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Originally appears in the Winter 2021 issue.
By Terry Maxwell
Editor’s Note: Especially to our readers in temperate, sub-Arctic, and Arctic regions, this may seem like an odd time to include an article about schoolyard gardens — fair enough. Plant growth isn’t exactly top of mind when there’s snow on the ground. As you read this second of Terry Maxwell’s two articles on schoolyard gardens, however, it will become clear just how much preparation goes into such an undertaking. Between grant-writing and community outreach, you need several months to put all the pieces in place.
The moment has come. You’ve decided to create a native plant garden on your school grounds. You’ve won a grant. Your students are excited and motivated, and your administrators believe in your vision. Warm weather comes and you take a day or two to create a space that you and your students are proud of. You invite the community. Your class is wanting to know how their plants are growing. Students are asking you every day if anything new has happened in the garden. The administration is touting your garden as an example of outside-the-box thinking and initiative. You are on the proverbial mountaintop.
Then… May approaches and the demands of school are causing you to feel every waking second slip past. You wonder how you could possibly fit any more into your chaotic school schedule. Maybe you’re burdened by a stack of ungraded papers, family obligations, extra-curricular duties, lesson preparation for next week, work for a graduate course you are taking on the side, or any other of the plethora of things that make you feel as if time is slipping away. You are burned out, and you don’t feel you can add one more thing to your busy life.
One day when you slowly drive past your native plant garden, you think to yourself that it looks a little overgrown. A week passes before the next time you look at it. Students turn their minds to summer. Administration then asks what your plans are for taking care of the garden over the summer because a parent has commented about the “weed patch” on the school grounds. Your triumph begins to feel like a problem you have to solve, instead of the powerful tool you had hoped it would become. You wonder if you’ve taken on too much. Let’s look at the obstacles, and find some solutions to fostering a native plant garden on your K–12 school campus.
Background
There is no debating the benefits of place-based education. I have had great experiences getting students outside to explore their surroundings. As environmental science educators, it is essential that we get our students to develop a sense of meaning and connection with the plants and animals that they — often unknowingly — share their lives with. I often hear the phrase, “I didn’t even realize there were different kinds of trees around the school” when I take my class outside to learn about biodiversity on our school grounds. So, a few years ago when I took over our school’s science club — which, at the time, only had a few members — I knew what direction I wanted to take it.
In 2017 when I began to oversee the science club, I told our activities director I had some ideas geared toward service and conservation. Our conservation club had several partnership activities with our Department of Natural Resource and ran some recycling drives around school, but the activity that excited the students the most was creating a native pollinator plot on our school grounds. I was leery about the idea due to a previous experience at a former school where I’d taught that had a failed native plant garden. That particular garden had been mowed over after it became an overgrown eyesore. The teacher that created it lost interest when her students lost interests, so mulberry trees and invasive weeds started filling it in. Regardless of that previous experience, I was determined to make the students’ vision come to life. I believed that having native plants on the school grounds was a first step in solving issues like students not recognizing the variety of plant life around them.
Steps for success
The focus of this article is not how to create a great garden space for your students, but what to do once it’s on campus. But I would be remiss if I didn’t share what I’ve found to be crucial steps to achieving success. This is a big task and a long-term commitment. Make sure you have the proper footings in place to make this project successful long-term.
Student involvement
Without student involvement, your project will start to feel like a weight that is constantly dragging you down and sapping the mental energy you need for your job. Students need to feel as if this is their place and their responsibility. This creates ownership and buy-in from them. Too often we tell our students what to do and not give them a say in the process. Then, we get frustrated that they aren’t turning in the work or that they’re just going through the motions. When you turn students loose on the process, you see their creativity and passion come to life. So, what are the best ways to generate student involvement?
Design competition
Our students created teams and designed what they believed would be the best way to walk through the pollinator garden as a visitor. They created layout maps of what they envisioned. In the end, we voted on the best layout, then collaborated on deciding how we could include pieces we liked from other layouts into the design of the layout that was chosen.
Student-led research
At the end of the day, the teacher may need to be a main source of knowledge for a pollinator garden project. However, it is okay for you to be learning alongside the students in this process if you are not familiar with native plants. There are many fantastic resources out there for you to read to prepare plants that work in a native garden setting. If in North America, reach out to Xerxes Society to find many quality resources on native pollinators and native plants. Give students research roles, with specific roles dependent on the age group you are working with. These roles could be as detailed as having the students research every plant species that would work best in the garden or more guided through giving them a list of plants they could research to determine where they would best be placed.
Contacting experts and community members
This may be the most underrated step of this process for your students. Create a network of community members or local experts who are willing to invest in your project. This keeps students accountable to someone other than you, and makes them realize that this isn’t just a school project. It is meaningful to people locally who are concerned about the environment. I believe that such a project can be a beacon of change for the community.
Proper layout
Choosing a proper layout for your garden can make or break the project. Before you begin, assess your location. Does your soil have a high clay or sand content? How much sun does the area get? How moist is the soil naturally? What is the pH of your soil? Again, this is another great time to give your students roles in figuring out these parameters. Have your students design a test to discover the various answers. Consider getting them to take samples and reach out to a county or university extension office to find out what they have.
One word of advice from experience: use tall grasses either sparingly or not at all if you have a small space to work with. Tall grasses tend to spread rapidly throughout a garden. Most germinate easily and spread seeds by wind dispersion. They will then quickly choke out flowering plants within two to three seasons of growth if not controlled. Plus, their long roots will make them difficult to remove once established.
