“School gardening is seen as

an activity that enables

schools to provide dynamic
environments that support
student mastery of
educational standards”

-California Department of
Education 2002

School Gardens
 “A School Garden offers a wonderful, creative space in which children
of all abilities can achieve something real that is valued by others” –
School Garden Wizard

Layout /
Discuss the Learning in
Pick School Design the Construction
Plan the Garden
Garden

www.schoolgardenwizard.org Process
Repetition Variety
• Harmony • Energy
• Interest

Emphasis
Balance • Focal Point

Sequence
• Reason Scale
• Planting Schemes

Basic Design Principles

 What would you like What topics do you
What would you like
students to learn in the teach that might be
them to do?
garden? enriched by a garden?

What additional topics What student interests What are some potential
could you teach if you might be expressed in educational goals for
had a school garden? this garden? this project?

What existing landscape

What are priorities for
What other Purposes features present
the garden’s design and
might this garden serve? opportunities for an
use?
educational garden?

Garden Vision
 Butterfly
ABC Garden Art Garden Herb Garden
Garden

Jack and the

Kitchen Reading
Bean Stalk Kinder Garden
Garden Garden
Garden

Nutrition Peter Rabbit

Math Garden Maze Garden
Garden Garden

Native Plant Sensory

Pizza Garden Salsa Garden
Garden Garden

Storybook Vegetable Wildlife

Tea Garden
Garden Snack Garden Garden

Garden Types
Local Hardware Stores Funeral Parlors
• Short shelf life • Fundraising
• Broken packaging – no Local Florists
condition to sell

School Librarians
• Resources
High School Science Neighborhood
Teachers Residents

Interiorscape National Assiciation for Parents

• Some plants become the Exchange of • Services
unsuitable for sale- they Industrial Resources • Products
often give them away • Volunteer Assistance
• School Member = Free
Materials

Wholesales
• Non-profit = purchasing at
cost
• Local Nurseries

Fundraising!!
 D-handled Short-tined
Hoes Hoses Shovels
Cutting Spades Rakes

Sprinklers Trowels Watering Cans

Gardening Tools Needed

Cutting
Knives Towels Bowls Utensils
Board

Kitchen Tools Needed

 Lettuce Carrots Tomatoes Cilantro Bell peppers Onion

Cucumbers Potatoes zucchini Corn Soy Garlic

Pumpkin Watermelon Strawberries Basil Rosemary Cotton

Coastal sage Flowers Milkweed Green beans Sweet peas

Plants Suggestions
 Mendoza
Elementary Mesa, AZ
School Garden

Grades: K-6 1985

Advice:
Herbs, veggies,
5000 sq ft
flowers
“Just do it! Don’t wait for all
conditions to be perfect—just
start and go with what you Construction by
have. It may take years for the Funded by Grants Parent volunteers
and Students
‘vision’ to take its final form.
Don’t let your own limitations
determine whether or not you
should start a school garden.
The students play a huge role
and you have to just go with
it”
Case Study -1
Gateway School
Garden, Santa Cruiz
Case Study -2
 Bonny Doon
Elementary School
Life Lab
Solar Powered Case Study -3
Holy Cross Life Lab

Case Study -4
Green Acres,
Santa Cruiz

Case Study -5
Westlake, Santa
Cruiz

Case Study -6
 Valencia
Elementary, Aptos

Case Study -7
Greenhouse Case Study
Greenhouse Case Study cont.
Gathering Spaces
Gathering Spaces cont.
Gathering Spaces cont.
Gathering Spaces cont.
Gathering Spaces cont.
Tool Sheds
Kitchen and Sink Case Study
Kitchen and Sink Case Study cont.
Kitchen and Sink Case Study cont.
Kitchen and Sink Case Study cont.
 PVC Hoops for Birds

Movable Beds

Wheelchair Bed
 Hexagon Beds

Metal Strap

Raised Beds vs Inground

 Cement Block Beds

Container Garden

Sponsors
 Drip Lines On/Off

Soaker Hose

Wine Barrel Containers

Interactive and cost effective watering systems
 Weather Station
Root Box

Human Sundial Solar Bird Bath

 Desk Garden

Garden Tunnel

PVC Plant Done Trelis

Sink Garden

Tire Garden

Shed doubles as teaching area

Aggie Horticulture Just for Kids! KidsGardens! Garden Resources
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/kindergarden/index.html http://www.kidsgardening.com/teachers2.asp

