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Jonny Dubowsky

Founder/Director
The Rock n Renew Foundation
September 21, 2012
(808)315-5400
jonny@rocknrenew.com
12 W. 22nd St.
Bayonne, NJ
07002

Why garden with your school?

School gardens are sprouting up all over the United States and other countries! This
international interest in school gardens is refocusing education philosophy on an
activity that has engaged children since time immemorial.

Rock n Renew advocates the use of plant-based learning across the curriculum.
Training teachers to incorporate the use of outdoor gardens, natural settings and
plant activities in their classroom lessons achieve this goal. Our goal is to help make
plant-based learning a part of every students education.

An Overview of Rock n Renew Garden Programs


Rock n Renew can help your school to plan for, design, install and maintain gardens
of all styles, purposes and sizes. Rock n Renew has a strong commitment to
gardening with schools because of a belief that a school garden is an important
platform for active, interdisciplinary student learning.

So, are you interested in starting a School Garden?


If you are interested in beginning a school garden, the staff at Rock n Renew can
help you turn your school's gardening visions into a real-life outdoor classroom.
Following is a detailed description of what steps are necessary to start a school
garden, design ideas and more. As Rye Country Day School has already created
several gardens, please use this guide as an alternative perspective to help refine the
existing garden programming to meet the particular goals of the Middle School
program and the ever-improving sustainability plans of the entire school.

1. Goals
The goals and objectives of Rock 'n Renew's school gardening efforts are to help
schools establish and develop the following:
a site leadership team
a working garden for use as a living laboratory to support teaching and learning
a well-trained teaching faculty
a network of school garden projects in the city/surrounding region to provide
ongoing support
a network of parents who actively participate in garden activities
a student body engaging in active discovery through interdisciplinary learning
Rock n Renews garden programs focus on:
Restoring the local ecosystem+ Restoring the local food system

2. Planning and Design


To achieve these objectives, Rock n Renews staff will facilitate a participatory design
process with students and teachers prior to garden construction. Meetings with
educators and students determine how they wish to use the garden for class
activities, where the garden will be located on their school campus and what features
and plants they would like the garden to have.
A concept plan is developed from teacher and student ideas to reflect their vision
and this conceptual plan is presented to educators and students for continual
feedback and approval, including identifying ownership zones for individual
classrooms that adopt portions of the garden.

3. Construction and Planting


Garden construction focuses on building the infrastructure needed for planting
(possible raised beds, soil preparation, tree planting, etc). Rock n Renew works with
the school to accomplish this phase while teachers and students observe the process
through tours and aid in measurements and procuring materials for the project.
The second phase of garden construction is planting, which is done by the schools
students, teachers, parents, staff and principals with assistance from Rock n
Renews staff. All of these components can take place within a short period of time
(the entire process can be accomplished in 1 week) or can be established through a
more dynamic feedback period which can take 2-3 weeks. The speed at which the
garden is launched is determined by the school and its stakeholders to best meet the
particular goals of the initiating garden partners.

4. Training
Teacher training is integral to the school garden becoming part of the school's
culture and attendance at several teacher workshops is recommended as a
supplement to the garden planning process. Supplemental training sessions serve to
introduce the curricular connections to the garden and illustrate how to weave
garden-based activities into existing curricula. Rock n Renews staff can help
teachers determine how to modify activities to fit into or replace their current lesson
plan. Ideas for particular disciplines, such as math, reading, language arts, science,
art, etc are presented below. Rock n Renew board member, Dr. Koh Ming Wei just
completed her doctoral thesis entitled, Farm as School, Food as Medicine: The
effects of an interdisciplinary, standards based school garden curriculum on
students. There has not been a lot of research done on the effects of a school
garden programming on a students overall performance and achievement. Dr. Wei
spent 3 years doing extensive research on this subject, and Rock n Renew has been l
part of the research and development as we have built and developed over 200
school gardens in the past 6 years. Dr. Wei is currently the Director of Sustainability
Curriculum Development at Hawaii Preparatory Academy on The Big Island of
Hawaii and throughout the 2012/2013 school year, Rock n Renew will arrange for a
series of Skype/iChat video conferences between Dr. Wei and the schools that Rock
n Renew works with. Dr. Wei will also spend a week on the East coast working with
several of RnRs partners schools to help refine the sustainability and school garden
programming. As a partner with Rock n Renew, Rye Country Day School teachers
and students will also have the opportunity to work on collaborative projects with
students and teachers across the U.S.

