Originally appears in the Spring 2016 issue

School gardens are popping up everywhere! Capturing the attention of the media, parent community and global organizations alike, the excitement focused around these initiatives is palpable. While this recent surge is inspiring, it is by no means novel. Using nature to teach students biology, ecology, life cycles, genetics, soil science, etc. has always been a facet of quality education. There are mountains of research that point to the benefits.

Gardening with students can be daunting. School gardens suffer from staff transition, rigorous testing schedules, summer maintenance issues and more, but the rewards far outweigh the challenges. Developing a sustainable school garden program starts with careful planning, acknowledgement of the challenges and devising strategies to overcome them. This article will give you tools to get started.

Keeping a few basic principles in mind will add to the overall sustainability of a garden and allow for the school community to participate in the project. Based on several years of research and experience with dozens of school gardens, we’ve developed a list of basic steps and best practices for school gardens. We encourage you to incorporate them into your own plans for establishing and sustaining a garden at your school.

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1: FORM A TEAM

Growing a healthy school garden takes more than just seeds and soil. Sustainable school gardens are an integral part of the school community. They rely on the combined efforts of teachers, administrators, facility staff, students and parents. Establishing a strong team from the beginning will instill a sense of ownership in the project that will bolster support when times get tough. Gardens that are supported by only one or two individuals often fail. We have worked with schools whose gardens fell into disrepair and neglect because the passionate individual who spearheaded the effort moved on to a new place. We can’t stress it enough: building a solid team should be your first priority and a constant part of your school garden project. Identify stakeholders who will support the school garden. In addition to those in the school community, include local organizations. They can bolster your assets by donating goods, providing volunteers and advertising your gardening achievements. Hold regular meetings and form subcommittees to divide up the work load. While it may seem easier to make decisions with a small group, a sustainable project will have several groups involved. Subcommittees to consider include public relations, financial development, garden maintenance and curriculum development. Elect a chair person (or persons) who will be the main liaison for the garden in the larger community. If at all possible this person should be paid for their time. Having a paid coordinator adds a level of professionalism and importance to the project. The coordinator will organize meetings, create a calendar so items are completed on time, oversee larger events, encourage teachers to use the garden and ensure the garden doesn’t fall into disrepair.

Common challenges & creative solutions:

1. Finding and forming relationships with local organizations: start asking your students and fellow faculty members to suggest partners for the garden. Local environmental education organizations are a great place to start. Reach out to them with a phone call and sign up for their mailing list. Arrange a meeting in person and spend an hour together talking about different ideas. Remember to touch base with them via email every few weeks so you maintain the relationship. Invite them to events and enlist their help whenever possible.
2. Keeping meetings fun and productive: branch out and consider holding meetings at a nearby restaurant or someone’s home. Create a structured meeting agenda with time allotments for each topic of discussion and stick to it, nothing is worse than a rambling meeting that ends late and doesn’t result in clear action steps.

2: SET GOALS & CRAFT A MISSION STATEMENT

The tendency when starting out is to go big right away, but the best idea is to start small. You can always expand, but it can be discouraging to have a large garden that isn’t getting adequate use. When articulating your goals for your school garden, ask who will be using the garden. Surely students, but also consider community members, parents, siblings, etc. What is the purpose for the garden? Gardens are established for many reasons such as beautification, memorialization, use as a curricular tool and providing food for the local community. How can the garden reflect the local community? Each garden is unique and should be a source of pride for the community. What makes your community special? How can you incorporate those aspects into the school garden? Once you have discussed these questions with your team, form a mission statement. Having a clearly defined mission will help explain the garden to potential stakeholders and volunteers. It’s important to make sure that there is an achievable pathway forward with tangible benchmarks to measure success and progress.

Common challenges & creative solutions:

1. Setting goals that are difficult to measure: there may come a time when you need to justify your garden initiative to your administration or funding partner and having attainable goals with measurable outcomes will provide the data needed. A great goal would be “to teach students about plant lifecycles by having them start seeds and harvest fruits.” You can record the actions of the students and have them journal their findings on lifecycles. Another goal could be “to expose the students to new foods by growing culturally significant plants and having tastings.” Measurement of this goal would include a survey of the students and having them complete taste tests and record observations in their journals.
2. Forcing an outdated mission statement: plan to analyze and revise your mission annually. Include students in the process to help brainstorm ideas. When new members join the team ask them for input. Avoid stretching your mission to include every aspect of nature education and focus on one or two unique aspects of the school community such as the presence of a culinary program, parent community, extracurricular clubs, service learning classes, etc.