Grant proposals
One of the most intimidating parts to this process might be securing funding. I have found that native plant gardens on school grounds can be very affordable with the help of grants and funding from community organizations. Our native plant garden is around an acre in size. The cost adds up quickly, especially if you plan to forgo planting seeds, plant plugs, or use small potted plants. But again, here’s another chance to get your students involved. Have them research possible grants or brainstorm a list of businesses in the community you could write letters to or even go see in person regarding funding. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned over the years is that businesses want to help out with projects like this. Not only does it make them look good to community members, but they get to make an impression on young consumers who are involved in the project and educators who are able to talk about their business in a positive light for years to come to future students. Don’t be overwhelmed by the grant-writing process. Our native garden project received four different grants. Each one was easy to follow and submit. The process is time-consuming, so don’t wait until the last minute to write and submit each proposal.
What if my garden is out of control!?
At this point, you may have read through the article and thought to yourself, “This information would have been useful to me several years ago, but I need help with a garden that I’ve implemented and it’s out of control!” I know the feeling. Help is on the way. Again, the solution lies with your students. Maybe it’s time to rally the troops and stoke the embers of that initial excitement your students had when you first implemented the garden.
Communication at this point is key. If you are struggling to maintain your native garden on your school grounds, figure out what it will take to get the garden usable and aesthetically pleasing again. Depending on the severity of the overgrowth, you may need to call in a specialist. Again, contacting your county or local university extension office may be the first place to start. This is also the point at which your connections with community experts can become valuable. Find out what they might recommend and start there. Or better yet, have your students take action and make those calls. It’s valuable for students to learn that it’s okay to ask for help and seek advice.
Chances are your students have also noticed that your native garden needs work. Make it a problem for them to fix. Just like when the garden was first planted, this creates ownership and buy-in and can foster inquiry. This way, it doesn’t turn into you demanding them to come help you pull invasive weeds that have taken over your garden; it turns into the students solving a problem and having their say. Be sure to have them identify what young native plants look like so that they’re not pulled out; let them flourish and fill in space to block out more weeds.
Once your garden is back under control, regular maintenance is a must. Even though a native garden is going to look different from a nicely manicured landscape, you should still remove invasive weeds and thin out areas that have become overgrown. I have discovered two solutions to this. First, our native pollinator plot has one student who is in charge of this area. This student is kind of like the head groundskeeper for the area. We choose students that have a passion for the environment and are hard-working. They come in periodically throughout the summer to check on the plot, weed a little, and communicate with me as to whether or not we need to have a pollinator plot clean-up day. The pollinator plot clean-up day is the second line of defense to keep the plot looking good, while also allowing students to stay invested in the area. Essentially, we try to make the day a relaxed atmosphere where students work to remove invasive weeds, but also get time to hang out. We cook out, eat snacks, and just enjoy the area we’ve created.
Communication is essential to establishing an understanding that your native garden will not always look nice and neat. Create signage to explain the benefits for pollinators and native wildlife. Messy is okay to an extent! Your “mess” creates areas for pollinators to overwinter and retreat from the heat of the summer. Your signage should explain to the community that this area is for native pollinators’ benefit, and this is critical because populations of insect pollinators are in rapid decline. People who have questions may get answers by reading your sign, and instead of seeing an eyesore, they will see refuge and purpose. Instead of mess, they will see order and relationship. Creating a clear message to those who are in your community is key. Generally, people will not care about something they don’t understand. A lack of communication can create a misunderstanding, which can be frustrating for you and your students.
Involve the community
One of the most defeating things about a native plant garden on school grounds is that it looks best when the students are out of session. Each summer, late June comes around and the pollinator plot bursts into color. An acre of color, the native plants in all their glory, and no students there to see them. This coming summer, we are piloting a program to bring the students back to the pollinator plot to teach community members about native plants.
Two sessions will be held this summer — one for kids and one for adults. The adult session will be a class on how best to integrate native plants into the home landscape. The children’s class will focus on native ecosystems and wildlife. My students are developing the curriculum and will be co-teaching the classes with me. I predict this will be a powerful addition to our native plant garden that solidifies everyone’s ownership of it.
If you have a hard time getting a summer program developed, encourage your students to digitally connect with other like-minded students and share their progress. We have connected with other schools and shared our project, giving guidance as well as sharing successes and ideas. These moments have been impactful and have greatly increased students’ sense of ownership. They have a lot of pride because they have created an area that is unique and useful for local wildlife. When students from other schools want to know how we have created the area, or what we do with it, our students realize how special the area they have created truly is.
Don’t give up!
The underlying lesson in all of this is to press on and don’t give up. Keeping a native garden growing and flourishing on your school grounds is hard work. Get your students involved and create buy-in, as doing so puts a team of people around you to accomplish your goals. Continue creating opportunities to show off your garden to your community and your student body. Our students need exposure to nature to create a sense of connection to the environment. Give them a place that they feel connected to. Give them ownership in the fight to conserve land for native habitat. Help them have a sense of pride that makes them want to come back to the native garden years after they have graduated to walk around and see how nature has flourished in an area they played a part in stewarding. I believe the opportunities that arise from creating a native plant garden on a school campus can be life-altering — teaching students’ lessons that cannot be learned in the classroom. If you have started a native garden on your school grounds, keep developing it; don’t give up. If you have never started a garden, I urge you to establish the vision for an area on your school grounds and empower your students to become conservation leaders.
Terry Maxwell is a science educator in Seneca, Illinois, USA at Seneca High School (SHS). He is in his 17th year of education. Along with teaching at SHS, Terry leads a conservation club called Conservation In Action and is an assistant football coach as well as head track and field coach. He enjoys landscaping, fishing, and spending time with his family.