5. Assessing Your Needs


Answering these key questions will set the tone for your schools garden space.
What is the gardens purpose?
What are your educational goals and teaching objectives for the garden?
What do you want to use the garden for in terms of teaching?
How will this guide what physical features you need?
What is my style?
What style works for your schools culture and the neighborhood context?
Is it fitting to have a naturalistic landscape with prairie and woodland native
plants, or would a more traditional garden be more suitable? How about a
combination of the two?
If you like the look of more formal landscapes, is there a group of people
willing to maintain that look?
What kind of maintenance is involved?
How much maintenance will you be able to realistically provide for the garden?
Ask the school garden committee what they are willing to do, and think
about recruiting interested neighbors (look for the nice gardens in the
community!) and parents who may be willing to help as garden volunteers.
This is where inclusiveness in the planning process can really pay off!
Example: Naturalistic styles need less maintenance, and formal styles need more. If
there is turf grass included, it will require periodic mowing and regular watering and
weeding. If there are annual fruits and vegetables, there will be more intensive
watering needs during the summer.
Tip: Involve those kids! Kids can be great weeders and waterers, and often welcome
the chance to prove themselves as caretakers. Caring for a garden is a great way for
kids to practice and develop personal skills such as responsibility, cooperation,
leadership, and sensitivity.
What is my budget?
Although you should think big, ultimately, the budget can be a limiting factor for
most school garden projects. This does not need to be the case! There are usually
several scales at which to achieve the same results, however a limited budget might
simply mean that the garden scales up to achieve its desired scope over time. As
you plan your garden design, start keeping a list of possible materials and their
respective quantities so that you can develop a reasonable construction estimate.
Visit a landscape supply business and learn the cost of various materials.
Example: Mulch makes good and relatively inexpensive pathways as opposed to brick
or other paving, which can be very expensive and may require professional
installation. Simple raised beds made from cedar will be slightly more costly than
pressure-treated lumber, but it is usually worth it to know you are not using any
questionable chemicals around children or food crops.

6. Creating a Vision & Analyzing the Garden Site!


Garden site analysis is the basic process of getting to know your existing conditions
and assessing what will stay, what will go, and what should be modified. It will
involve a series of direct field observations that are drawn onto a base map. A base
map serves as a foundation to guide your garden design, and will help you choose the
right features and plants for your site conditions, and keep everything in scale.

Climate and microclimate


Determine your growing zone and climate. Where you are located in the country
dictates your climate, or the overall weather and temperature conditions you have.
Climate affects when your first and last freezes occur, and what activities you may be
able to do during a given season.

Neighborhood context
Determine how the property relates to the surrounding neighborhood.
Go out and do a walking survey, really look around the neighborhood and see what is
going on, even at various times of day.
Ask yourself:
Whats next to the property on each side and what goes on there?
Are there certain traffic patterns, either from cars or from people walking?
What do you need to consider about the landscapes of the adjacent
properties?
Are they all very tidy and neat or are some unkempt and in need of
attention?
Are there businesses or neighbors who will have a view into your garden or
you into their property?
Are there views you want to screen?
Think about the neighbors perspective:
Are there areas that should be screened to give neighbors better privacy or
screened for noise?
Draw the features of the adjacent properties on your base map and be sure to note
any views to emphasize or screen.

Light
Determine the light conditions of the space.
Observe the light at various times of day. Typically full sun is > 6 hours per day, shade
is < 2-3 hours, and part shade is in between but the intensity and seasonality factors
should be considered as well.
Ask yourself:
Does the site have full sun, partial sun, or shady conditions?
Do these light conditions exist based on seasonal or year-round shade due to
buildings/evergreens?
Is there shade in the morning but full sun in the afternoon?
Is the light filtered through the canopy of a tree overhead?

Tip: Afternoon light and southern or western exposures tend to make the light more
intense, so even if shorter in duration, it may still be considered full sun.
Tip: Explore how the sun moves from east to west and how the time of day or the
angle of the sun affects the intensity of the light. This is a great way to link the study
of the earths rotation in relation to the sun to a practical application; that is, looking
at the amount of sun your garden will receive at different times of the year.

Soil
Determine the type of soil. Get to know your soil by taking a small handful and
squeezing the soil between your fingers.
Ask yourself:
Does it feel gritty? This indicates sand.
Does it feel smooth like clay? This indicates a high clay content.
Does it feel somewhere in between gritty and smooth, with a crumbly
texture? This indicates a loam soil that contains a balanced mix of the sand,
silt, and clay particles.
Do you see little pieces of leaves and bark? Is there a clean, earthy smell to the
soil? This indicates a good amount of organic material, also called humus.
Tip: Soil may be different in different areas of your site, so sample it in several spots.

