Anyone have experience with School Gardens?

[AZGardener]

Hi friends,
Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the cooling down that October brings us So 3 of my 4 kiddos are all in the same elementary school. Three years ago, when we started at this school with my first, they had a really neat school garden growing but its gone to heck, a nice way of saying it...

The plot is maybe 200+ ft long by maybe 15-20 ft wide and runs the length of part of their school and bus-drive way. Its fencing with a short, step over fence, but its definitely keeps the kids/people out. I believe it has sprinklers but I'm not certain. I think it would be so neat to get the garden going, get the kids involved and teach them how to grow, the importance of eating from the land, etc and then the school could maybe benefit from the sale of the produce, like they do from boxtops??

Does anyone have any experience with this? Resources? Opinions? I will take it all.... I am a full time, working mom of 4 and have some time on the weekends to spare, but my thought is, maybe we can collectively do it as parents of the school, or maybe those who want to donate $$ can too and that could help us prep the garden. Thoughts?

Thank you in advance!!
Kelly

[jtjmartin]

I don't know what the growing season is like in Phoenix - certainly much different from Virginia so a school garden may work a lot better in Phoenix.

The hardest part with our school garden in Virginia is the summer vacation. Planting received some interest in the Spring, but most of the work happens in the summer. And most of the vegetables are harvested before the kids get back to school. By the time kids are settled back into the school routine, everything in the garden is looking very tired.

Some of this can be mitigated through planning. Especially if the more popular - eat it off the plant vegetables (cherry tomatoes, corn, peas, etc.) - can be harvested during the school year.

Another problem mirrors an economic theory called "The Tragedy of the Commons." Essentially, if a bunch of parents are equally responsible, then no one will be responsible. The gardens that run the best seem to be the ones that have one person that makes the garden their own and others sign up to help.

I think the idea is great - I've been gardening since I was a kid and I'm sure there are others that would be "bitten by the gardening bug!"

[ContainerTed]

Here, there is the same problem of who will continue things in the summer. So, the school decided that they would teach planting and the whole starting seeds thing. They have a large greenhouse with both heating and ventilation. Giving all the problems with growing a large garden, I agree with the local decision to just grow flower and vegetable sets and sell them. The students do all the work and the lesson plans parallel the time of year and seedling advancement. They also do bedding flowers and whatever the PTA thinks is popular in the area.

I've donate a lot of tomato seeds to them. Sometimes there's a lot of disappointment with the teacher who oversees the whole thing. This past spring, they literally "cooked" several flats of germinating seeds because someone turned the heater pads up to max.

So, my recommendation is that germinating seeds and then selling the seedlings is a lot less muss and fuss. The school gets a pretty good return for a small investment in seeds and starting mix.

I would think that in Arizona you might have a climate that would dictate two short seasons. The summer heat (especially in the south and central) would be a garden killer. Maybe some planning around a fall season would allow the kids to see the full cycle.

[mamaboog]

I'm actually doing a garden for my kids' school this year! I bought a lot of cool weather and quick cropping varieties. They won't allow the kids to grow tomatoes because the leaves can be irritants... but they allow curcurbits and -- oh, bother. Don't get me started. Anyway!

Try to contact Lowe's, Walmart, or other companies in the area. Oftentimes they will donate to a cause if they can write it off on their taxes. You just need to ask the school for their tax id number. That way, you can get mulch, amendments, whatever else you might need if the garden is in disrepair or in need of a few edits.

Good luck!

[AZGardener]

Thank you for the feedback everyone Actually, our growing season starts Aug for cool weather plants and Feb for tomatoes, then March for everyone heat loving. So we would be growing from the time school starts in Aug until things start biting the dust in late May (due to the heat setting in). So it would work out perfectly. I like the idea of one heading the garden (me) but I know I will need the help of others, as the plot is soooo big! I sent the PTSA president an email to inquire about what their budget is (if they have one), what the support level is, and what everyone's thoughts are about having a garden again. We will see. I'm hopeful it will all work out, as I know many kids don't ever get the chance to garden or play in the dirt

I will definitely contact our local HD to inquire about dirt, amendments,etc. Thanks!