3: DESIGN AN OUTDOOR CLASSROOM

Once you’ve determined who will be using the garden and the purpose for its creation you are free to move forward into the design phase. Gardens come in all shapes and sizes. Some of the most successful school gardens we’ve seen have been just one or two plots tended by a few classes and parent volunteers. Assess potential sites for the garden. Consider the following criteria: safety, available space, access to water, access to the site, amount of sunlight & shade (should have at least six hours of full sun for edibles and pollinator plants), topography, security (does the site require protection from wildlife or passersby?), visibility from classroom/street, potential for noise pollution (making it difficult to teach) and zoning restrictions. Creating an outdoor classroom is very similar to turning an indoor space into an ideal learning environment. Here are some of the basic elements to consider as you plan your outdoor classroom: gathering space with tables and chairs, storage for tools & lesson materials, access for wheelchairs, shade for students, learning stations (weather, reading, etc.), exploration areas (digging pit, butterfly garden, wetland, etc.), planting areas, hand washing station and compost area. Even though this list seems large all of these elements are not necessary at once. Remember, start small and grow!

Adding a theme to your garden is a fun way to organize plantings and classroom activities. Here are a few ideas, but there are many more: salad garden, salsa garden, pizza garden, herb garden, cultural culinary garden, international garden, wildflower garden, butterfly garden, rainbow garden, historical garden, alphabet garden, storybook garden, sensory garden, give-away garden, memorial garden, playscape and rain garden. Create a base map and allow students and other stakeholders to contribute to the design process. You’ll be impressed with some of the ideas the students come up with! While you may not be able to include a waterslide and zip line, some of their notions for experimental beds, a compost corner and ensuring the garden is able to be accessed by elderly and differently abled persons can easily be included and will give them an increased sense of ownership in the project.

Another important factor to consider will be the space between each planting area. Will there be grass pathways? If so, the space between them should be enough for a lawn mower. We suggest installing raised beds for edible plantings. Raised beds allow you to build an ideal soil composition and reduce the worry of contamination. Build beds that are no wider than four feet to allow students to reach into the middle of the bed without stepping inside. Younger students may benefit from even smaller beds.

Get creative! Reusing old containers, shoes, toys, etc. will incorporate a component of recycling for the students and add some whimsy to your garden. Native plants will thrive when planted in conditions that mimic their natural habitat, and can usually be planted directly in the soil. Playscapes and rain gardens require some preparation to the site before planting and some additional research.

Common challenges & creative solutions:

1. An urban site with no green space: there are several crops and native plants that have shallow root systems and can grow in pots or raised beds placed on pavement. Another option is to research the structural integrity of the roof and build a rooftop garden.

2. Very constricted space: consider vertical gardening by adding trellises. If you are concerned about a lack of sunlight you can add wheels to your containers and move them throughout the day.

3. No water access: add a rain barrel to collect water from a downspout, shed roof or other water catchment surface.

4: DIG IN!

Once you’ve chosen your site, determined your theme based on your team’s goals and have a design drawn, it’s time to plan for construction. Set a date and begin to order materials and shop for seeds and plants. If you are writing a grant to fund the garden set the build date after the funds would be disbursed. Be sure to have everything you need, ask several team members to help make a list so nothing is forgotten.

Make your planting day public. Invite journalists, television reporters, community members, business owners, family members, students, faculty and administrators to volunteer their time and resources to help establish the garden. Put up posters and signs at the school. Plan a few activities for the children and provide refreshments. Find a local gardening organization such as a garden club, landscape company or beautification committee to mentor the school garden. Having a few experts on hand to answer questions, identify weeds, provide organic solutions to pest problems and offer training will be a huge asset to your program.

While this article won’t cover the myriad of topics on gardening, we will take a moment to state that healthy soil is the key to healthy plants. Plants depend upon the composition of the soil to provide minerals and nutrients for growth. A soil test is an easy way to determine the composition of the soil while providing suggestions on ways the soil can be amended to enhance plant growth. Ensure the continued success of your garden by adding compost and quality soil each season.

Common challenges & creative solutions:

1. Lack of funding: search for grants, both nationally and locally, to fund your garden. Ask local community groups for ideas. Approach the parent community for support. If you aren’t able to fund the full project divide the construction into phases.

2. Confusion on how to build a garden: attend a workshop and ask a local landscape expert to help. Post specific jobs with clear directions so people are engaged and participating in the work. Hold a planning meeting with the team and designate each member to lead an activity.

5: IMPLEMENT CURRICULUM

The garden provides a unique opportunity to integrate many different subjects. Science, math, language arts, social studies, physical education, art, music and foreign languages all have connections to botanical themes that can be explored in the garden. Creativity and collaboration between teachers, students and environmental education organizations can help expand your lessons to include all of these subjects. Incorporating standards and academic assessments will add to the validity of your garden initiative. Recording observations, taking pre and post tests, engaging in research are all important aspects of school gardens. To avoid maintenance issues, arising from neglect, plan to garden with your students on a weekly basis. There are wonderful published works and websites with garden based lessons.

