School Garden Guide: Rock'n Renew

Rock n Renew School Garden Guide
Rock n Renew Garden Guide |
Table of Contents
Rock n Renew3 Accomplishments....4 Why Garden...6 Assessing Your Needs...7 Creating a Vision..8 Determining Your Goals..14 Forming a School Garden Team....17 Designing the Garden..20 Building the Garden..27 Planting Day..29 Teaching with Plants.31 Getting Your Hands Dirty...40 Challenges..42 Sustaining a School Garden.....45 Evaluation...46 Resources...49
Rock n Renew
A PLAN OF ACTION FOR THE PLANET THAT ROCKS!
Rock n Renew focuses on delivering the most effective environmental education possible to students of all ages through partnerships with some of todays most important musicians, scientists, environmental engineers, and entrepreneurs. Utilizing the inspiring influence of Rock n Renews talented artists help to deliver mind opening relevance to this critical subject for students who are often physically and culturally removed from the need to protect the environment. Rock n Renew works to connect student curriculum to many local community projects in an effort to restore local food systems and ecosystems.
Founded by musician Jonny Dubowsky, Rock n Renew is committed to the practical pursuit of environmental health and sustainability. As Jonnys band, Jonny Lives!, met with increasing success, they began to frequent tours of over 20,000 miles each. Concerned about fuel consumption and its impact on the planet, Jonny utilized biodiesel kits to transform the groups tour buses into mobile classrooms/greenhouses, powered by french-fry grease from fast food restaurants! From here, Rock n Renew grew into a multifaceted organization with resources and connections to create environmental change. Rock 'n Renew utilizes science-based solutions that move past the topic of "global warming" or climate change, and instead focus on what steps communities can take together to improve their access to local, organic, and nutritious food and restore local ecosystems.
Ecology Centers Rock n Renew has three ecology centers: Bayonne, New Jersey El Jardin Garden, NYC Big Island, Hawaii These centers use the outdoor environment as a classroom to educate students about their role in safeguarding our planet. Through lectures and workshops on ecology and agriculture, we make students aware of the hazards posed by unethically produced food. Each ecology center has a thriving garden where students learn how to grow their own food, while exploring the differences between various agricultural practices such as Biodynamics, Permatculture, Biointensive, Natural Farming, No Till Farming, and many others. Through scientific analysis, students make their own evaluations as to which system works best.
Accomplishments
El Jardin Garden, NYC El Jardin Del Paradiso is an incredible 3/4 acre garden located in the Lower East Side of NYC. It is an inspiring model in urban restoration. In the 1980s this site was a burned-out, rubblefilled waste-land. Through the efforts of the El Jardin members this site now features a pond within a native wetland of plants and trees that last flourished in this neighborhood in the 1600s! Rock n Renew helped build the garden and now works with the El Jardin members to continue its restoration and gardening efforts. We hold gardening and cooking workshops, concerts, and events at this beautiful space. We want the neighborhood to take full advantage of this great space for growing food and building a stronger community. Partner Schools Rock n Renew built gardens at all 11 schools in the Bayonne School District. We also have partnerships with many schools across the country. Syracuse University, NY Browning School, NY Sag Harbor Elementary School, NY Utah State University, UT The Grand St. Campus, NY Louisiana State University, LA Churchill School, NY Missouri State University, MO Columbia Grammar School, NY University of Guelph, Canada PS 112 Lefferts Park, NY Fresno City College, CA PS 121 Throop, NY Virginia State University, VA The Childrens Workshop School, NY C.W. Post College of Long Island Stone Robinson Elementary, VA University, NY The Crossroads School, CA LaGrange College, GA Bronx Community College, NY University of Illinois Springfield, IL Illinois Wesleyan University, IL Wilmington College, OH South Seneca School District, NY
Watershed Restoration Rock n Renew works to restore local watersheds and wetlands. RnR began a large community project to restore the shoreline habitat behind Bayonne High School, along Newark Bay. Students removed invasive species and planted native plants in an effort to renew the shoreline habitat. They visit the site to monitor and record the effectiveness of the restoration. As Newark Bay transitioned into one of the larger shipping and refinery ports in the US, nearly all of the natural shoreline access has been replaced by engineered structures and piers. It is this same loss that was a major contributing factor to the level of damage that was experienced by shoreline communities from Hurricane Sandy. A series of robust native tidal marshland zones and other similar ecosystems that if properly restored at the adequate scale and size, can help to create buffer zones to soften the impact of the serious storms that are becoming a regular part of our year. Students, who help to run the programs, visit the site to monitor and record the effectiveness of the restoration through a series of recorded data in a variety of categories to ensure accurate and credible findings that will help to create scalable and replicative projects which can be set up at the most efficient cost basis possible. Musket Ridge Golf Course and Wedding Venue Rock n Renew helped reduce the golf courses environmental impact, while providing benefit to the community and neighborhood. Rock n Renew helped them implement a zero food waste initiative through a bokashi composting program. Musket Ridge now composts all of their food waste from the weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, and other events where several hundred people are being fed and also wasting significant volumes of food. The program also focuses on helping the chef grow food for the catering/banquet facility with added vitality for the garden provided by the compost made from the food waste generated on site.
Why Garden with Your School?
School gardens are sprouting up all over the United States and other countries! This international interest in school gardens is refocusing education philosophy on an activity that has engaged children since time immemorial. Rock n Renew advocates the use of plant-based learning across the curriculum. Training teachers to incorporate the use of outdoor gardens, natural settings and plant activities in their classroom lessons achieve this goal. Our goal is to help make plant-based learning a part of every school child's education. An Overview of Rock n Renew Garden Programs Rock n Renew can help your school to plan for, design, install and maintain gardens of all styles, purposes and sizes. Rock n Renew has a strong commitment to gardening with schools because of a belief that a school garden is an important platform for active, interdisciplinary student learning. So, are you interested in starting a School Garden? If you are interested in beginning a school garden, the staff at Rock n Renew can help you turn your school's gardening visions into a real-life outdoor classroom. We created this guide as a comprehensive detailed description of what steps are necessary to start a school garden, design ideas, and more.
Assessing Your Needs

