus. In the school year 2009-2010, the dining hall began collecting fresh fruit and vegetable scraps that are transported by students to a composting bin in the maintenance yard.

Mrs. Peyton Sasnett, 6th grade science teacher and 2008 State Conservation Teacher of the Year, organizes Heathwood Hall's rain garden initiatives. She won an award from the National Association of Independent Schools for her work in their 2007 Global Challenge 20/20 Program, partnering with a school in Mexico to solve the problem of water management. Funded by a South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) grant as a part of its Champions of the Environment Program, the garden was designed by the students as a conservation effort aimed at reducing water pollution from parking lot runoff, eliminating lawn maintenance, and restoring and enhancing Heathwood Hall habitats. Students measured the area and calculated the amount of water that would flow to the area from the nearby Athletic Center parking lot during rain events. Once the appropriate sized garden was determined, IMS (Intermediate/Middle School) students, ages 10 to 12, hand dug the space and planted native material typically found in South Carolina wetland areas. The garden continues to be used as an outdoor class for the study of water quality and wetland issues. Maintenance is performed by the 6th grade classes on a yearly basis.

By designing and caring for a garden of native and endemic plants, Heathwood Hall's middle school students learn to appreciate the difference between introduced, native, and endemic plants, and the importance of conservation and sustainability.

The native garden, filled with perennials, grasses and shrubs that withstand drought and full sun, were planted by students. The garden, located in front of the IMS Nord Building, has reduced lawn maintenance and has provided habitat restoration for wildlife.

The original native garden was funded by a Palmetto Pride Grant during the 2007-2008 school year. Design and construction was implemented by Mr. Todd Beasley's 5th grade science class as well as by students from the 6th-8th grades. All maintenance including pruning, weeding, and mulching is provided by the 5th grade classes.

The garden is now flourishing, and it is a living example project utilizing all aspects of the Carolina Fence Garden model, including plants for food and cover, split rail fence, bird baths and boxes. It is 100% self sustaining. The goal is to continue implementing native garden construction within our curriculum to teach the importance of sustainability.

Heathwood Hall's butterfly gardens are truly beautiful outdoor classrooms where students step into a working ecosystem complete with producers, consumers, predators and prey. We use these habitats to enhance math and science learning as students study butterfly and plant biology.

There are two butterfly gardens on campus. The Lower School garden is funded and cared for solely through volunteer efforts. The ECLC (Early Childhood Learning Center) garden was funded by a 2008-2009 Palmetto Pride Grant award. Adult participants in Heathwood Hall's first landscape design evening class created the garden in the spring of 2009. Host and nectar plants were utilized as well as a few evergreen shrubs for structure and nesting and cover areas. Care for the garden has been provided by students in the Afternoon Express program as well as 5th grade students as part of their science class. While most plants are native, only drought resistant material was chosen, thereby reducing significantly water consumption. The garden is now home to many butterflies, birds including hummingbirds, and bees.

The tree alley project is an environmental effort aimed at reducing Heathwood Hall's carbon footprint by planting trees on the property. The Quercus shurmardii (Shumard Oaks) and Styrax americana (American Snowball) trees not only provide habitats for wildlife but also reduce thermal pollution and help filter water pollution on campus.

Funded by a DHEC Champions of the Environment Grant, fifty-five (55) native trees were purchased to create an alley along the school's perimeter road in 2008-2009. Middle School students planted the trees which are now thriving.

Winding from the pine forest at the entrance of our campus, the nature trail runs through the school's wooded sections, connecting all the constructed gardens. Tree identification signs and learning stations along the way enhance the educational value of this cross-country trek.

The design of this space, located at the front entrance to the Smith-Shirley Campus Center, is based on a traditional garden utilized in our region and across North Americans by Native Americans, known historically as Medicine Wheel Gardens. However, the same concept is not limited to just North America, but it can be traced back to the Roman societies 3000 years ago and more recently in "knot" gardens or Celtic gardens of the Dark Ages through the Renaissance. In fact, during Medieval times, "knot" gardens went so far as to have a living bench that when one sat down on it, he or she crushed plants that would expel beautiful aromas onto the person; since regular bathing was not a widespread concept yet, this "exedra" bench was a welcome convenience. While some Medicine Wheels of North America were spiritual places, Heathwood Hall's garden, again based on the South Carolina, Eastern Woodland, and Southeastern Native Americans, is a "healing" garden in that it contains plants that had value. Thus, the garden served as the grocery store (edible plants), medicine cabinet (plants with medicinal value), firewood pile, clothing store (fibers from plants), and as habitat enhancement and restoration to attract animals and birds for hunting purposes.

The design is laid out in a very specific manner provided by Dr. Will Goins of the South Carolina Cherokee Nation, with whom we have partnered on the project. The inner circle holds a monumental stone center piece, a sun dial. The next larger circle has four quadrants all aligned according to the points on a compass. Each quadrant has plants that bloom or produce berries in accordance to the color of that specific bed. These colors are red, white, blue, and purple, all representative of South Carolina tribes. The outermost, designed in the same manner, contains the colors of black (purple), red, yellow, and white. The entire garden is outlined in granite stones, native to South Carolina.

The garden plants are a mix of South Carolina and Southeastern plants, representative of the harmonious trade that existed among many of the regional tribes. The garden is utilized as an educational tool demonstrating sustainable living, habitat restoration and enhancement (reduced lawn maintenance), and the importance of our sacred connection to the earth.