How does your garden grow?

Creating school gardens to teach students about food, the environment, and the benefits of playing in the dirt.

Is it just me, or is there nothing quite as rewarding as seeing the red and white tops of radishes peeking out from the rich brown earth, and then biting into one of those radishes, slightly spicy, crunchy, and knowing it came just feet from your kitchen? I grew up surrounded by plants. My mom was not only born with a green thumb, but I think she is part tree. She taught me everything I know about plants and gardening, including the fact that talking to one’s plants actually has benefits, and is not only something we do when we think we are going mad.

Gardening and a love for nature is a passion I strive to bring in to the classroom. I discuss the benefits of spending time in nature in my blog post titled Into the Woods. Whether it’s bringing cutting into the classroom for students to watch grow, or taking students into the school yard to explore nature, it is essential that students have a connection to our natural world from an early age.

During my practicum, I had the opportunity to put my passion for gardening into practice by facilitating the building of garden beds on school grounds. In partnership with Growing Up Organic, a project of Canadian Organic Growers, we decided to add three 3’X8’ garden beds to add to the school’s potato garden bed. This program was designed to empower students and teachers to take control of the garden project, including the building and the maintenance. Through workshops led by Growing Up Organic, students learned about what plants need to survive and thrive, how to plan and lay out a garden bed, how to calculate when a plant will be ready to harvest based on its planting date, as well as the importance of organic gardening. Throughout the workshops, students engaged in the math and science curriculums.

The students were so excited when they saw us bringing in the lumber to build the garden beds. Parent volunteers and teachers oversaw the construction of the beds, but the students were the ones who did the actual building. Because of the type of wood used, students were able to construct the beds using screws, screwdrivers, and a little bit of elbow grease. After the frames were built, and an inner lining stapled in, it was time for the real hard work: hauling the earth from where it had been delivered to the beds using wheelbarrows. This is where I really got to see students’ teamwork at its finest. Students worked together to scoop in the earth, stabilized it as they moved the wheelbarrow to the beds, and worked together to dump the earth inside the bed without spilling any. This was truly their project.

We created a grid using twine on our beds, and then tenderly planted seeds and seedlings in each square, according to which plants worked best together. We labelled all of the squares, and some students even got creative and named their plants! After a light sprinkling of water, our work was done, for the time being. There were still many months of maintenance ahead: watering, weeding, harvesting, and then the really fun part: eating the rewards! This was all done by students, teachers, and volunteers.

Then, disaster struck in the form of humans: humans who for some reason, decided to vandalize the garden beds. Plants were torn up. Sides were kicked in. Plants were trampled. I was horrified. I didn’t know how the students would react to their hard work being treated this way. But again, these kids never stop amazing me. “Let’s plant more!” So we planted more. The kids created signs to ask people to stay away from the garden beds. They put netting over the beds to make it harder for human interference; and it worked! I was so inspired that these kids were not defeated by such a mean act. They persevered and saw it through.

So what do kids get out of this? They learn teamwork. They practice patience as they wait for their seeds to turn into something edible. They learn responsibility as they maintain their gardens daily. They learn to appreciate food, and all of the time and resources it takes to grow a single radish. They learn how to cherish and care for the delicate thing we call nature. These are lessons that cannot be learned in a textbook, but must be learned by getting our hands a little dirty. As my grandmother always used to tell me, “Eating a little dirt now and then is good for you!”

Ms. Patnaik’s Tips for Starting a School Garden Program

1. Get your principal’s and custodian’s approval: this may sound like common sense, but there are so many things I didn’t even think about until talking to the custodian. Like that the beds have to be a certain distance apart so that the mower can get between them.

2. Talk to your parent council: Get your parent council excited about the project! Parent volunteers are a necessary part of a school garden program, so getting them on board is essential.

3. Start small: Some schools may only want to start with one bed. When you start small, there is a greater chance of success. This helps build students’ confidence.

4. Choose the right plants: Don’t choose vegetables that are going to be ready to harvest in July when everyone is on holiday. Plant vegetables that are quickly ready to harvest (like lettuces and radishes) so that students can enjoy fresh veggies before school ends. Also plant vegetables (potatoes, squash) that are ready to harvest in fall when students return to school.

5. Note where the sun travels and where the water is: Most plants need a good amount of sunshine, so think of that when deciding where to put your beds. Also try to have it near a water source. Parents won’t want to volunteer if they have to haul buckets of water 500m every day!

6. Make it an in-class project: Don’t leave it as an activity that only happens during recess or after school. Kids won’t be engaged in it if they have to miss recess! Allot class time to be able to allow the kids to maintain the gardens. There are so many ways to bring in the curriculum while gardening, it is easy to make a lesson out of it.