Before you start planning your school garden, you need to assess your needs. What is my purpose? What are your educational goals and teaching objectives for the garden? What do you want to use the garden for in terms of teaching? How will this guide which physical features you need? What is my style? What style works for your schools culture and the neighborhood context? Is it fitting to have a naturalistic landscape with prairie and woodland native plants, or would a more traditional garden be more suitable? If you like the look of more formal landscapes, is there a group of people willing to maintain that look? What kind of maintenance is involved? How much maintenance will you be able to realistically provide for the garden? Ask the school garden committee what they are willing to do, and think about recruiting interested neighbors (look for the nice gardens in the community!) and parents who may be willing to help as garden volunteers. This is where inclusiveness in the planning process can really pay off! Example: Naturalistic styles need less maintenance, and formal styles need more. If there is turf grass included, it will require periodic mowing and regular watering and weeding. If there are annual fruits and vegetables, there will be more intensive watering needs during the summer. Tip: Involve those kids! Kids can be great weeders and waterers, and often welcome the chance to prove themselves as caretakers. Caring for a garden is a great way for kids to practice and develop personal skills such as responsibility, cooperation, leadership, and sensitivity. What is my budget? Although you should think big; ultimately, the budget can be limiting for most school garden projects. As you plan your garden design, keep a list of possible materials and their quantities so that you develop a reasonable construction estimate. Visit a landscape supply business and learn the cost of various materials. Example: Mulch makes good and inexpensive pathways as opposed to other paving, which can be expensive and may require professional installation. Simple raised beds made from cedar will be slightly more costly than pressure-treated lumber, but it is usually worth it to know you are not using any questionable chemicals around children or food crops.
Creating a Vision
Analyzing the Site
Garden site analysis is the basic process of getting to know your existing conditions and assessing what will stay, what will go, and what should be modified. It will involve a series of direct field observations that are drawn onto a base map. A base map serves as a foundation to guide your garden design, and will help you choose the right features and plants for your site conditions, and keep everything in scale. Getting the Kids Involved Kids love to measure! If the group can use measuring tapes, have them develop the base map. Let them work in small groups and then compare the various base maps produced to assess accuracy. Discuss the issues of accuracy in measuring. A good tie to the concept of replication in the real-world science experiments! Climate and Microclimate Determine your growing zone and climate. Where you are located in the country dictates your climate, or the overall weather and temperature conditions you have. Climate affects when your first and last freezes occur, and what activities you may be able to do during a given season. Getting the Kids Involved Ask your students to take temperature, light, and wind measurements at different locations around your campus; see how the measurements are different or similar. Discuss the weather patterns for your region and how the variations of your schoolyard affect the conditions that plants may face. (For instance, is there a protected courtyard area?) Ask them to create a diagram of the schools microclimate conditions. Tip: If you are studying weather as part of your curriculum, you may want to have students repeat these measurements throughout the year to create an annual climate log. Neighborhood context Determine how the property relates to the surrounding neighborhood. Go out and do a walking survey, really look around the neighborhood and see what is going on, even at various times of day. Ask yourself: Whats next to the property on each side and what goes on there? Are there certain traffic patterns, either from cars or from people walking?
What do you need to consider about the landscapes of the adjacent properties? Are they all very tidy and neat or are some unkempt and in need of attention? Are there businesses or neighbors who will have a view into your garden or you into their property? Are there views you want to screen? Think about the neighbors perspective: Are there areas that should be screened to give neighbors better privacy or screened for noise? Draw the features of the adjacent properties on your base map and be sure to note any views to emphasize or screen. Getting the Kids Involved Take kids on a neighborhood walk with their journals and let them record their observations; if they are too young to write, have them draw pictures. Discuss the things they saw when you return to class. Light Determine the light conditions of the space. Observe the light at various times of day. Typically full sun is > 6 hours per day, shade is < 2-3 hours, and part shade is in between, but the intensity and seasonality factors should be considered as well. Ask yourself: Does the site have full sun, partial sun, or shady conditions? Do these light conditions exist based on seasonal or year-round shade due to buildings/evergreens? Is there shade in the morning but full sun in the afternoon? Is the light filtered through the canopy of a tree overhead? Tip: Afternoon light and southern or western exposures tend to make the light more intense, so even if shorter in duration, it may still be considered full sun.
Getting the Kids Involved For older students, it may be possible to have them actually measure the light with light meters used for photography, an example of using the tools of science. For younger students, simply focus on how sunny it is in various areas. Watch the shadows move across the schoolyard throughout the day; visit each hour and mark where the building shadows fall. Tip: Explore how the sun moves from east to west and how the time of day or the angle of the sun affects the intensity of the light. This is a great way to link the study of the earths rotation in relation to the sun to a practical application; that is, looking at the amount of sun your garden will receive at different times of the year.
Soil Determine the type of soil. Get to know your soil by taking a small handful and squeezing the soil between your fingers. Ask yourself: Does it feel gritty? This indicates sand. Does it feel smooth like clay? This indicates high clay content. Does it feel somewhere in between gritty and smooth, with a crumbly texture? This indicates a loam soil that contains a balanced mix of the sand, silt, and clay particles. Do you see little pieces of leaves and bark? Is there a clean, earthy smell to the soil? This indicates a good amount of organic material, also called humus. Tip: Soil may be different in different areas of your site, so sample it in several spots. Whats in soil, anyway? Soil is composed of mineral and organic components as well as air spaces. The mineral particles may be sand, silt, or clay, with sand being the largest particle and clay being the smallest. All soils are some combination of these three particles. The organic component refers to the bits of decomposing plant material in the soil; this is a healthy aspect to the soil as it provides nutrients and improves drainage. What is compost and when do I need it? Compost is simply decomposed plant material that we mix into the top 6-8 of soil to improve the texture and nutrient capacity of the soil. The most common problem with soil is that it doesnt have enough organic material in its composition. This is why we add compost. Heavy clay soils may also need to have sand added, but most soils just need extra organic matter. If you have your soil tested, the analysis usually includes a section with recommendations for modifying your soil, which may include the addition of compost. Getting the Kids Involved Let them get dirty! Have teams collect soil samples from locations scattered throughout the site, and then do feel tests on each of their labeled samples. How do they describe and rank each sample? Put your sample into a jar and fill it with water; let the jar sit overnight to settle and examine how the layers of particles have distributed in the morning. The different particles will create separate layers. Clay will sink to the bottom, with sand above it, and silt on top. Organic matter will float to the surface and form a layer there. Students can then clearly estimate percent sand, silt, and clay and compare it with the predictions they made when they collected the samples. For older students, have them test pH and basic nutrient rates for N, P, and K (nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium) back in the classroom (simple kits are available at garden centers.) Tip: Send a representative sample off to your university extension service for actual testing; this usually costs less than $20.
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Drainage Determine where your water will drain. Surface drainage has to do with the way water runs across the site. Internal drainage is the way water runs through the soil. How do I know where the water drains? The best way to analyze surface drainage is simply to observe the water and where it goes during a rainstorm. There may be soil channels in the ground where erosion has occurred, and you (and your students) will probably have a good idea of where it puddles when it rains. Draw the drainage patterns on your base map. Getting the Kids Involved To measure internal drainage, students can conduct a percolation test. Percolation refers to the rate at which water drains, or percolates, through the soil. Dig a small hole, about 1 x 1 and fill the hole with water and monitor how quickly the water drains. If the water disappears in less than 30 minutes, the soil is extremely well-drained and probably has a lot of sand in it. If the hole still has water in it after an hour, your site has poor drainage and likely has high clay content. Draw any areas of poor or excessive drainage on your base map. Let kids go out and look at the site during a rainstorm (under umbrellas, when there is no lightening!); work in partners so one student can hold the umbrella and one can draw the patterns of surface flow. Have them conduct a basic percolation test as described above.
Traffic and use patterns Determine how people move across the site and make use of the space. Draw these patterns as arrows on your base map; the larger the arrow, the heavier the flow of traffic. If there is a building entrance or exit that gets especially heavy use, make note of it on the base map. Ask yourself: Are there walkways that people use? Do people cut across the grass and wear new paths in the turf? (These are all called desire paths. It is usually best to accommodate them in your design, as it is difficult to stop people from using these short-cuts.) Are there spaces where people gather to play or hang out? Existing features Determine the buildings, sidewalks, trees, shrubs, manholes, fences, light poles, utility boxes, playground equipment, and anything else that is a permanent feature on your site. Measure these items from a known location, like the building or property corner and draw them onto your base map in scale. Label all the features and make notes about the conditions; if a sidewalk is broken and needs repair, state that on your base map.
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Holding a Vision Meeting

Once the area has been surveyed and a site has been selected, the school can begin to envision their ideal school garden. The school garden team should hold a vision-creation session to formulate a better idea of what the garden should become. This exercise serves to generate discussion among teachers and students about the character of the garden, its primary uses, and the schools priorities for the space. The outcome of the Vision Meeting will be a mission statement and concept design for the garden and should be included in your proposal. Do it democratically! In addition to team members, invite other faculty, student representatives, a few interested parents, and active community members as appropriate so that everyone who is impacted by the garden has a voice in the planning process. Including a range of perspectives will result in a greater depth of information and will generate good will as well as increased support and participation in the entire school community. Scheduling Schedule the Vision Meeting at a time when most participants can attend, ideally setting aside at least 90 minutes for the exercise. Roles Assign one team member to act as a facilitator. Another garden team member should take notes and be prepared to transcribe them so that no valuable ideas are lost. A third team member should keep track of the groups comments on chart paper, chalkboard, or another large writing surface, so that all can see and react to the input. Start the session A facilitator begins the discussion by posing a series of open-ended questions to the group. What would you like students to learn in the garden? What would you like them to do? What topics do you teach that might be enriched by a garden? What additional topics could you teach if you had a school garden? What student interests might be expressed in this garden? What are some potential educational goals for this project? What other purposes might this garden serve? What existing landscape features present opportunities for an educational garden?
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What are priorities for the gardens design and use? Tip: Participants should be encouraged to consider a broad range of educational applications of the garden, including its application to math, geography, history, language arts, and fine art, as well as science topics such as biology and ecology. Tip: As the team considers different possibilities, they can begin to identify teaching goals for their garden. These can be compiled on a separate list, which the school garden team will further refine into a formal garden mission statement as the process moves forward. The resulting list of educational goals will guide curricular activities and teacher training sessions, and ultimately connect classroom lessons with the garden.
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Determining Your Goals Worksheet

