Hi Monica, what a wonderful project!
School Garden Network (based in Northern California) has a variety of resources on creating schoolyard habitats with your students, found at www.schoolgardens.org > Programs > "Schoolyard Habitat". There are several resources on native plants and habitat design, site preparation and planting, water-wise gardening, and ongoing habitat garden maintenance. Depending on age, students can get involved in many parts of the garden design and installation process - including measuring the site and making a site map, doing simple soil tests to learn about soil texture and microbial life, making native plant signs, and of course being part of the actual garden preparation, planting, and direct seeding of native wildflower annuals.
A great way to introduce younger students to learning about habitats and involving them in the garden design and plant selection is by teaching them about birds, butterflies, and bees that live or migrate in your area, and then introducing a few native plants that they rely on for food and shelter (that also fit with your school's soil, water, and temperature conditions). Students can then choose what animals they are most excited about supporting, and then select plants based on this criteria.
School Garden Network also has a library of ecology-focused curriculum found at www.schoolgardens.org > Resources > Curriculum Library > "Learning Ecosystems" Curriculum.
If you're on the East Coast, you may want to search "Schoolyard Habitat" to see if there are any local organizations that can support and fund your project (for instance, Audubon Connecticut has a Schoolyard Habitat Program, and they also have a variety of curriculum and other resources: https://ct.audubon.org/schoolyard-habitat). As mentioned in another post, Wild Ones (https://wildones.org) is another great resource. You could also reach out to local businesses to see if they would like to donate any tools, bulk amendments, or plants (eg. local native plant nurseries, hardware stores, native habitat restoration and landscaping orgs, etc.).
Best of luck and have fun!
Michelle
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Michelle Krieg
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-06-2025 12:29:57 PM
From: Monica Naugler
Subject: Native Plant Landscape Design with Students
Hi! I am a garden club advisors at our elementary school.
We are looking to have our garden club (grades 5 & 6) help redesign the landscape beds in the front of our school. We want to focus on native perennials and also leave some room for the annuals (zinnias/cosmos/marigolds) that the kids start from seed over winter.
Has anyone done something like this before? Any suggestions on resources or how to best do this with kids?
We are zone 6b (previously 6a). Full sun, very windy. Compacted, clay soil.
Thanks!
Monica
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Monica Naugler
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