Growing School Food Gardens

I have been developing a school garden in my Prek through 2nd grade school over the past four years. This has been in addition to teaching science and technology in classrooms. We have students come to the gardens during recess and I offer several stand alone gardening lessons to teachers.

I am working on a proposal to make gardening and sustainability experiences more consistent throughout the year. (especially August - November and March through June) I want to have a more consistent flow of students in the gardens without making "garden class" part of the regular pull out schedule.

What kinds of schedules or agreements have you tried that have worked to get teachers and students in the gardens on a regular basis? Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Phil

Phil,

The more grassroots you make it, the better, more sustainable it will be. Mandated times and contracts are more impediments to participation.  Seek out those teachers enthusiastic about participation, be flexible with scheduling.  It will take time, but through word of mouth and seeing kids out there (and kids talking with kids), you will build a core group of participants.  I have managed to fend off administrations that wanted contracts and assigned boxes and cleanest planter box contests, and over time (3 school years). We have an open learning community garden, where classes come (mostly every other week on an A/B rotation) and plant, cultivate, and harvest according to the season(with appropriate lessons sprinkled in). No assigned boxes.  No contracts.   Best Wishes.

Peace.

Fidel

Hi Fidel - thanks for sharing your experiences with building a strong gardening community. Fortunately, I don't have a push from my administrator to build it a certain way or mandate that teachers/students are out there a certain number of times. You're input plus others' have given me plenty to think about. 

Hi Phil,

I volunteer with our area Master Gardeners at an elementary school every Wednesday from 11am-2pm. During that time, the teachers are invited to bring out small groups of kids to help with whatever we are doing. Some weeks it may be working in the onsite vegetable and herb garden. Some weeks it may be landscaping. Each time the kids have a small amount of time to learn and participate. It is kept informal, but we try to introduce new terminology each week and cycle through different types of plant anatomy. I believe that if you try to establish interest across several classrooms first, you may have some luck at establishing a garden club.

Rachel Schwartz

Chesapeake, VA