This worksheet is intended to be a guide for you to summarize your goals for the entire project. 1. Garden as a learning environment a. How will the garden support the larger educational goals and values of the school? b. What educational activities and lessons will you incorporate into the garden? c. What activities are planned or could be planned to enable learners to: i. use the garden for scientific and multi-disciplinary learning? ii. gain confidence and enthusiasm for learning? iii. acquire gardening and environmental stewardship skills? iv. achieve other educational goals through active participation in the garden? d. How can the garden meet the learning objectives of a particular lesson or unit? e. Do some goals take priority over others? If so, how should this influence the design? f. How will you meet the needs of students with disabilities or special learning issues? 2. School garden team a. Does the team promote active participation by administrators, teachers, students, parents, neighbors, and volunteers? b. Who does the school hope to motivate and train to use the garden: the entire faculty, teachers from a specific grade level, only interested teachers? c. Is every team member involved, or does most of the work fall to one or two staff members? 3. Garden maintenance needs a. What are the special maintenance needs of the garden and how will they be met? b. Do you have a system for assigning garden chores? c. Do you have a system for maintaining the garden during the summer when school is not in session? d. If vandalism is a potential challenge, how might it be discouraged and minimized?
4. Teacher training a. In what areas or topics is training needed? (e.g., garden care and maintenance, curriculum connections, etc.) b. Are training workshops scheduled at convenient times and locations for the majority of the participants? c. What topics or content would best meet teachers needs and interests? d. Do activities and lessons meet the local, state, and national standards? e. What are your sources of expertise for training?
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5. Student involvement a. How will the student body be involved with the garden? b. What aspects of garden installation and maintenance will the students participate in? c. What educational activities will the students conduct in the garden? d. Will the students be engaged in active discovery, problem solving, and questioning? e. If the garden has already been established, what activities are planned or could be planned for students to: i. use the garden for learning across the curriculum? ii. gain confidence and enthusiasm for learning? iii. acquire gardening and environmental stewardship skills? iv. achieve other educational goals through active participation in the garden? f. What smaller scale events and activities make the garden part of the students daily lives (such as recess time, story hours, etc.)? 6. Extra-curricular activities a. For which extra-curricular and community activities will the garden be used? b. What events, programs, or celebrations will be planned in the garden? c. What ceremonies or cultural events will be held in the garden? 7. Parents, community, and networking a. How will the garden team work with existing in-school networks of parents (PTO/PTA/Local School Council)? b. Where are opportunities to tap into the support and resources offered by parents and parent groups? c. Is there a citywide network of school garden projects and teams that the school might participate in? If so, how will participation help sustain the garden? d. How will the school garden be used and supported by the community? What opportunities exist?
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Forming a School Garden Team

