Questions about School Gardens

Why might my school want a garden?

Hundreds of schools in North America have found excellent reasons!
The garden is a good way to "naturalize" an otherwise barren school ground
As hands-on, out-door classroom, a garden is a good way to reach students with different learning styles.
A food garden shows students where their food comes from. It reinforces our connection to the natural world.
The garden builds community.
To make the garden successful, students will have to work with their teachers, parents, maintenance staff, and other community members.

How do schools get involved in school gardening?

The school needs to have support from many groups: teachers, students, parents, administration, and community members. Although one enthusiastic teacher can keep a project going, it is far better to have extensive and diverse community participation in the project.

What about vandalism?

School Garden sites are carefully chosen in consultation with school staff and maintenance. Vandalism is one of the considerations in choosing the garden site. The students, who work with the garden every step of the way, have a good sense of ownership over the garden, and discourage others in the school from vandalizing the site. Neighbors are all informed about the project, and told to keep an eye out. Out of ten garden sites, which LifeCycles has worked on in the last five years, none have been damaged.

What role do the students have?

Who is the garden primarily for? The students! The more they are involved in the process of creating and maintaining the garden, the more ownership they will feel over it. This will result in not only a well looked after garden, but the students will feel involved, empowered and are likely to get more out of the experience.

Who are the stakeholders in developing school ground garden projects?

'Doing it alone' can be frustrating and time consuming, and it can defeat the purpose of a school community garden. It is integral to the project that all the stakeholders are involved. The shareholders in a school garden project are: students, teachers, Principal, Parent Advisory Committee, Parents, and School District Maintenance

What happens to the school garden over the summer?

Parents and children have the opportunity to be involved in summer watering and care of the school garden. The families caring for the garden eat produce harvested over the summer. The students harvest the reminder of the crop in September.

Where can a school garden project get funding?

Financial planning is an essential part of any gardening project. There are many options for acquiring funding, from small fundraisers to grant applications. A list of Funding Agencies and Grant Opportunities is available in LifeCycles Growing Schools "Creating an Outdoor Classroom-A Resource Manual for How to Run a School Garden".

How does the garden integrate into the classroom?

An enormous aid to making a successful school gardening program is involving the class curriculum into the garden. Gardens can be used as out-door classrooms where children learn directly from contact with nature. Possible the best way to encourage children to learn from nature is through activities that directly connect learning to natural processes occurring in the garden.

These activities can take the form of science experiments such as children growing seeds in different mediums to discover which best aids growth. Or the garden can be a place for personal growth and learning to work together for a common goal.

A garden can be a powerful tool to tie together many different subjects and provide a concrete example of the link between them. A school garden can be used as a basis for art as well as science, teamwork and dedication.

Where can I find School Garden Curriculum?

Many groups and organization have established school garden curriculum to support busy teachers incorporating the garden into the classroom. A list of Curriculum Resources is available in LifeCycles Growing Schools "Creating an Outdoor Classroom-A Resource Manual for How to Run a School Garden".

How do we initiate a successful school garden project?

So, you have decided that your school needs a garden! Starting a garden can be a very exciting and confusing project. Where do you start? Who do you talk to first?

The seven process steps to the implementation of a school garden are:

Planning
Design
Approval
Fundraise
Soil Preparation
Planting and Maintenance
Curriculum Integration

To ensure the success of your initiative, explore training and resources that already exist. LifeCycles offers training, resources and contacts to support school communities in developing school garden projects.

What is best to grow in a School Food Garden?

Deciding what to plant in your garden for the first year can be somewhat daunting. There is an increasingly large selection of seeds to choose from. It helps to view your first year's planting as an experiment. It is an interesting science project to see what grew well, what didn't, and then research why.

When choosing plants, involve the children. Look for varieties of interesting colored vegetables, purple potatoes for example. Incorporate plants that attract birds and butterflies (Honeysuckle, Echinacea, Butterfly Bush). Keep in mind plants that will be ready to harvest at appropriate times for your program, for example: school based projects need to consider an early (June) harvest, and a late crop, ready in September.

Are there other organizations that support school gardening?

Yes. Many organizations provide support for school gardening. A list of "Contacts and Organizations" is available in LifeCycles Growing Schools "Creating an Outdoor Classroom-A Resource Manual for How to Run a School Garden".

Growing Schools

See Also