Tuesday, November 24, 2009

It's magic!

There's a School Garden Wizard! This supports your vision of a school garden with the necessary tools to make it a success. There are steps for building a team, designing, getting funds and supplies, learning the basics, planting, activities, resources, teaching and sustaining your garden. Plus lots of photos and wonderful ideas.

Monday, November 23, 2009

26 and counting...

That's how many Washington State school garden are registered so far. Garden in Every School is a registry of school gardens at kidsgardening.org. It might be fun to register your school garden here, but it is also a fabulous source of who's doing what and how. It is searchable by state or states, grade ranges, country, and gardening emphasis. Maybe your school can become garden buddies with one across the country or in a different nation. Maybe you can invite others to a turnip growing contest. Maybe you'll trade art projects. The possibilities alone are inspiring.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

The history of a school garden

At Lewis Elementary School in Portland, OR the school garden includes greenhouses, composting bins, raised beds, barrels for rainwater harvesting and an outdoor classroom. This garden is used for all sorts of education and it is a peaceful relaxing spot as well. This garden was started small and has progressed following the ideas and needs of the school itself. There are teachers, parents, students and community volunteers hard at work, building a successful garden that can meet the very specific needs of the school. Read about the Lewis garden at Edutopia.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Beginning farmers

At the blog Beginning Farmers, there is a wealth of information available to all kinds of farmers as well as educators and supporters of farms. They offer a wide variety of information with special emphasis on sustainable farming, organic farming, direct marketing and local food systems. This is a good resource for farmers and for others who want to know about them. It has a wealth of articles that would be great for student research.

Monday, November 9, 2009

An alternate type of garden

Container gardening allows you to grow plants in difficult situations, using different gardening types, many of them very suitable to schools. The blog Container Gardening is completely dedicated to making your growing experience a successful one.
One of the ideas that they explore in great detail is how to grow a vegetable garden in plastic bottles. They have some clever ideas and good advice. There are exhaustive details about containers, soil, drainage, seeds, etc.
This might make a good school project that could then be taken home.