Why a school garden?
School gardens provide hands-on learning in a wide variety of disciplines including science, math, language arts, and visual arts. Being involved in school gardens get students active, engaged, and teaches them important life skills such as responsibility. School gardening of fruits and vegetables also positively influences students health and nutrition attitudes and actions. School gardens also:• Increase science achievement scores.
• Improve social skills and behavior.
• Improve environmental attitudes and stewardship.
• Instill a love and appreciation of nature.
• Improve life skills such as responsibility and teamwork.
• Instill healthy eating habits and attitudes.
• Improve health and nutrition knowledge.
• Provide wonderful opportunities for hands-on learning.
• Increase physical activity.
Do you want to get started? Read below for how you can get your school garden started today!
Support
The first step in starting a school garden is to get support from the school district, administrators, and community. The web site School Garden Wizard “Make the Case” http://schoolgardenwizard.org/wizard/make/ has a wonderful proposal template to help you get started. Some things to include in your proposal are: case studies of other school gardens, benefits, and funding sources/ideas.
Funding
Get your community involved. Community involvement fosters ownership of the school garden and will lead to better and continued support.
• Contact local businesses for donations of money or supplies.
• Host a bake sale or other fundraiser.
• Ask your local greenhouse for plant or seed donations.
Garden Plan
Create a garden design and plan for your school garden. Ask a local master gardeners club, parents, or other knowledgeable community members for help with the design and plan. Involve faculty, and students in the planning process. Vote on themes, plants, colors, etc…The more the faculty and students are involved the more it will truly feel like their garden!
School gardens can be very simple, from a few containers of vegetables in a school courtyard, to elaborate raised beds that stretch around a schoolyard. When designing keep in mind what your school can handle, the money available or raised, and the ability of the school and volunteers to maintain it.
Create
After you have support, funding, and a plan it is time to start creating your garden!! Organize work days for faculty, students, and volunteers to work on the school garden. Work days can be during school hours, after hours, and even on a weekend day. Assign classes or grades age appropriate jobs. All ages can help and will enjoy being involved in the process!
Learn
Congratulations you now have a school garden! There are many wonderful cross-curricular learning opportunities that your new school garden can provide you. School gardens are wonderful places to study insects, plant growth, rainfall, and much more. They can be a beautiful setting for drawing, painting, and writing. The sky really is the limit!
Maintenance
Remember to have a plan for maintenance of your school garden. Assign daily, weekly, monthly, and/or yearly maintenance activities to grades, faculty, or community and parent volunteers. Or plan school garden work days for maintenance. Make a plan for the maintenance of your school garden that works best for your school and community. Remember to arrange a plan for the summer months as well.
Websites
Got Dirt? A Garden Toolkit for Implementing Youth Gardens
Got Veggies? A Youth Garden-Based Nutrition Education Curriculum
http://healthymeals.nal.usda.gov/hsmrs/Wisconsin/gotveggies.pdfHow Our Gardens Grow: Cultivating Nutrition and Learning Through Idaho School Gardens
http://healthymeals.nal.usda.gov/hsmrs/Idaho/howourgardensgrow.pdf
Iowa Healthiest State Initiative: School and Community Gardening Resources
http://www.iowahealthieststate.com/gardening-resources
Kids Gardening (The National Gardening Association)
http://www.kidsgardening.org/
Life Lab: School Garden Resources
http://www.lifelab.org/for-educators/schoolgardens/
School Garden Wizard
http://schoolgardenwizard.org/wizard/