Assembling a motivated, committed school garden team can be the key to building a garden that endures for years. This team should consist of a core group that will be the most active participants in planning as well as others who may play an important but more peripheral role, or who may address some of the diverse constituency of learners who will be using the garden. We recommend a minimum of six people to form the core of the team. Six key roles 1: The Facilitator/Principal will: Participate in planning, enlist and motivate the school engineer and other key staff Approve events and activities of the team (which may include release time for teacher training) Enlist support of the community and parent organizations Help with fundraising Handle other leadership responsibilities with respect to the garden Tip: The Principal or Vice Principal need not play as active a role in gardening as teachers and other school members, but they should be on board to support the idea and key needs. 2: Garden Coordinator will: Oversee issues relating to the physical garden (as opposed to the curriculum) Work closely with the school principal in establishing the schools core team Organize regular meetings with the team Take the lead for making plans Tip: It is helpful if this person has gardening experience. This may be a teacher or parent who is a gardener, and who has time available to dedicate energy to make calls, recruit help, find and order supplies, etc. 3. Planting Day Leader will: Work ahead of time to promote pre-planting activities such as getting seeds started in classrooms and training staff for the planting day Secure access to a water source and tools, and work out a planting schedule for the school Tip: Planting Day is a large-scale event and requires one person to take charge of coordinating the days activities. Experience has shown that delegating this job to another individual eases the burden on the Coordinator and Principal. This is an ideal job for someone who can be involved heavily, but for only a short time, as it is a specific event-oriented responsibility. (If
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there is to be an annual planting day in subsequent years, then the position can rotate to include a new individual every year.) 4. Resource Leader will: Collect, store, and distribute educational resource materials that will help teachers make use of the garden Write articles when the school wants to publicize the project in school newsletters, local papers, or other outlets Tip: Librarians make excellent Resource Leaders. Additionally, enthusiastic parent volunteers could take this role or work closely with this individual to form a subcommittee for School Garden Education Resources. 5. The Parent-Teacher Liaison will: Keep the schools PTA, PTO, and/or Local School Council informed of the gardens progress and events Recruit parents and members of the community to assist with the garden by volunteering with labor or contributing money or supplies Tip: This should be a person who is knowledgeable about the garden, and who is also comfortable speaking before groups. 6. Fundraiser/PR Leader will: Seek additional funds to sustain the garden. Seek sources of funding from local, state, and national agencies Work closely with the Principal and assume the lead role in publicizing garden successes in terms of soliciting and securing funds Tip: Securing funds might begin with seeking donations or in-kind support from neighborhood businesses and organizing a school fundraiser. Tips for forming a great team Most of the team members will probably be teachers from the school, but the team will be stronger and have a better chance of surviving if it also includes people from other areas of the school community. The team might include other school staff such as librarians, resource teachers, maintenance staff, administrative staff, and cafeteria staff. Each of these professionals brings a different expertise and perspective to the project. The students themselves will have valuable ideas to offer, so having student representatives on the team is an asset. Neighbors and other community members might also have time, ideas, and resources to contribute as team members. Parents, especially, should be recruited for involvement. They are already members of the schools neighborhood and community
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and have a strong vested interest in the success of the schools garden, that is, the enhancement of their childs education! At-home parents can be good sources of help, as they may have flexible schedules that allow them to make phones calls, gather resources, and generate ideas that classroom teachers havent the time to do. Building Your Team! Computer/tech teachers can help connect the curriculum to technology and plant research through the Internet. Physical education teachers can connect the garden to physical activity, stress relief, stretching, and exercise as well as safe lifting and digging. School nurses or dieticians can help create a nutritional emphasis on gardens that include vegetables and herbs. Include Special Needs Teachers: gardens are wonderfully flexible learning environments and can be used effectively for learners of diverse abilities. Special needs teachers can help ensure that the garden design will accommodate unique needs such as the use of wheelchairs or walkers. They can also ensure that the design includes a wide range of learning opportunities for everyone. And remember... A schools core team may consist of additional members who share leadership and responsibility for the jobs described above. Other participants may be involved in a supporting rather than leading capacity. All team members should attend their own garden team meetings and teacher training sessions, work actively with students during planting days, and take responsibility for overseeing maintenance of the garden during the school year and summer. Role of a School Garden Team Once a school garden team is organized, the team members should develop a work plan and outline their expectations. The school garden team members will make decisions about how they will execute the tasks listed below. Set regular meetings. Outline tasks and time commitments; maintain a calendar for the teams activities. Plan the garden design and installation with input from as many school community members as possible. See Create the Garden for details. Continually work to increase participation by each member and to recruit more members. Create an open forum for input and discussion by participants and new members Create events and programming in the garden (e.g., open houses, graduation parties, and harvest festivals) to invite school families, neighbors, and other members of the community to celebrate the garden and become more involved in efforts to sustain it. See Getting the Community Involved.
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Establish a plan for on-going maintenance. Develop a rubric for evaluating the success of the project in order to identify strengths and weaknesses that will affect sustainability. Go Team Go The School Garden Team assumes the lead responsibility for the school gardens continued success and sustainability ultimately rests under the leadership of the school garden team. The school may face some challenges in keeping the garden growing strong on all fronts, but these issues can be overcome. The team might be challenged by... Maintaining a school garden team with adequate number of participants when key team members leave the school Caring for the garden with student participation throughout the school year Keeping the garden growing during the summer season when school is not in session and fewer people are available to work in the garden Obtaining resources to sustain and expand the garden and its programs. Integrating the garden with the curricula so that it supports attainment of local, state, and national learning goals. Making the time to perform an annual self-assessment so that problems can be identified and addressed and then adjusting the garden program to meet those issues. Continuing to use the garden for programs and events. Keeping community interest high, and continuing to solicit active, sustained participation in garden activities. Networking and keeping contact with other schools that have gardens in order to share ideas and support. Remember: It is the team members abilities to take leadership roles and apply what they gain from teacher trainings and their relationship with the collaboration that will affect the longterm outcome of the garden.
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Designing the Garden
Line The visual line is formed by the contrast between features. Lines in a design help move our eye through the space, whether they are owing curves or energetic angles. Vertical lines move your eye up and down. (Dont forget opportunities to make use of vertical space in your garden, which can add a whole other dimension.) Horizontal lines draw your eye across the scene. Curving lines will tend to draw you into the space, as you want to see where it leads. Example: A line is formed by the edge of the turf grass and the owerbed. Tip: Strong lines that denote the edge of beds are much easier for young students to identify. If kids can distinguish between spaces, they will stay on paths and out of the middle of beds, as long as they can make out the distinction. Form Design features perceived by our eye have an overall form and are used to add interest through contrast, harmony, or repetition. Example: A pyramidal evergreen or a vase-shaped ornamental tree can draw our eyes in and create focal points in the landscape. Or, an arch or two upright scrubs can be spaced to create a visual entrance to the garden. Texture Rough or smooth, textures affect our perception of the relative distance of the object. Fine textures tend to recede and coarse textures tend to advance. Contrasting coarse and ne textures tend to provide energy. Example: Magnolias, with their large leaves, are considered coarse-textured, while Japanese Maples, with their delicate, serrated leaves are ne-textured.
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Color Color can provide a subtle, soothing mood when used in monochromatic families or they can inject energy when used with contrasting, complimentary colors. Example: Red, orange, and yellow are considered hot colors, appear to advance (appear closer), and are excitable colors. Blues, purples, and greens are considered cool colors, appear to recede into the distance, and are calming colors. Tip: People tend to design landscapes around ower colors rst, but really should focus on the lines, forms, and textures of the overall plants, as the owers are only in bloom for a short time. Did you know that most meditation gardens use cool colors, while large theme parks often use hot color schemes to keep people excited and moving? Perhaps the overall presence of green in any garden is one contributing factor to gardens being regarded as calming places. Repetition Add harmony to the design by repeating an element, particularly form or color, throughout the landscape. Variety Add energy and interest by varying the features so its not all the same view; think in terms of seasonal variations and varying focal points at different times of year. Balance Place comparable masses on either side of a feature; may be symmetrical or asymmetrical. Emphasis/Focal point Create a spot in the landscape where the eye pauses and looks for a longer period, usually because something is particularly interesting or pleasing. Sequence Provide cues for the garden visitor on how to move through the various areas and what to do in each; refer to the sequence of the owering and seasonal colors of the planting scheme. Scale Keep in mind the relative sizes of the areas within the garden and the features and plants used. Garden-specic design issues Choreography of experience When designing a garden, the designer is in essence choreographing a dance of movement through a space; she is specically planning how you will move through that space and what
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you will do in each area, for example. Do you meander slowly along a stepping stone path? Do you move quickly along a broad, paved walkway? Are there quiet alcoves with seating that entice you to pause and reect? How the garden space is arranged creates a particular experience visitors will have as they move through it. Transitions Spatial transitions refer to how the various areas of the garden relate to one another. For example, how do you transition from the vegetable growing area to the prairie and buttery meadow? Seasonal transitions refer to how the garden includes features and plant choices that keep the space interesting and functional in every season even winter! Movement This is how you move through a space, but it also refers to plant movement. For example, ornamental grasses are great for adding movement to the planting design. Focus This is where your eye rests, which is often on the details of the plants or the added features (like arbors or artwork). The spot where your eye comes to rest naturally is called the focal point. Too many focal points in a small space are mentally confusing, as the eye does not know where to rest. Sense of space This is the overall feeling the space conveys when you view it and when youre in it. For example, is the garden sunny, open, and colorful? Is it shady, secluded, and quiet? What atmosphere do you want to create? Composition This is the overall garden, the overall impact of the space, and how all of the features and areas work together to create a whole. Understanding Your Climate Where you are located in the country dictates your climate, or the overall weather and temperature conditions in your area. Climate also affects what activities you may be able to do during a given season. The term growing zone is used by the nursery and gardening industry as a common reference point for determining the range of a plant. For example, hibiscus (Hibiscus rosesinensis) is hardy only to Zone 9 where the average low temperatures are 20-25F. Gardeners in Chicago, which is Zone 5 (average low temperatures reaching -20F), would be advised not to use this plant.
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Alternatively, if a gardener in Chicago was looking for a owering shrub, they would be better advised to select Lilac (Syringa vulgaris), Althea (Hibiscus syriacus), or Abelina (Abelia grandiora), all of which are hardy in Zone 5. Microclimate Microclimate refers to the small-scale conditions specic to your site. For example, if your garden is on the east side of a large building, it likely will be sheltered from prevailing western winds during the winter and may only receive direct sunlight during the morning hours. Conversely, if your site is on the southern or western side of a brick building, it likely has hotter, drier conditions given the exposure to afternoon sun and radiant heat from the building. Do I Really Need Drawings? Yes. A plan drawing of your school garden is a sketch of the space and your proposed use for it. It neither has to be an elaborate drawing, nor done by a professional. And, yes, you can do it! Plan drawings are not that complicated. Materials you need: graph paper tracing paper colored pencils ruler A plan drawing... is a critical and valuable communication tool allows you to show teachers and students what will be built, including the location and size of the individual classroom beds so they can start planning their crops The rst step in developing a good set of plan drawings is to develop a solid base map that shows the dimensions and existing conditions of your garden site. A base map is the point from which you are starting to build the garden, or the original site. You will refer back to it repeatedly. After developing your base map, you will create subsequent designs on tracing paper (placed over graph paper) and to be viewed as an overlay to the base map. This overlay is so that viewers can see the proposal design in relation to whats already there, as shown on the base map. What is a base map and how do I develop one? A base map is the result of a series of direct eld observations of your site. The base map will serve as a foundation to guide your garden design, will help you choose the right features and plants for your site conditions, and will help you keep everything in scale. Use the information
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you gathered in Analyze the Site about size, climate, neighborhood, light, soil, drainage, trafc, and existing features to develop your base map. Your base map can also be called a scale drawing, where: 1 foot in real life = 1/4 or 1/8 inch on graph paper Next, draw your bubble diagrams Once the base map is drawn, you can use tracing paper overlays to draw simple bubble diagrams to experiment with ideas for different zones of use within the garden. Bubble diagrams are simple circles on a piece of tracing paper that lay atop your base map in order to dene the locations of the various garden features. Since you have made the base map to scale, you can assess on paper if, for example, there is enough room for pathways or to plant a tree that will reach 40 feet across at maturity. Better to do this type of planning on paper than to plant a tree in the wrong location! Then add another layer... Another piece of tracing paper can be used to quickly draw another possible layout; just keep rening until you have a version that addresses each of the goals you have identied for your garden. You can create many bubble diagrams to experiment with different ideas. This is perfectly ne because now is the time to experiment with various placements of use areas rather than when the garden is being constructed! Once the bubble diagram is developed, more tracing paper can be used to start planning the actual features of the gardenthe paths, trees, planting beds, sundials, etc. The drawing will allow you to see how these areas and features relate to each other, and comprise the overall composition of the garden. Tip: Having a plan drawing provides a great fundraising tool! If you can show potential funders your plan, then they know you are serious and have given careful consideration to your project, and therefore will be more likely to help with funding. Include Everyone in the Process It is highly recommended that a school garden team use an inclusive design process to collect input from all members of the school and incorporate the collective ideas into a design for the school garden that represents everyone who will be using it. What is the Inclusive Design Process? The inclusive design process invites teachers and students to contribute creative ideas and provide input in the nal design before garden installation. It emphasizes consideration of how the garden will be used, rather than its appearance, and puts the creative power in the hands of the school team. The inclusive design process can aid in developing the appropriate adaptations to the garden to meet the needs of individuals with special needs or disabilities.
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Hold a Design Workshop Organize a Design Workshop that relies on the inclusive design process whereby all participants can openly discuss ideas. A well-run Design Workshop generally results in strong feelings of ownership and pride in the garden and the school. Tip: A Design Workshop is slightly different than a Vision Meeting, something we recommend you hold prior to holding a Design Workshop. The Vision Meeting is about the overarching goals and the character of the garden, its primary uses, and the schools priorities for the space. The Design Workshop is more about garden design, a plan for building it, and plant selection. The outcomes of the Design Workshop should be informed by the outcomes of the Vision Meeting. Begin by deciding who will participate. The simplest way is to have the garden team invite representatives from the student body, faculty, neighboring community, and local businesses to meet for one or more half-day workshops to brainstorm ideas. In some cases, it might be more appropriate to have several different sessions that could accommodate the availability of participants. Another approach would be to involve the entire school by having each classroom spend an hour generating ideas and then having a representative from each classroom participate in the half-day brainstorm session. Logistics of a Design Workshop Select a date, time, and location that suits everyone. Assemble the following materials for the workshop: several large copies of the base map of your school garden tracing paper pencils, markers, colored pencils ip-chart with paper, or a large chalkboard or dry-erase board What goes on at a Design Workshop? Brainstorm ideas - Give everyone a chance to contribute ideas to the garden design Formulate a design concept - Sift through the brainstorm session and solidify everyones ideas Create and approve a nal design - Work closely on the drawings and design plans and reach a consensus to approve the nal garden design Get some professional help if you need it! During the design process many school garden teams nd it helpful to have professional advice. Developing a master plan for the space will ensure that all components of the garden design work together, even if the garden is to be built in stages over time.
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A local landscape architect or designer might offer services to a school garden project at little or no cost. A Master Gardener or an experienced gardener in the neighborhood might be delighted to help with the design and plant selection. Tip: Just make sure the Design Facilitator is an individual who will truly listen to your ideas, and not just tell you theirs. A landscape design for children (and lots of them!) will be different from traditional landscapes, and the designer should keep this in mind throughout the process. Approving Your Final Design The school garden team should reach a consensus about the nal garden design. If there are major objections to the garden plan, the team members must voice them at this preliminary stage and offer constructive ideas to bring the garden closer to the schools vision. Team members may need to accept that some ideas are not possible. Remember, you can do anything, but you cant do everything! Once a nal design is approved, the school is ready to begin construction and organize planting day events.
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Building the Garden