City Farmer Margaret Beeks Elementary School Gardening Project, Blacksburg, VA

http://www.cityfarmer.org/schgard15.html http://www.hort.vt.edu/faculty/relf/4984/Mbelem.html

Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Nutrition and Health and School Gardening
http://www.hort.cornell.edu/gardening/ http://www.wccusd.k12.ca.us/stc/2000les/nutrition.htm

Earthways School Gardening Program Programs that Work - School Gardening and Horticulture Programs
http://www.umaine.edu/ceskl/earthways.htm http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/ptw/05schoolgardening.html

Ecology Center | Berkeley, California Research Notes on School Gardening

http://www.ecologycenter.org/gardening/gardening.html http://www.raringtogrow.com/research.htm

EE Link: Environmental Education Activities - School Gardens School Gardens

http://eelink.net/eeactivities-schoolgardens.html http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/ggk/schgard.htm

Essential School Lunch Resources School and Community Gardening

http://www.organicconsumers.org/school/links/htm http://ag.arizona.edu/gardening/school.html

Garden in Every School Registry of the National Gardening Association Steiner School Gardens
http://www.kidsgardening.com/School/register.asp http://www.samfordschool.com/Gardening.htm

Garden Mosaics
http://www.gardenmosaics.cornell.edu/

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

School Garden Web Links

Gardens for Learning Plant a Seed, Watch it Grow
Gardens for Learning is a comprehensive guidebook that provides a strong Web based guide to starting, caring for, and teaching in a school garden created
foundation to support the growing school garden movement. It was developed by by the Master Gardener Association of San Diego.
a team of experienced garden educators, nutritionists, state officials, and other Student's Guide to Composting
garden experts. This guidebook is a must-have resource for anyone looking to Composting in the Classroom: Scientific Inquiry for High School Students, by Nancy
enhance learning through the use of gardens in schools and other community Trautmann and Marianne Krasny is a comprehensive guide for teachers interested
settings. Click here to download. in guiding compost research projects by high school students. Click here to
download.
Gardens for Learning Standards Supplement
The California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom has produced a Free Seeds! from The Dinner Garden
supplement to the Gardens for Learning book. This supplement maps the activities The Dinner Garden fights hunger by supplying people with free vegetable
mentioned in the book to California State Education Standards for grades K-6. You seeds. The site also offers planting guides and gardening
can download or request a free copy at www.cfaitc.org/gardensforlearning. information. www.dinnergarden.org

California Department of Education School Garden Resource Packet Lowes

Contains over ten items, including Life Lab Science Program's "Getting Started: A
Guide for Creating School Gardens as Outdoor Classrooms." California Teachers Home depot
request your free copy, by sending your mailing address here.
OSH
A Child's Garden of Standards: Linking School Gardens to California Education
Standards Green thumb
A guide to garden-based education using existing curricula in grades 2nd through
6th. It links activities selected from several published educational materials to ACE hardware
specific academic content standards at each grade level in science, history/social
sciences, mathematics, and English language arts. These varied publications, many
already widely used and field-tested by teachers statewide, feature effective
garden-based learning strategies. Download a PDF order form to purchase a hard
copy or download a PDF version for free at the CDE's download page..

“WE Garden” Lesson Plans – California Foundation for Agriculture in the

Classroom (CFAITC), along with other garden-based learning organizations,
developed this series of 10 garden-based lesson plans in May 2009 as the
educational component of First Lady Maria Shriver’s “WE Garden in Capitol Park.”
Educators can use the lessons to transition the hands-on, real world experiences
learned in a garden, into in a traditional classroom setting. Activities are based on
overarching garden themes, such as Nourishing and Nurturing Soil with Compost,
Following Food from Farm to Fork, Tasting and Testing the Harvest, and Observing
and Identifying Garden Pests. Adaptable for students of all ages, the “WE Garden”
lesson plans meet multiple CA State Board of Education Content Standards for first
California School
through sixth grades. Lesson plans are available for download at
www.cfaitc.org/wegarden.
Garden Network
Bountiful Gardens Kitazawa Seed Co. San Francisco Herb Company
18001 Shafer Ranch Rd. P.O. Box 13220 250 14th Street
Willits, CA 95490-9626 Oakland, CA 94611-3220 San Francisco, CA 94103
(707) 459-6410 (510) 595-1188 800-227-4530
fax (707)459-1925 fax (510) 595-1860 415-861-7174
http://www.bountifulgardens.org http://www.kitazawaseed.com http://www.sfherb.com