Extend student learning in the garden by sending home plants, seeds, produce, recipes and photos. Think of how proud they will be to reveal the radish they grew and enjoy it at the dinner table! Gardening can be a very powerful and therapeutic activity for over scheduled youth and their families. Encouraging the students to connect their school experience with their home life can spark conversations and support from unexpected places.

Evaluating garden learning can be challenging. Pre and post assessments can show learning over time, as well as journal entries, and long term projects. Consider inviting younger students and community members for tours or lessons so you can observe how the students pass on the knowledge they have learned. For example, when kindergartener Susie wants to plant peas with third grader Alex and Alex directs her to plant them close to the fence so they can have a place to climb, that indicates a significant amount of learning: peas are vines that need support to grow. Does Alex show her how deep to plant the seeds? Do they water the seeds together? Put together a rubric and use it through the year to assess student development.

Common challenges & creative solutions:

1. Managing student behavior outdoors: often students are not used to structured activities in the school yard and instinctively behave as they would at recess. A few strategies include giving students directions before heading outdoors and familiarizing them with any tools and tasks. Repeat the instructions after heading outside and enlist the help of volunteers to keep the students focused. Establish clear boundaries and consequences for behavioral issues. The students should understand that going outside is a privilege and they need to work together and listen during the experience. Over time, this routine will help the students complete outdoor lessons.

2. Enlisting volunteers: recruiting a core base of volunteer helpers opens up additional opportunities to explore the garden, cook any harvested produce and manage behavioral issues. Ask parents to come on garden days just as they would for a field trip. Local garden clubs may also be interested in helping. Finalize a yearly calendar and stick with it so volunteers can arrange their work schedules around garden events. Host a thank you dinner to honor those who have donated their time to help.

3. Unaware of outdoor conditions: always check for safety issues before bringing students outside. Walk the area to check for garbage or other dangerous items. Tell your administration and other faculty members that you are heading outdoors. Check the weather and do not go outdoors if there is lightning. Request that students dress appropriately and have a change of clothes on hand.

4. School year doesn’t align with gardening season: there are several options available to teachers who live in temperate regions and miss out on the bulk of the traditional garden season. Some schools plant cool weather crops in the spring then cover the garden with plastic to avoid weed germination. When they return in the fall the garden is ready for planting the same cool weather crops. While this may seem repetitive it allows students to revisit what they learned several months later and compare the two experiences. Other schools plant a summer garden and invite summer school program participants to tend the plots. Neighbors and other community members may also be interested in helping with summer maintenance. A third option is to experiment with winter gardening, a concept that is gaining attention. Adding season extension hardware such as row covers and cold frames allows gardens in temperate regions to continue harvesting cool weather crops.

5. Theft: whether you are dealing with herbivores or human vandals, theft can discourage even the hardiest gardener. Do not leave valuable tools unsecured. Install signage to explain to passersby that the garden is for the students and produce should be left for them to harvest. If funds allow, consider installing a fence to keep out intruders. Remember your goals and mission; a bountiful harvest may not be needed to attain your goals.

6: REFLECT & REVISE

Keep records of your program to help you revise methods for future growing seasons. Take time to reflect at the end of each week on how well things went during lessons, note any issues with certain plant species, identify pests and record weather conditions. You may think you’ll remember details like these when planning for next year but it is easy to forget! Your garden journal will be a welcome source of information for other teachers wanting to start school gardens. Have an annual meeting with the team to discuss challenges and possible strategies for overcoming them. Bring your issues to community partners and ask for their advice.

Common challenges & creative solutions:

Disagreement between team members for future plans: this challenge can create a standstill at meetings. Ask team members to support their ideas with examples from the garden. If they haven’t kept notes and are functioning off of memory they may have an incomplete view of the situation. Welcome all suggestions but explain that not all ideas can be implemented and may be tabled for next year’s conversation.

We hope you join us in the school garden movement. Take pride in the unique aspects of your school community and incorporate them into the garden. Celebrate the combined efforts of your team and have fun. Gardening is an experiment and each day brings new opportunities to learn.

 

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Mary Dudley is the Youth Education Coordinator at the Civic Garden Center of Greater Cincinnati in Ohio. She has worked with school garden initiatives since 2008 in both temperate and subtropical climates. Mary holds a Master’s Degree in Botany. The Civic Garden Center would like to thank the Haile Foundation for funding our school garden program and research initiative.