Built to last! School gardens take much more intense use and foot trafc than traditional landscapes, and construction techniques must yield super tough, durable features. While a raised bed made of 2' x 6' lumber may work in your backyard, it will not withstand hundreds of little visitors over years of trafc in a school garden. Anchoring 6" x 6" beams with 30-inch rebar stakes may seem like overkill, but not when there may well be thousands of little feet walking along them. Before you begin... Area: Approximate square foot area the garden will cover Teachers: # of participating teachers Contributions: Financial and in-kind contributions you know are available to support the project Getting the Entire School Involved The school garden will be at the top of your mind, but may not be at the forefront of the minds of those in the school less involved. The more you can bring it to their attention and get them thinking about it, the more connections will be developed, and the more the garden will be used. Here are some ideas for keeping the garden on peoples minds: Talk about the garden in every possible faculty meeting. Ask the principal for a time slot in the next school-wide assembly to promote the garden among the students. Incorporate the garden as a teaching tool even before it is built. Ask the students for their ideas of what should be in the garden and then really listen! Most students have great ideas about possible garden designs or features, but we tend to think that as adults we know what is best. For example, adults at one school did not think about developing a dragon garden, but their second graders did. The result was a tremendous level of ownership by the students. If the faculty has established the primary educational goals, put those forth to the students and invite their design ideas, so that the resulting garden will naturally support the underlying education goals with the students at the center. Ask for the students to develop their own garden design plan and discuss those plans that offer the best design solutions. Develop a composite plan based on the best
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student plans so it includes multiple ideas. Post the composite drawing in public places at the school so students can see the vision. Promote the project to parents in the school newsletter and the student newspaper Put up a banner announcing the future site of the school garden. Recruit classes to sign up for Planting Day. Ask if they want to have ownership of a particular garden area for long-term maintenance. Involve the art classes in producing outdoor art for the garden. Ask younger students to start seeds on their classroom windowsills. Its difcult to grow seedlings without a grow light; therefore, its benecial to have one in your classroom. If heavier construction projects are to be done by a contractor, have the students come out and take tours during this phase. Make sure the students do any work that is possible for them to do including moving wheelbarrows or pails of compost to amend soil; planting the smaller shrubs, perennials, and annuals; and mulching the beds. Celebrate the garden with refreshments and special events once its planted. Visit the garden regularly with your class, whether for active investigation, quiet reading time, or simply to observe and write in their journals.
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Safety and universal access The garden should be built with the appropriate safety measures and accessibility standards in place. Safety parameters, like using untreated cedar lumber instead of standard pressuretreated lumber and providing universal access to certain features, are paramount in public spaces used by children. Be sure to work closely with your contractor to design the appropriate safety measures in your garden. It is important to provide garden access to all individuals with all abilities. Building features of the garden that enable children with disability conditions from preschool to high school to enjoy and maintain is important. Needs of children with disabilities to consider when building a garden: Physical space Individual strength and endurance Height and range of motion Mobility and balance Use of walking aids or wheelchairs * Ability to use hand tools An enabling garden includes: Paved surfaces Drop-off areas and parking Signage Entrances and exits Rest areas and comfort Containers and raised beds Drinking water Plants Emergency plans For more information about accessible design standards and universal access, see the U. S. Governments American Disability Act Web site
Planting Day
Organizing Planting Day Once the infrastructure of the garden is in place, consider holding a one-day planting event for the students to plant the garden. This celebratory event is important, as it allows everyone to get their hands in the garden and claim part ownership. Logistics Select a day with a backup rain date (just in case). Schedule classes to arrive at the garden and work in 30-40 minute shifts. Assign a specic area of the garden for each group to plant, preferably an area that relates to that groups curriculum or that they intend to care for throughout the year. Use any extra time to deliver a lesson plan on gardening, nature, or anything related to the work they are doing. Be sure to allow enough time for students to clean up before returning to their classrooms. (Otherwise, youve got a major chore at the end of your day!) Assign adults to work with small groups during each planting period. Adults (parents, volunteer staff, and teachers) deliver instructions and assist students with more difcult tasks such as opening up the root systems of potted plants and monitoring plant spacing and depth of holes. Make sure all adult volunteers are trained rst, not everyone knows how to properly remove plants from containers and loosen root balls. Recruit as many parent volunteers as possible. Parents will ensure adequate supervision and should be familiar with the design and the plant materials to ensure proper layout of plants into the beds. Consider partnering older students with younger students. This approach can unify your student body by providing younger students with one-on-one support they need to do the work while giving the older students an opportunity to build mentoring skills. It is fun for all students to mix and mingle in the garden. Tips for Working with Children They dont want to leave! It is common for students to resist returning to class after planting and to ask if they might stay to work longer. Be ready to promise students a chance to do more gardening as the plants grow.
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Sitting on the side lines Allow reluctant students to sit by the side and observe because forcing them to participate does not work well. Often when they see and hear how much fun the other students are having, they change their minds and join the group. Theyll get dirty! Sometimes children object to getting dirty. Having small garden gloves for students to use also encourages participation. Send a note home to parents to let them know about upcoming gardening days so that they can make sure students dress appropriately for outdoor garden work. Worms and other critters Anticipate an excited reaction to garden worms and be prepared to explain the important role of worms and other creatures in the soil. Students are generally fascinated to learn about them to the extent that nding a worm or beetle can become a highlight activity, not to mention a very teachable moment. It wont be perfect A childrens garden often includes a bit of whimsy, and may very well have crooked rows or radishes coming up in the middle of the tomatoes. This is okay! Childrens gardens are like childrens artwork, that is, beautiful in their child-like enthusiasm and obviously works of masters- in-the-making. They have a charm all their own. Make everyone feel included Try to be sensitive to the needs of all children, whether they be kids who have little experience working in a garden or exposure to natural settings or kids who have special needs. All children should partake in the experience.
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Teaching with Plants

