We use a large variety of raised bed construction. We have several made with cinder blocks, lumber, and some of those corrugated steel beds. The steel beds seem to be the cheapest option and easy enough for our 4th graders to put together. If you go the route of steel beds, be sure to get ones that are not sharp or steel that is too thin. Epic Gardening has some high quality steel beds but they're also a bit more expensive. My personal recommendation to our schools is to not have a formal raised bed. If we want the garden to be a bit raised, I recommend we basically just mound up the soil to create the bed but without hard edges. You could absolutely use some rocks to establish where the bed starts and where it ends. The picture below shows one of our raised bed gardens without a bed edge.
Irrigation I would say would be based on the size of your gardens. If you have quite a few, it might be cheaper to purchase individual pieces and build a custom system. We have purchased individual parts through Morgan County Seed Company as well as DripWorks. We have one small system that came from an amazon or Home Depot irrigation kit. It's definitely recommended to have an automated timer with the irrigation. We have tried to use manual timers that just run for a specified period when manually started. We found the manual timers did not work for us as we would think someone else was turning it on, or a student didn't look at how long they turned it on for but just turned the dial.
I don't have a great recommendation for tables or benches. Sorry! I hope that info helps. Don't hesitate to email me if you have any questions or need more specifics
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Kendall Slaughter
Farm to School Specialist
Springfield Public Schools
Springfield, Mo
keslaughter@spsmail.org------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 02-26-2025 02:19:52 PM
From: Anna Barsotti
Subject: Irrigation recommendations
Looking for brand recommendations as we use grant funds before the school year ends:
-drip irrigation systems
-raised beds
-tables/benches, including wheelchair and 100% physically accessible for all
Thanks!!
-- Anna Barsotti (she/hers)
School Garden Coordinator/Skill Builder
Duniway Middle School
"We know we cannot plant seeds with closed fists. To sow, we must open our hands." Adolfo Perez Esquivel