Soil is composed of mineral and organic components as well as air spaces. The
mineral particles may be sand, silt, or clay, with sand being the largest particle and
clay being the smallest. All soils are some combination of these three (3) particles.
The organic component refers to the bits of decomposing plant material in the soil;
this is a healthy aspect to the soil as it provides nutrients and improves drainage.

What is compost and when do I need it?


Compost is simply decomposed plant material that we mix into the top 6-8 of soil to
improve the texture and nutrient capacity of the soil. The most common problem
with soil is that it doesnt have enough organic material in its composition. This is why
we add compost. Heavy clay soils may also need to have sand added, but most soils
just need extra organic matter. If you have your soil tested, the analysis usually
includes a section with recommendations for modifying your soil, which may include
the addition of compost.

Drainage
Determine where your water will drain. Surface and internal are the two main types
of drainage. Surface drainage has to do with the way water runs across the site.
Internal drainage is the way water runs through the soil.
The best way to analyze surface drainage is simply to observe the water and where it
goes during a rainstorm. There may be soil channels in the ground where erosion has
occurred, and you (and your students) will probably have a good idea of where it
puddles when it rains. Draw the drainage patterns on your base map.

Traffic and use patterns


Determine how people move across the site and make use of the space. Draw these
patterns as arrows on your base map; the larger the arrow, the heavier the flow of
traffic. If there is a building entrance or exit that gets especially heavy use, make note
of it on the base map.
Ask yourself:
Are there walkways that people use?
Do people cut across the grass and wear new paths in the turf? (These are all
called desirepaths. It is usually best to accommodate them in your design,
as it is difficult to stop people from using these short-cuts.)
Are there spaces where people gather to play or hang out?

Existing features
Determine the buildings, sidewalks, trees, shrubs, manholes, fences, light poles,
utility boxes, playground equipment, and anything else that is a permanent feature
on your site. Measure these items from a known location, like the building or
property corner and draw them onto your base map in scale.
Label all the features and make notes about the conditions; if a sidewalk is broken
and needs repair, state that on your base map.

Holding a Vision Meeting


Once the area has been surveyed and a site has been selected, the school can begin
to envision their ideal school garden. The school garden team should hold a vision-
creation session to formulate a better idea of what the garden should become. This
exercise serves to generate discussion among teachers and students about the
character of the garden, its primary uses, and the schools priorities for the space.
The outcome of the Vision Meeting will be a mission statement and concept design
for the garden and should be included in your proposal.

Do it democratically!
In addition to team members, invite other faculty, student representatives, a few
interested parents, and active community members as appropriate so that everyone
who is impacted by the garden has a voice in the planning process. Including a range
of perspectives will result in a greater depth of information and will generate good
will as well as increased support and participation in the entire school community.

Scheduling
Schedule the Vision Meeting at a time when most participants can attend, ideally
setting aside at least 90 minutes for the exercise.
Roles
Assign one team member to act as a facilitator.
Another garden team member should take notes and be prepared to
transcribe them so that no valuable ideas are lost.
A third team member should keep track of the groups comments on chart
paper, chalkboard, or another large writing surface, so that all can see and
react to the input.

Start the session


A facilitator begins the discussion by posing a series of open-ended questions to the
group.
What would you like students to learn in the garden?
What would you like them to do?
What topics do you teach that might be enriched by a garden?
What additional topics could you teach if you had a school garden?
What student interests might be expressed in this garden?
What are some potential educational goals for this project?
What other purposes might this garden serve?
What existing landscape features present opportunities for an educational
garden?
What are priorities for the gardens design and use?
Tip: Participants should be encouraged to consider a broad range of educational
applications of the garden, including its application to math, geography, history,
language arts, and fine art, as well as science topics such as biology and ecology.

Tip: As the team considers different possibilities, they can begin to identify teaching
goals for their garden. These can be compiled on a separate list, which the school
garden team will further refine into a formal garden mission statement as the
process moves forward. The resulting list of educational goals will guide curricular
activities and teacher training sessions, and ultimately connect classroom lessons
with the garden.