Curricular Connections There are endless ways to connect your garden to the students and the curriculum; here are a few suggestions. Many other ideas will emerge when you involve others at your school in an inclusive design process. Think about each question below and how your curriculum and school events can be enhanced by the design and plants in the garden. You can borrow ideas from this list to write your proposal, or alter them to customize your program. Where plants specically mentioned in the curriculum standards, and how could a garden meet those standards? Examples: Illinois Science Learning Standards, Middle Elementary, 12.A.2a: Describe simple life cycles of plants and animals and the similarities and differences in their offspring. Students begin growing different varieties of annual owers from seeds indoors in late winter and transplant them into a color garden on school grounds in spring to learn the life cycle of a plant. They chart plant growth and variability, addressing the standard above as well as integrating measuring and charting skills together in an applied, realworld setting. District of Columbia Life Science Standard, Essential Knowledge and Skills, Grade 5: The student examines environments to [understand why] some kinds of plants and animals survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all. A science garden provides a spot for upper elementary grades to test different soil conditions on spring or fall lettuce crops. Illinois English Language Arts Learning Standard, Early Elementary, 1.A.1a: Apply word analysis skills (e.g., phonics, word patterns) to recognize new words. Students plant an alphabet garden that includes one plant whose name begins with each letter of the alphabet. They make and decorate alphabet letters to put in the garden. Read the Plant Alphabet. How might teachers use plants in their teaching? Examples: The 1st grade class reads and acts out the story of Jack and the Beanstalk so the school garden includes a castle-shaped trellis for scarlet runner beans to climb over. (Students can go inside this enchanted castle!) In one area, students try to see how high
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their vines will climb, practicing measuring and observation skills in an applied and practical context. The 2nd graders have a favorite story about a dragon, so they surround the bean castle with plants whose names remind them of dragons and medieval times, such as smoke bush, reweed, and snapdragons. The 8th graders study pond life, including an examination of elodea, algae, and other water plants, so the garden includes a small pond in a courtyard with protected access from which samples can be collected and viewed under a microscope. A buttery garden with nectar and host plants can be planted to attract spring and fall migrating butteriesa great living observatory for classes studying insects, life cycles, or the stages of metamorphosis. What school activities might be held in a garden? Examples: The garden includes an area that serves for small performances such as musical ensembles, poetry readings, or outdoor theater. Individual classes do creative writing or drawing in the garden during the day. Community leaders use the garden as a site to announce awards or celebrate events in the school or community. A section of the school garden could be used to raise seedlings for a community beautication project. A class could grow and harvest herbs or vegetables to use for a class celebrationa great (and tasty) way for students to connect plants to their food. How could a garden unite students of different cultures at your school? Examples: Children talk to their families, research plants from their countries of their ethnic origin, and grow them in an international garden to celebrate their diversity. A pizza garden, salsa garden, or Three Sisters garden produces the ingredients for a food from a particular ethnic group represented in the community. This garden is also grown using gardening methods used by that culture. Students make and taste different recipes for pizza, salsa, or squash to make it more meaningful. Part of the garden is planted in the distinctive style of a culture, like a Japanese garden, an English walled garden, Native American food garden, or an African village garden, in order to highlight that culture and gain understanding of the people. How might the garden tie into community-based efforts or entrepreneurship? Examples: The school grows fresh vegetables for a homeless shelter as part of a mission to help the community.
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Students grow, harvest, and dry owers to make potpourri and harvest seeds from selected owers, which they sell at holiday time. Childrens Garden Themes School History Garden The school has ties to George Washington Carver, so the 5th grade class conducts experiments with peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans. They grow their own crops on site and host a community day where they sell their crops. Is there anything you want to highlight about the history of your school? Examples: The school grounds were once forest that was cut down, so the garden includes a tree that is planted during a community ceremony for the citys anniversary. The school or town was part of the Underground Railroad before the American Civil War and so part of the garden is dedicated to crops grown by African slaves. The school won a coveted award for sports or academics and proudly displays the honor with a commemorative plaque or sculpture in a prominent place in the garden. The school creates a memorial plaque for the garden, or installs a tree or bench in remembrance of a student or staff who has passed away. ABC Garden Have students plant an alphabet garden that includes one plant whose name begins with each letter of the alphabet. They make and decorate alphabet letters to put in the garden; see Plant Alphabet African-American Garden Create a garden using plants that are native to or frequently used in African countries or that were used in America by African slaves Learn to cook traditional African foods and have the students taste the products Using a map, show children where Africa is located and tie geography to vegetation, culture, and food Students explore the diversity of ecosystems that exist in Africa and create small garden plots to represent each American History Garden Create a garden using plants that were once used for cloth or dyes (cotton, ax, beets, indigo, etc.) Using plants from the garden, learn how to dye cloth Use or learn about plants that were discovered by Lewis and Clark Learn about plants that are native to North America or your schools state
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Plant a garden using heirloom vegetables Plant a Kitchen Garden with heirloom vegetables, herbs, and owers used by Colonial Americans for food, medicine, fragrance, and economic value Plant a grain garden with cereal crops that are grown in your region Art Garden Grow plants that can be used for art projects (i.e., dried owers, owers for pressing, interesting seed pods, and gourds) Sell items made with garden products to raise money for the next garden season Create a garden mosaic of student designs on a garden wall (or cement bird bath) Have students take sketch books out in the garden and draw plants and bug life Asian-American Garden Create a garden using plants that are native to or used frequently in Asia Learn to cook typical Asian foods and have the students taste the products Have students write and share Haiku poems to explore Japan Using a map or globe have students research what countries make up Asia and connect geography to vegetation, culture, and food As an indoor winter project, have students create miniature bonsai or ikebana ower arrangements and research the symbolism in each Buttery Garden Have students research plants that attract butteries Discuss the buttery lifecycle and the role of pollinators Read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle Raise and observe developing butteries (we use products from Insect Lore) Create buttery journals to record development of classroom butteries Check out the North American Buttery Association or Project Monarch Watch Herb Garden Learn how to make herbal teas from plants in the school garden Discuss cultural uses of herbs through history Discuss the difference between herbal tea and black tea Make herbal vinegars, oils, or sachets for Mothers Day gifts Dry herbs from the school garden and sell at Parent Night to raise money for next years garden materials Harvest fresh herbs to chop and mix with cream cheese to serve for a class or school event
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International Garden Have students research a particular part of the world or specic country and choose plants that are representative of that region to grow in your garden Have students observe, make predictions, and then research to determine how the plants are specially adapted to their native region Find out your students cultural background or ethnicities and use plants from students native countries Incorporate student art that reects a particular country or region of the world Use plants that are native to a country or region that you are teaching concurrently in a social studies unit Create a school garden recipe book with recipes that use items from the school garden and that students have collected from their native countries Jack and the Bean Stalk Garden Create a bean teepee in your garden Plant Giant-type sunowers Read Jack and the Bean Stalk in the garden Dissect a bean seed. Try using Chicago Botanic Gardens Botany Basics: Plant Parts Facilitator Guide Make an Illinois Ag in the Classroom Bean Book as you dissect your seeds Read Bean and Plant by Christine Back & Barrie Watts Make a bean seed necklace Kinder Garden Plant an ABC Garden using plants that start with each letter of alphabet; see Plant Alphabet Build raised beds in various geometrical shapes Plant a rainbow garden; see Rainbow Colors for Health to use ower color to plant a rainbow Use plants will large seeds that are easy for little ngers to handle, such as sunowers, cucumbers, and squash or gourds Sunowers and gourds grow very quicklyuse them as the basis for a measuring garden where young ones learning to measure can practice measuring a couple of times each week Kitchen Garden Create an edible garden using plants that the children like to eat or have never tried before
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Create a garden with vegetables for each different plant part roots, stems, owers, fruits, and seeds and learn about plant parts using foods we eat. Try using Chicago Botanic Gardens Botany Basics: Kitchen Botany Facilitator Guide Grow a salad garden that will be ready to harvest before school is out for the summer Plant a fruit and veggie garden featuring vegetables such as lettuce, carrots, and spinach as well as fruits (anything with a seed) such as squash, cucumbers, or eggplant and teach about the difference between a vegetable and a fruit. Latin-American Garden Create a garden using plants that are native to or used frequently in Latin countries, such as tomatoes, tomatillos, cilantro, and peppers Learn to cook typical Latin foods and have the students taste the products Learn to make tortillas in a baggie; see instructions Using a map, show children where the Latin countries are located and tie geography to vegetation, culture, and food Literacy/Reading Garden A garden incorporating a cozy nook for a class to sit and read Feature garden story books to be read in the garden each week; see our Top 10 Books Use plants found in childrens literature such as Peter Rabbit, The Ugly Vegetables, or Growing Vegetable Soup Create a reading circle in the garden Have students construct nature journals to record garden development and collect seeds and pressed owers Have students write stories or poems about gardening or plants in the school garden Read seed packets Create a school garden newsletter to share with parents and the community Have children write stories about the garden in books that they make Use the garden as the context for new vocabulary words or for writing from different perspectives (their own, a bird ying overhead, a beetle on a leaf, a worm underground, etc.) Math Garden Create a garden to include raised beds of various geometric shapes Have the children estimate number of seeds they will need in a row based on row length and seed spacing information on seed packet Do the Percent Seed Germination Activity in the classroom Have children chart seedling growth Create a square-foot garden
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Maze Garden Create a maze in your garden using grasses, a hedge, or corn plants Include something fun like a reading area in the middle of your maze Use maize (corn) in your maze for a play on words Native-American Garden/Colonial Garden Learn about the Three Sisters Garden tradition Create a garden using plants that are native to America or plants traditionally used by Native Americans Make corn seed necklaces; see instructions Learn about plants used for dyes Discuss medicinal plants; learn how Native Americans and Colonial settlers used plants as medicine Read Corn is Maize by Aliki to learn about the history of corn Nutrition Garden Do the Plant Part Pounding Activity as a basis for nutrition study; see instructions Plant fruits and vegetables in different sections that represent a wide range of vitamins (i.e., The Vitamin C section, Vitamin A section, etc.) Plant plants of every color of a healthy diet; see Rainbow Colors for Health Outer Space Garden Create a garden using outer space sounding plants such as Moon Flower, Moon and Stars Watermelon, and Cosmos Learn more about growing plants in outer space Peter Rabbit Garden Have students read Peter Rabbit and create a garden with plants mentioned in the story (cabbage, carrots, lettuce, etc.) Have students create a Peter Rabbit play to act out in their garden Create a nest space in the garden where students can sit and read Peter Rabbit and other books Pizza Garden Grow a garden that has all the ingredients for pizza: wheat, tomatoes, peppers, oregano, basil, onions, garlic, etc. Learn about the history of pizza Grow mushrooms in your classroom Make a classroom pizza using produce from your garden
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Use the pizza garden as the basis to launch a study on Old World and New World plants (Did you know that the rst pizzas were Old World and did not include tomatoes, which are a New World plant?) Native Plant Garden Research what plants are native to your region Discuss ways in which Native Americans and settlers used plants in your region Learn about endangered native plants in your state or region Read plant folklore stories Hold a seed-saving day in the fall; collect seeds and create a seed bank Salsa Garden Create a garden with all of the plants you might nd in salsa (tomatoes, cilantro, onions, peppers, and garlic) Have students create a salsa recipe to make and share with other classrooms Make salsa to give as gifts or sell at a garden fundraiser Sensory Garden Use plants you can feel, smell, taste, touch and hear Do a lesson or activity where students can use their ve senses Use edible owers such as pansies, nasturtiums, borages, etc. Have students nd ways they can use their ve senses in the garden and then combine this with activities and lessons in art Have a garden concert using musical instruments made out of garden tools, seedpods, branches, gourds, grass blades, or ower pots Use plants that will have winter interest (especially if you live in a cold climate) such as grasses, shrubs, and trees with colored or exfoliating bark, evergreens, and plants with seed pods that will persist into winter Shakespeare Garden Create a garden using plants mentioned in Shakespeares works Discuss the mythical or medicinal uses of Shakespearean plants Research the meaning or signicance of plants or owers found in Shakespeares work Storybook Garden Have students design a garden with plants found in storybooks Incorporate a Jack and the Beanstalk bean teepee Incorporate a poppy eld as found in Wizard of Oz Incorporate a Peter Rabbit section including cabbage, carrots, etc. Have students write their own fairy tale
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Have students make and write their own books Tea Garden Create a garden using plants commonly used in herbal teas such as chamomile and mint Learn about the history of teas Learn about different types of tea ceremonies throughout the world Make herbal mint tea; see instructions Have a classroom tea party Discuss the differences between herbal tea and black tea Read The Boston Tea Party by Steven Kroll and grow an alternative tea plant used by early American Colonials in place of expensive, highly-taxed true tea Tops and Bottoms Garden Read Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens Have students design a classroom garden using plants in Tops and Bottoms Vegetable Snack Garden Encourage children to grow fruits and vegetables that they would like to taste, favorites as well as new items Incorporate nutrition lessons Have students keep a food journal to record what plant they eat Build and observe a compost bin in your school garden Discuss when to plant/harvest vegetables in the garden Learn about plant life cycles Read The Reason for a Flower by Ruth Heller Wildlife Garden Incorporate a tree with berries for the birds in your garden Use tall grasses for cover for small animals such as rabbits Install a birdbath or birdfeeder outside a classroom window Have your students research plants and owers that specically attract hummingbirds, butteries, or moths In winter months, create a variety of bird snacks to hang in the garden as a cold-season snack Use plants with seed heads that will naturally provide snacks for birds, such as sunowers and millet
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Getting Your Hands Dirty

