Just seeing this post now and I was drawn-in by the title "weaving gardens!" I'm just getting our elementary school interactive garden started and the kids are going to be designing it (in art class!). Rather than having them choose specific plants, I'm creating "icons" that are roughly to scale (and the teacher knows how to guide them re: layers and having taller plants in back, etc.) and connote some basics of the plants that could go there (e.g., cut flowers, carnivorous bog, aromatic herbs, berries, hummingbird climbers, creeping strawberries, frog pond, dye plants, etc.) Some example icons attached.
Having weaving plants would also be awesome!! I do weaving with invasive vines and withies and we have so many of those nearby that I figured we would get them from the stuff that should be removed anyway (invasive wisteria, kudzu, English ivy, etc.).
No "results" yet about engagement, but I started last year with a plant sale fundraiser in fall and spring and a gardening day at our school's front sign and it definitely built enthusiasm and excitement amongst staff, parents, AND kiddos! As the momentum continues to build, it's my hope to work with the school counselor and the EC teachers to develop a "therapeutic garden" (bringing my therapeutic horticulture background into the mix) and possibly other types of gardens depending on what folks want and what is deemed feasible and sustainable! (Our current interactive garden project is going to be 95% perennials with many of them being native so it will be a bit of a food forest meets cottage garden meets fruit orchard!)
I setup our school garden club as a 4H Junior Master Gardener club (can be done in conjunction with any county extension office!!) so we would have that institutional support and eventually be able to work more seamlessly with teachers to have curriculum activities that take place in the garden or somehow in relation to it (e.g., I did some seed-starting/soil experiments with teachers last year but we didn't have anywhere to plant the seedlings!).
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Deena Class
Word & Plant
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-12-2024 07:10:29 PM
From: Alycia Wright
Subject: weaving gardens & other subjects
I'd love to hear some ways that you have used gardening creatively across multiple disciplines like math, language arts or social studies. What were the results? Did student engagement increase, or did you see an increase in knowledge retention or real-world applications?
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Alycia Wright
Culturalrootsco-op.com
Richmond Va
8043068116
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