Evergreen Y. H. Enterprises (Asian Lockhart Seeds Taylor’s Herb Gardens

Vegetable P.O. Box 1361 1535 Lone Oak Road
Seeds) 3 N. Wilson Way Vista, CA 92084
P.O. Box 17538 Stockton, CA 95201 (619) 727-3485
Anaheim, CA 92817-7538 (209) 466-4401 fax (619) 727-089
(714) 637-5769
fax (714)637-5769 Mountain Valley Growers, Inc.
http://www.evergreenseeds.com 38325 Pepperweed Road
Squaw Valley, CA 93675
Havasu Hill Herbs (209) 338-2775
20150-A Rough & Ready Trail fax (209) 338-0075
Sonora, CA 95370
(209) 536-1420 Ornamental Edibles
3272 Fleur De Lis Court
Heirloom Garden Seeds San Jose, CA 95132
P.O. Box 138 (408) 929-7333
Guerneville, CA 95446 fax (408) 929-5775
http://www.ornamentaledibles.com
Hudson, J. L. Seedsman
Star Route 2, Box 337 Redwood City Seed Co.
La Honda, CA 94020 P.O. Box 361
Redwood City, CA 94064
(415) 325-SEED
Seed Resources
America the Beautiful Foundation Biodiversity Web Value of Biodiversity
http://www.america-the-beautiful.org http://www.biodiversity.nl http://www.nhm.ac.uk/science/projects/worldmap/diver
A great resource for all aspects of keeping America A technical report for five ecosystems (agro-ecosystems, sity/index.html
beautiful, including coastal areas, A world map defining areas of high concern for
financial aid, corporate sponsorship, hands-on forests, freshwater systems, and grasslands); provides conservation leads to a
community activities, detailed, complete discussion of biodiversity in economic terms.
etc. information. Three of the reports are now available to Measurement of biodiversity
order or view values are needed to determine the 'where' of in situ
EE Link online: “Forest,” “Grassland,” and “Freshwater” conservation
http://www.eelink.net ecosystems. action rather than the 'how', particularly in deciding
Chock full of professional resources, classroom ideas, which combinations
grant funding, Chicago Wilderness of available areas could represent and help sustain the
and job listings for all you wandering souls. The most http://www.chiwild.org most biodiversity
comprehensive EE Educational resources and information on how to value for the future. This raises questions such as What is
site on the web! become involved in biodiversity?
local biodiversity conservation in the Chicagoland area. What is the value basis for measuring it? What practical
IL Green Door approaches are
http://www.isbe.state.il.us/ilgreendoor Economics of Biodiversity available for measuring this biodiversity value?
This site is sponsored by the Illinois State Board of http://www.biodiversityasia.org
Education and features If you are interested in the topic of biodiversity as it Fibonacci Numbers and the Golden Rules
EE resources for learners of all ages; includes information relates to world http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fibonacci/
on careers, trade issues, this site is for you. The mission of this site is fib.html
classroom activities, technology strategies, and “to influence, A fascinating study of one of nature’s golden rules –
connections to learning encourage, and assist societies throughout the world to patterns repeat
standards. conserve the themselves (albeit not without exception). Activities will
integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that any challenge
National Gardening Association use of natural students and teachers to contemplate everyday items
http://www.garden.org resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable”. Great and encounters
A comprehensive resource for all aspects of gardening, for making through a lens of math and art. An excellent classroom
including connections to economics. resource.
environmental issues, kids’ gardening, planting tips, etc.
Planet Pals
North American Association for Environmental http://www.planetpals.com/thinkgreen.html
Education Classroom projects from around the world reflect what
http://www.naaee.org some students
The North American Association for Environmental are working on to help our universe. You can contribute
Education promotes to Planet Pals
a healthy, sustainable environment through education by sending a link to your own classroom projects.
and provides
support for environmental

Environmental Education Groups