Garden Chores for Garden Maintenance Garden work does not end after construction and planting. A successful school garden is well maintained and survives past the first few years. Recruiting enough help for steady garden maintenance particularly during the summer may prove a significant factor in achieving sustainability. Two critical components of good garden maintenance are leadership and a good plan. Within an established system, knowledgeable, well-trained leaders can guide volunteers and accomplish the work that needs to be done. Creating a Garden Responsibility Plan The school garden team needs to create a Garden Responsibility plan for keeping the garden watered, weeded, and cared for throughout the calendar year. The Responsibility Plan might... Give tasks of weeding and watering to different classrooms on a rotating basis Put a student garden club in charge of garden care after school Outline the plan for summer/holiday maintenance schedule The Responsibility Plan depends on... Particular situations at each school Size and type of garden Number of classrooms actively using the space Whatever the plan, the school garden team needs to keep apprised of what is working and what is not and remain exible to the idea of changing plans and implementing procedures in case the garden or team falls short of expectations. Tip: Each school garden team must address its maintenance needs according to available resources both inside the school and in the larger school community.
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Suggestions for Assigning Work Make a game out of pulling weeds! Be creative about addressing kids and getting them to do garden chores. Kids will happily weed if the task is proposed as a search-and-destroy mission for the "weed of the week". Show students the "weed of the week" and see how many they can nd. Example: See which team can pull the biggest pile of weeds. Children often dont know the difference between the weeds and the good plants. Make weeding easier for the kids by showing them pictures or examples of the weeds they are going to pull that day. Example: Today we are going to pull all of the dandelions. You might consider making a photocopy booklet of common weeds for your garden site to which the children can refer. Or, one class can create a common weeds ip book for other classes to use. Assign classrooms to areas of the garden. By getting children involved from the beginning, they will feel like they have ownership of the garden. This will depend on what type of garden you have and how many classes are involved. Example: Ms. Johnsons class plants the bean teepee area; therefore, they are responsible for pulling weeds, watering, and harvesting that area of the garden and Mr. Jacksons class is responsible for planting and maintaining the herb bed. Tip: At many sites, each class has their own garden plot within the overall school garden for which they have complete responsibility, and there may be joint common areas as well. The maintenance plan in these instances might only need to address common areas and maintenance during holidays and summer months. Create a plan that works for your site, conditions, and users. In spring, before school is out for the summer, have families sign up to adopt the garden for one week during the summer. This way, the responsibility does not fall on one person or family. Example: During Week One the Ramirez family is responsible for watering, weeding, and harvesting the garden. Tip: If possible, have two (2) families assigned for each week, so that the garden will be maintained even if one family is not able to fulll their obligation. In hot summer months, a week without maintenance, especially water, can be the death of a garden! Divide classrooms into teams and rotate teams through different garden tasks. Example: Rotations might be watering, weeding, harvesting, or cultivating.
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Challenges
Keeping Everyone Involved and Committed Strong school garden teams continue to seek, cultivate, and include participants from within the school as well as from the broader community. Schools that are eager to involve the community, especially parents, have the greatest success because they: Encourage visits by community members Provide easy access to tools and materials for volunteer use Build educational or recreational components into the garden experience Invite community members to contribute wealth and wisdom and to play a role in active gardening Commitment to Integrate Curricula Integration of the garden across the teaching curricula over multiple grade levels is essential to success. The school garden is a natural forum for cross-disciplinary connections, enabling uid learning across the curriculum. Plant-based activities based on a school garden or outdoor habitat support a variety of learning styles and abilities and are always hands-on and engaging, real-life learning endeavors that help kids gain lifelong skills in a natural environment. One of the key premises of contemporary school gardening advocates is that garden-based lessons Help students meet performance standards across disciplines Appeal to different learning styles Apply concepts through the contexts of real-world experiences Provide rich activities and experiences for students of all learning abilities Are student-centered Tip: Vigilant evaluation of a program, both within the school and at the level of a school gardening network, can help document improved student performance and validate the value of gardening and plant- based activities within the educational system. Individual School Challenges Each school garden team can face challenges that are unique to the circumstances of its own school community. These issues can relate to social, economic, and political conditions at their school or in their community. Maybe its maintaining an active, trained school garden team when key team members leave the school, or perhaps its nding ways to integrate the interest and focus of additional grade levels each year.
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We suggest creating a Network Notebook that includes the names of people who can help meet many kinds of challenges, including those that seem only remotely related to the gardens success. It is possible that local politicians, police and reghter personnel, and community service organizations will be included in the Network Notebook of resources. Staff Turnover and Team Changes The biggest challenge to sustainability is likely to be staff turnover. Without commitment and involvement, the team, and ultimately the school garden, will wither and die. As faculty members and administrators leave the school and are replaced by new staff, maintaining a commitment to the original project goals becomes more difcult. The ability of the team to maintain focus and commitment to its vision is a signicant factor in inuencing the success and sustainability of the garden. A large and adequately diverse school garden team... Keeps ideas fresh Allows for a comfortable division of labor Makes the chore of addressing staff turnover simpler as there are more skilled participants available to ll gaps when a team member leaves the school Makes it easier to recruit new staff members as enthusiastic participants and, later, as new leaders when the majority of the school is behind the gardening effort Rating the Garden's Success Establishing a clear, measurable set of goals for rating the schools success on a range of criteria will provide a baseline to which you can measure on the success of the whole program and therefore determine its sustainability. Take the time to perform an annual self-assessment so that problems can be identied and addressedits invaluable for ensuring the garden programs sustainability. It offers the possibility to see programmatic weaknesses as well as strengthens and introduces ideas for improvement that can benet everyone involved, particularly if a broad spectrum of the school community is involved in the process. Celebrating the Garden Use of the garden for school and community programs, ceremonies, and other events is one of the easiest ways to sustain your garden. People in the garden make the garden come to life. Asking the community to join the fun of workdays and planting days, harvest festivals, special programs, and celebrations is worth the effort. The trick is to think of the garden as a place for such events and encourage new audiences as well as regulars to participate each time.
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Build a neighborhood network Invite neighborhood groups to host a meeting or event in the school garden. Welcome visitors as part of a neighborhood garden tour led by students and teachers describing their work and lessons in the garden. Remember...the more people experience the garden, the more they will think of and care for the garden and therefore, the more successful and sustainable the garden will be. People who attend such events may become engaged and be willing to volunteer in the garden in other capacities. Create a Network Notebook The Resource Leader can create a Network Notebook of all of the available resources and contacts who have contributed or who could potentially support the school garden. The Network Notebook might include: educators schools families community members collaborators local businesses For each entry, the Network Notebook should include: name of individual organization address phone number and email what this individual and/or organization is willing to provide (i.e., products, money, time) notes about related resources dates of past contacts and short synopses of what was asked for or pledged Having a Network Notebook allows the team to be self-sufcient because it provides easy access to expertise and resources within the schools own community. Tip: The ability to network with other school gardens is a bonus, and is recommended. Find a citywide network of school garden projects and teams in which the school might participate. The degree to which schools function in a community network with other gardening schools can have a big impact on long-term viability of the garden. Try these online resources to search for local school garden initiatives: American Community Gardening Association http://www.communitygarden.org American Horticulture Society http://www.ahs.org Garden Mosaics http://www.dnr.cornell.edu/gardenmosaics/ Junior Master Gardener Program http://www.jmgkids.com/ National Gardening Association http://www.garden.org/
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Sustaining a School Garden

