School Veggie Gardens - growing greener kids

School gardens are a wonderful way to use the schoolyard as a classroom, reconnect students with the natural world and the true source of their food, and teach them valuable gardening and agriculture concepts and skills that integrate with several subjects, such as math, science, art, health and physical education, and social studies, as well as several educational goals, including personal and social responsibility.

“The importance of encouraging our children in outdoor work with living plants is now recognized. It benefits the health, broadens the education, and gives a valuable training in industry and thrift. The great garden movement is sweeping over all the world, and our present problem is to direct it and make it most profitable to the children in our schools and homes.”

— Van Evrie Kilpatrick, 1918, in The Child’s Food Garden, With a Few Suggestions for Flower Culture

The Benefits of School Gardens

Experience and research have shown numerous benefits of school gardens and natural landscaping:

· students learn focus and patience, cooperation, teamwork and social skills

· they gain self-confidence and a sense of "capableness" along with new skills and knowledge in food growing — soon-to-be-vital for the 21st century

· garden-based teaching addresses different learning styles and intelligences; our non-readers can blossom in the garden!

· achievement scores improve because learning is more relevant and hands-on

· students become more fit and healthy as they spend more time active in the outdoors and start choosing healthy foods over junk food

· the schoolyard is diversified and beautified

· graffiti and vandalism decrease because students respect what they feel some ownership in

1) Educational benefits

Gardening offers hands-on, experiential learning opportunities in a wide array of disciplines, including the natural and social sciences, math, language arts (e.g., through garden journaling), visual arts (e.g., through garden design and decoration), and nutrition. With recent concern over relatively weak science and math skills among children, the need for innovation in science and math teaching is apparent. There is mounting evidence that students who participate in school gardening score significantly higher on standardized science achievement tests - research along these lines can be found at Cornell University’s Garden Based Learning website and at the California School Garden Network.

2) Environmental stewardship and connection with nature

By deepening children’s sense of connection with nature, school gardening can inspire environmental stewardship. When children learn about water and energy cycles, the food chain, and the peculiar needs of individual species, and when they feel a sense of connection to a certain species or individual plant, they have a reason to care about all the forces that impact that plant’s future. A garden offers many occasions for achieving insight into the long-term human impact on the natural environment. From the water shortage to the over-use of pesticides, children who engage in gardening have first-hand opportunities to observe the importance of conservation and intelligent allocation of resources.

3) Lifestyle and Nutrition

With children’s nutrition under assault by fast food and junk food industries, it is no wonder that nearly one-third of America’s 10-17 year olds are reported to be overweight or at risk for being overweight. School gardening offers children opportunities for outdoor exercise while teaching them a useful skill. Gardens containing fruit and vegetables can also help to revise attitudes about particular foods. There is mounting evidence that active learning in less structured, participatory spaces like gardens is more likely to transform children’s food attitudes and habits, and that school gardening, especially when combined with a healthy lunch program or nutritional education, encourages more healthful food choices. Students are more likely to try eating vegetables they have grown themselves and to ask for them at home. When students take their preferences back to their families, they can help to improve family consumption choices.

Benefits of School Gardening for Teachers, Schools and Communities

1) Active learning and student engagement

Gardening activities can help to engage students in learning in a way that is more difficult in the classroom. Gardening allows surprises to arise when insects land in the vicinity, when plants are afflicted with mites or fungus, or when the weather surprises everyone and disrupts the plan for the day, for example. These surprises show that nature is in control and they give students immediate and personal reasons for wanting to know the answers to pressing questions.

2) Student attention and class management

Because of the engaging nature of garden learning, students with attention deficit and other disorders often find it more suitable for their learning styles. Teachers report fewer discipline problems when science is taught in this sort of experiential manner, for example. Teachers develop useful concepts, such as “invisible walls,” to create a sense of boundaries when learning in the garden.

3) Teachers as gardeners

Teachers themselves also learn useful gardening skills when they incorporate gardening into their lesson plans. These skills can be transferred into their own homes and social networks, thereby benefiting their own health and the health of their families.

4) Connection to history and the community

Gardening ties students to the social and material history of the land. Gardeners from the community can be brought in to demonstrate local, traditional gardening techniques and the traditional uses of particular plants. Gardening offers many opportunities for connecting with local history by incorporating native plants and plants grown during specific historical eras.

5) School pride

Like a team sport or mascot, gardening can offer a symbolic locus of school pride and spirit. Gardening offers schools a way of helping children to identify with their school and to feel proud of their own individual contribution. Children know which plants they helped to grow, and they feel proud of them. This can improve school spirit and children’s attitudes toward the school.

10 Fun and Easy Vegetables to Plant in Your School Garden

· sugar snap peas, great for planting along garden fences early in the growing season

· lettuce, spinach, and other leafy greens, with new seeds planted every two weeks for continued harvest

· radishes grow quickly and are ready to eat in a month (plant early in the season and they won't get too spicy)

· carrots grow quickly, too, though the seeds are quite tiny and hard to handle (try carrot seed tape)

· potatoes, planted early, could be ready for harvest before the summer break (just cut seed potatoes with an eye in each piece and bury)

· green beans, bush or pole, are great raw or cooked

· cherry tomatoes and tomatillos are fun for kids

· pumpkins take more space and won't be ready for a while, but are perfect for teaching patience

· broccoli is not known as a favourite of children — until they've grown their own

· sunflowers — okay, not a vegetable, but in the autumn, your students can dry and eat the seeds, or leave the flower heads in the garden as a treat for birds

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