For more on gathering support:
Planning Sustainable School Gardens: Part 1 People Make the Garden
Cultivating Ownership
FAQs: Raising Funds, Finding Support
Teaching
Theme: Finding
Funds and Support
Planning the Program
“What” comes next. What will your garden accomplish? Although it is tempting
to start drawing up landscape plans once a gardening committee is organized,
it is important not to skip the step of determining how you will use the completed
garden. Each program should have defined goals and objectives. It is hard to
chart a path without knowing where you want to end up. To have the most impact,
school gardens should be integrated into the curriculum, and community gardens
should be crafted to meet local needs. A purposeful garden will be a worthwhile
and long-lasting garden. You’ll find more ideas here:
Integrating Gardening into the Curriculum FAQs:
Designing the Garden
Finally, it is time to design the garden. A very important tip: Plan big, but
start small. A large project can exhaust the enthusiasm of your students
and volunteers. Let them get excited about the success of a bountiful, enjoyable,
small garden, then expand as your confidence and experience increases.
There are many different design options depending on the space and time you
have. A traditional outdoor garden is planted in the ground. Unless the area
has been cultivated before, you will need a tiller to break the compacted soil
before you begin planting.
Another common option is to use raised beds. These are framed structures,
typically 9 inches (on soil) to 2 feet (on paved surfaces), made of rot-resistant
wood (like cedar), concrete blocks, or recycled plastic planking and filled
with soil. Although they require more initial investment than a traditional
in-ground garden, the benefits of raised beds pay off in the long run: they’re
easier to cultivate; you don’t have to worry about toxins in the soil, such
as lead; there are fewer weed and drainage problems; and the raised soil and
plants are protected from crushing footsteps. Plus, design is flexible – you
can build them to be handicap accessible, and to fit the space available, whatever
the shape or size. For more information about raised beds, check out Making
a Raised Bed Garden
Another outdoor option is to plant in containers. Typically, garden
containers are pots and troughs made of clay, plastic, or wood,
but plants aren’t fussy
– they’ll grow in anything that holds soil and has drainage holes.
Experiment with whatever is at hand, from discarded 5-gallon buckets
to an old bathtub!
Window boxes and hanging baskets are great if you have little
or no ground space.
By adding handles or wheels, or placing containers on wheeled platforms,
you can make your garden mobile, and can move plants around the
space to where
they’ll grow best as the season advances or as conditions change
(e.g., the angle of the sun shifts slightly each day). If threat
of vandalism is extreme,
you can move containers to sheltered or locked area.
No room outside? Try an indoor garden. This is a good option
for schools/youth organizations in areas where winters are
long growing seasons are short. The
simplest form of indoor gardening is to place plants in front
of windows that receive a decent amount of light. Windows that
face south and west are best
– they usually receive enough light to grow leaf and root
vegetables (beets, carrots, lettuce, onions, and radishes) and
herbs. East-
and north-facing windows
do not receive as much light, and are a good place for houseplants.
Spend a few days monitoring your window space to determine
how much light is available
for an indoor garden.
Grow lights designed to hang low over growing areas are a more
effective way to produce indoor crops. You can purchase GrowLabs or you can make your own. With grow lights, you can control the
amount
of light
your plants receive and can expand your crop options to fruit
crops like tomatoes and strawberries.
Once you have selected what type of garden you want to plant,
it’s time to focus on designing your space. Remember these key
things:
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Youth gardens are as distinctive as the people who create and enjoy them. Ideally,
they’re created to meet local program needs, and use the physical site and available
resources to their fullest. Though each is unique, the steps required to put
together a successful and sustainable program are the same. They include:
Next you need to answer, “Who will you involve in your garden program?”
The
answer is, “Everyone!”
It’s time to get your hands dirty and work up a sweat! Although the installation
processes vary greatly with each design, typically this stage requires you
to address: 