It was a perfect day for gardening Friday as more than 60 people volunteered to help create an edible garden for Edmonds Heights K-12 School families.

“We were able to replace over 20 large potentially toxic plants with many safe edibles and some native plants, as well as plant hundreds of seeds and starts,” said Edmonds Heights science teacher Erin Zackey.

Edmonds Heights, which serves the entire Edmonds School District, offers a cooperative approach to education involving teachers, parents and students. Many of the students are homeschooled.

The garden work was funded through a grant from the Hazel Miller Foundation to involve Farmer Frog, an organization whose mission is to promote, support and teach urban and small-scale agriculture. Also helping is the School Garden Advocates organization, plus students, parents, grandparents, staff and community members.

On Friday, volunteers planted a late spring/early summer crop and will continue to work on a fall crop this spring. “I have garden lab classes established to support the ongoing garden work, as well as many wonderfully supportive parents who are able to help while they are on campus with their students,” Zackey said.

All of the art on the plant containers was funded through the Edmonds Arts Festival Foundation. “The art will continue to ‘grow’ in our garden with mosaic tiles, garden totems, and even more garden art rocks, many of which were started today,” Zackey said.