[My Foot Smells]

Originally Posted by mamaboog

Try to contact Lowe's, Walmart, or other companies in the area. Oftentimes they will donate to a cause if they can write it off on their taxes. You just need to ask the school for their tax id number. That way, you can get mulch, amendments, whatever else you might need if the garden is in disrepair or in need of a few edits.

Good luck!

This, and talk to corporate sponsors or local business. In addition, one person needs to be assigned as the project manager who can see it through. Also, seems like these things go better when farm animals get involved (chickens, goats, etc..). The kids love the chickens, etc....

Relying on child labor in America is not very reliable. So expect volunteers to maintain the thing and use for educational purposes. I find that people peter out on obligations, and more than likely will be more work than reward.

The only one's I have seen successful, have managed to pay a person to oversee the project, everyone else is volunteer, but some college kid can be obtained for reasonable fee.

sounds like a good place to plant a few trees if you ask me. I've seen the best of intentions go south season 1.

[gardeninglee]

We have a gardening program in place at our school. There are two leads for the whole school. They are the ones that hold the meetings, send out school wide communications, organize the volunteers, create the lesson plans, collect the funds, buy the supplies, and anything else that needs to be done schoolwide. Every teacher/classroom gets a designated plot that they are responsible for. Each classroom has at least 2 gardening parents, who volunteer to do the lesson plans with the kids. The plot itself can be parent maintained or done by the kids. A watering schedule is created and responsibility is either with the parents or kids or a combo. Lessons are once a week for an hour

Our program is pretty successful and consistently available to every grade every year my daughter has attended. I think this is mostly because the parents provide $50 in class funds at the start of the year so that the kids can get to do some extra activities that the school doesn't pay for. The gardening program takes a third of those funds and buys most of the supplies and it gets shared among all the classes. If it's not enough there's a request for additional funds from the parents.

I think donations are ok in the beginning but if you want it to continue there has to be support from the parents at the school with both time and resources.

[My Foot Smells]

Originally Posted by gardeninglee

We have a gardening program in place at our school. There are two leads for the whole school. They are the ones that hold the meetings, send out school wide communications, organize the volunteers, create the lesson plans, collect the funds, buy the supplies, and anything else that needs to be done schoolwide. Every teacher/classroom gets a designated plot that they are responsible for. Each classroom has at least 2 gardening parents, who volunteer to do the lesson plans with the kids. The plot itself can be parent maintained or done by the kids. A watering schedule is created and responsibility is either with the parents or kids or a combo. Lessons are once a week for an hour

Our program is pretty successful and consistently available to every grade every year my daughter has attended. I think this is mostly because the parents provide $50 in class funds at the start of the year so that the kids can get to do some extra activities that the school doesn't pay for. The gardening program takes a third of those funds and buys most of the supplies and it gets shared among all the classes. If it's not enough there's a request for additional funds from the parents.

I think donations are ok in the beginning but if you want it to continue there has to be support from the parents at the school with both time and resources.

Here, it does largely depend on the school itself. A lot of the public schools are nothing more than a daycare setting. The public schools that excel, have a better student/parent base to get the job done. There are some schools here where the parents simply do not care, and I mean even a little bit. It's atrocious and drag on taxpayers. Most people who really care about their kids education here, either move out of the city to the expanding burbs; or send their kids to private school.

They will have parent/teacher conference and have zero (0) parents show up. Their kids get bused, or dropped off before the gates open and left to stand there at 6am. Get fed breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

If you live in a pocket that has an emphasis on education with parent involvement in the schools, consider yourself lucky. The whole process here is soooo bad, I can't even begin...... this would be a huge factor before considering such an endeavor.

[zeroma]

Go for it.