The educational garden is a means of exploring a range of ideas inside and outside the elementary school curriculum. The garden can be integrated into one subject area, such as science, or it can be interdisciplinary, incorporating, for example, science, art, language arts, and music. The project can be limited to one grade, or it can be an opportunity for cooperative learning among several grades. An interdisciplinary, inter-grade approach maximizes the garden's influence, but these goals can be met gradually, over several years of gardening experience. Be sure the goals of the garden complement the needs of the school community.
Once you have established clear goals for the garden, obtain the support of the head of the school for the project in order to obtain access to staff, facilities, and a network within the wider community. You also need the support of key staff at the school, including heads of faculties whose disciplines will be touched by the project as well as the maintenance staff.
Support means not only a verbal commitment to the garden, but also a formal allotment of time during the school day or week. You could call this time EARTH, or the 'Environmental Activities and Research Theme Hour.'
Every garden needs an angel--one person at the school ( a teacher or a parent) who can invest the large amount of time needed to keep the garden going. In addition, every garden needs a core group of helpers who can be relied upon to roll up their sleeves whenever necessary. At the same time, however, everyone in the school should feel ownership in the garden--both its work and its rewards. Children in particular have a sense of caring for and sharing in all that Nature gives.
Encourage flexibility from everyone working on the garden. The project will change as it grows: rigid preconceived ideas will inevitably lead to frustration and loss of team spirit.
![[Photo of Garden]](images/garden_shot.jpg)
The more the school and volunteers understand the steps in creating and maintaining the educational garden, the easier it will be to sustain enthusiasm for the project. These steps include:
- With the support of the head of the school, create a work group,
ensuring that all skills necessary to see the project through are
represented. Solicit participation in the work group through word
of mouth, formal invitation, school flyers, or newsletters.
The work group should include a chairperson, horticulture expert, teachers from the disciplines participating in the project, representatives from appropriate school committees such as fundraising or ground, and a fundraiser.
- Seek professional advice on maximizing the potential of your site.
- Start fundraising.
- Compile a list of volunteers who can be called upon for specific tasks or time commitments.
- Ensure maintenance of the garden throughout vacations.
- Ascertain the amount of time the garden will require from teachers, students, and volunteers.
- Obtain needed equipment through donations or purchase.
A garden can flourish anywhere, whether in a suburban school with broad lawns like Abingdon Elementary in Arlington, Virginia, or an urban school with a black-topped courtyard like Tower Hill School in Wilmington, Delaware. Analyzing the site can be part of the children's activities, but staff and parents should understand the site's limitations before the project begins. Tower Hill solved the problem of a courtyard with limited sunshine with a series of window boxes, containers, pathways, a fountain, a tank with aquatic plants, benches, sculptures, and environmental murals.
Consider these factors in selecting the site for your garden:
- sunlight
- drainage
- water sources
- accessibility
- quality of the soil
- potential for vandalism.
All gardens require money and/or donations, from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. Don't set your sights too low: you may be surprised how much you can raise with a well-argued case and a determined effort.
Your starting point will be whatever money is available from your school's budget, which is unlikely, however, to cover the entire cost of equipment and materials. You will then need to be resourceful and bold about securing grants to fund your project. One school discovered that by growing certain vegetables and acknowledging the source, a local corporation that provided the vegetables also provided generous financial support.
Another school found that if it provided commemorative plaques, several people were willing to donate each of the garden's 12 trees. Flexibility, networking, and creativity (and some luck) are the keys to successful fundraising. Be enthusiastic about accepting any degree of help.
- Local corporation. Don't limit your efforts to corporations with
horticultural departments; most corporations, particularly those
with headquarters in the area, allocate community grants each year,
often with emphasis on environmental projects. Research the budget
cycle and the names of decision-makers at the appropriate corporation
to determine whom to approach and when.
- Local utility companies.
- Community foundations, which often give priority to local
educational projects.
- The National Gardening Association for educational grants and a
guide to writing them.
- Local horticultural or landscaping companies, which may offer
anything from free advice, seeds, plants, or materials to money.
- Seed companies for catalogs and possible free seeds.
- School parents, based on a mailed solicitation.
- Community-based fund raising drives, such as bake sales and car washes.
A simple lawn-care service is a good way to introduce students to
gardening chores.
When writing a grant or approaching potential donors, the National Gardening Association advises, use some of these phrases:
- "I've reached"
- "Hands-on learning"
- "Interdisciplinary"
- "Encourage commitment and follow-up from kids"
- "Experiential"
- "Integrated, inquiry-based learning"
- "Garden would benefit the school, community, and corporation"
- "Connect today's pressing environmental issues"
- "Enhance current curriculum"
- "Conservation techniques"
- "Responsibility in ecological structure"
- "Give children and community a sense of caring and giving back"
- "Make children good stewards of the earth"
Make sure that you will be able to acknowledge all your donors appropriately. (One way that Diamond Path School in Apple Valley, Minnesota, acknowledged their helpers was to plant a perennial herb in honor of their hard work.)