Ongoing Fundraising Have you heard the phrase Nothing succeeds like success? That is the reason Harvard Universitys endowment is well over a billion dollars. You can think of endless examples of this phenomenon. People want to be associated with worthy projects that are doing a good job and achieving goals. Everybody gets satisfaction from pointing to a success and saying I helped this project get underway. So the basic rules of successful, ongoing fundraising are to: 1) start your school garden with the assistance of others, 2) share news about the project on a regular basis, and 3) give your contributors credit for their help. There is a fourth important rule: be open to new ideas and change. School gardens should be dynamic, like all social constructs. The school garden team and your contributors will welcome the chance to see the idea of the garden evolve and expand to meet newly-formulated needs and fresh resources. Create a positive feedback loop around your school garden and the people and the money will come. Getting funds to expand the garden Obtaining funding to expand the garden and its programs is necessary. Tools, materials, expertise, and labor are all required to sustain a garden and its programs, and these items cost money. The school garden team might enlist community help for fundraising in order to: Share ideas for requesting donations of money, goods, and services Provide tips on writing grant proposals (or help write them!) Gather new ideas through a school garden network Create a wish list and then identify potential sources for those items. Each item on the list may be obtained by soliciting a donation from a separate source. For example: A manager of a local hardware store might be willing to provide a discount on regular retail prices or even donate some tools and supplies outright. Nurseries and greenhouses may offer free or very inexpensive plant material. Master Gardeners or local garden club members may share expertise and labor on planting days
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Evaluation
Why Evaluate? Performing an evaluation serves many purposes: It helps school staff members keep abreast of what is and is not working with the school garden project. It enables staff to anticipate problems and generate new ideas for improving and sustaining the project. It helps teachers and administrators ensure that students are making the educational gains with the garden programs and activities. It builds solid evidence for the value of the project and helps convince potential supporters that the gardenboth the physical site and the educational activities it supportsdeserves their support. The team may hire a professional evaluator or perform a self-assessment, which is usually a more realistic option for most school garden budgets. Performing a Self-Assessment Conducting an evaluation, or self-assessment, is much like assessing student performance. Student assessment actually begins as the teacher writes a lesson plan. In the process, she identies goals and objectives that will demonstrate whether the students have learned the new content and skills. You should have already determined your goals through dening measurable outcomes earlier on in the school garden project. Now, its time to revisit those goals and determine your success in meeting them. Self-Assessment Worksheet Read through each of the following questions and take time to write your responses. You may want to have each teacher who is participating respond to some portions individually, such as the rst section addressing learning goals. Tip: At the conclusion of the evaluation, all of the components can be assembled into an Annual Report for the school, which will be of great use in new funding projects. 1. Garden as a learning environment a. How did the garden support the larger educational goals and values of the school? b. What educational activities and lessons did you incorporate into the garden? c. What activities did you plan to enable learners to: i. use the garden for science and multi-disciplinary learning?
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2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
ii. gain condence and enthusiasm for learning? iii. acquire gardening and environmental stewardship skills? iv. achieve other educational goals through active participation in the garden? d. How did the garden meet the learning objectives of a particular lesson or unit? e. Did some goals take priority over others and how should this inuence the design? f. How did you meet the needs of students with disabilities or special learning issues? School garden team a. Did the team promote active participation by administrators, teachers, students, parents, neighbors, and volunteers? b. Did the school motivate and train the entire faculty, teachers from a specic grade level, or only interested teachers to use the garden? c. Did every team member get involved, or did most of the work fall to one or two staff members? Garden maintenance needs a. What were the special maintenance needs of the garden and how were they met? b. Did you have a system in place for assigning garden duties? c. Did the school have an appropriate system for maintaining the garden during the summer and the holidays? d. If vandalism was a potential challenge, how was it discouraged or minimized? Teacher training a. How was teacher training handled with respect to curricular connections as well as gardening basics? b. Were training workshops scheduled at convenient times and locations for the majority of the participants? c. What topics or content met teachers needs and interests the best? What additional topics or content are needed? d. Did the activities and lessons meet the local, state, and national standards? Student involvement a. How was the student body involved with the garden? b. What aspects of garden installation and maintenance did the students participate in? c. What classes, grade levels or groups of students used the garden on a regular basis after installation? d. Were the students engaged in active discovery, problem solving, and questioning? e. What events and activities made the garden part of the students daily lives (such as recess time, story hours, etc.)? Extra-curricular activities
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a. For which extra-curricular and community activities were the garden used? b. Were events, programs, or celebrations planned in the garden? c. What ceremonies or cultural events were held in the garden? 7. Parents, community, and networking a. How did the garden team work with existing in-school networks of parents (PTO/PTA/Local School Council)? b. Were opportunities tapped into to use the support and resources offered by parents and parent groups? c. Was there a citywide network of school garden projects and teams that the school participated in? If so, how did participation help sustain the garden? d. How was the school garden used and supported by the community? What opportunities existed?
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Resources
Aggie Horticulture Just for Kids! http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/kindergarden/index.html City Farmer http://www.cityfarmer.org/schgard15.html Earthways School Gardening Program http://www.umaine.edu/ceskl/earthways.htm Ecology Center | Berkeley, California http://www.ecologycenter.org/gardening/gardening.html EE Link: Environmental Education Activities - School Gardens http://eelink.net/eeactivities-schoolgardens.html Essential School Lunch Resources http://www.organicconsumers.org/school/links/htm Garden in Every School Registry of the National Gardening Association http://www.kidsgardening.com/School/register.asp Horticultural Therapy - School and Community Gardening http://www.hort.purdue.edu/hort/Hther/kids.htm Journey to Forever http://journeytoforever.org/edu_garden_link.html Junior Master Gardener http://jmgkids.com/ KidsGardens! Garden Resources http://www.kidsgardening.com/teachers2.asp Margaret Beeks Elementary School Gardening Project, Blacksburg, VA http://www.hort.vt.edu/faculty/relf/4984/Mbelem.html Nutrition and Health and School Gardening http://www.wccusd.k12.ca.us/stc/2000les/nutrition.htm Programs that Work - School Gardening and Horticulture Programs http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/ptw/05schoolgardening.html Research Notes on School Gardening http://www.raringtogrow.com/research.htm School Gardens http://hort.ifas.u.edu/ggk/schgard.htm School and Community Gardening http://ag.arizona.edu/gardening/school.html Steiner School Gardens http://www.samfordschool.com/Gardening.htm
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School Garden Guide: Rock&#39;n Renew

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Rock n Renew School Garden Guide

Rock n Renew Garden Guide |

A PLAN OF ACTION FOR THE PLANET THAT ROCKS!

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Why Garden with Your School?

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Assessing Your Needs

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Holding a Vision Meeting

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Determining Your Goals Worksheet

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Forming a School Garden Team

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Designing the Garden

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Building the Garden

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Teaching with Plants

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Getting Your Hands Dirty

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Sustaining a School Garden

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