Determining Your Goals Worksheet


This worksheet is intended to be a guide for you to summarize your goals for the
entire garden project.
1. Garden as a learning environment
a. How will the garden support the larger educational goals and values of the
school?
b. What educational activities and lessons will you incorporate into the
garden?
c. What activities are planned or could be planned to enable learners to:
i. .use the garden for scientific and multi-disciplinary learning?
ii. gain confidence and enthusiasm for learning?
iii. acquire gardening and environmental stewardship skills?
iv. achieve other educational goals through active participation in the
garden?
d. How can the garden meet the learning objectives of a particular lesson
or unit?
e. Do some goals take priority over others? If so, how should this
influence the design?
f. How will you meet the needs of students with disabilities or special
learning issues?
2. School garden team
a. Does the team promote active participation by administrators,
teachers, students, parents, neighbors, and volunteers?
b. Who does the school hope to motivate and train to use the garden: the
entire faculty, teachers from a specific grade level, only interested
teachers?
c. Is every team member involved, or does most of the work fall to one or
two staff members?
3. Garden maintenance needs
a. What are the special maintenance needs of the garden and how will
they be met?
b. Do you have a system for assigning garden chores?
c. Do you have a system for maintaining the garden during the summer
when school is not in session?
d. If vandalism is a potential challenge, how might it be discouraged and
minimized?
4. Teacher training
a. In what areas or topics is training needed? (e.g., garden care and
maintenance, curriculum connections, etc.)
b. Are training workshops scheduled at convenient times and locations
for the majority of the participants?
c. What topics or content would best meet teachers needs and interests?
d. Do activities and lessons meeting the local, state, and national
standards?
e. What are your sources of expertise for training?
5. Student involvement
a. How will the student body be involved with the garden?
b. What aspects of garden installation and maintenance will the students
participate in?
c. What educational activities will the students conduct in the garden?
d. Will the students be engaged in active discovery, problem solving, and
questioning?
e. If the garden has already been established, what activities are planned
or could be planned for students to:
i. use the garden for learning across the curriculum?
ii. gain confidence and enthusiasm for learning?
iii. acquire gardening and environmental stewardship skills?
iv. achieve other educational goals through active participation in
the garden?
f. What smaller scale events and activities make the garden part of the
students daily lives (such as recess time, story hours, etc.)?
6. Extra-curricular activities
a. For which extra-curricular and community activities will the garden be
used?
b. What events, programs, or celebrations will be planned in the garden?
c. What ceremonies or cultural events will be held in the garden?
7. Parents, community, and networking
a. How will the garden team work with existing in-school networks of
parents (PTO/PTA/Local School Council)?
b. Where are opportunities to tap into the support and resources offered
by parents and parent groups?
c. Is there a citywide network of school garden projects and teams that
the school might participate in? If so, how will participation help
sustain the garden?
d. How will the school garden be used and supported by the community?
What opportunities exist?
e. How can the Middle School Garden serve as a cross-grade level
platform to facilitate collaboration between Elementary, Middle, and
High School students?

Forming a School Garden Team


Assembling a motivated, committed school garden team can be the key to building a
garden that endures for years. This team should consist of a core group that will be
the most active participants in planning as well as others who may play an important
but more peripheral role, or who may address some of the diverse constituency of
learners who will be using the garden. We recommend a minimum of six people to
form the core of the team.
As there are gardens for various age-groups, and it is RnRs understanding that there
is a preference to launch the Middle School garden immediately, it is absolutely
possible to go ahead and launch the garden with a small group of 2-4 teachers/
administrators and the addition of a small group of students, to allow for a working
garden that can function and serve the school community as a more long-term
garden team is formed. Rock n Renew can also help Rye Country Day school to
connect the goals of the Elementary, Middle and Upper School over the course of the
2012/2013 school year.
In general, for the School Garden Team:
1. The Facilitator/Principal will:
1. Participate in planning, enlist and motivate the school engineer and other
key staff
2. Approve events and activities of the team (which may include release time
for teacher training)
3. Enlist support of the community and parent organizations
4. Help with fundraising
5. Handle other leadership responsibilities with respect to the garden
Tip: The Principal or Vice Principal need not play as active a role in gardening as
teachers and other school members, but they should be in the mix to support the
idea and key needs. Through the use of a classroom content management software
such as the Haiku system currently used school-wide, Rock n Renew can help the
Principals, Headmaster, and any other administrators to have ongoing access to the
variety of garden-based curriculum that will be developed and utilized throughout
these programs.
2. Garden Coordinator will:
Oversee issues relating to the physical garden (as opposed to the curriculum)
Work closely with the school principal in establishing the schools core team
Organize regular meetings with the team
Take the lead for making plans
Tip: It is helpful if this person has gardening experience. This may be a teacher or
parent who is a gardener, and who has time available to dedicate energy to make
calls, recruit help, find and order supplies, etc
3. Planting Day Leader will:
Work ahead of time to promote pre-planting activities such as getting seeds
started in classrooms and training staff for the planting day
Secure access to a water source and tools, and work out a planting schedule
for the school
Tip: Planting Day is a large-scale event and requires one person to take charge of
coordinating the days activities. Experience has shown that delegating this job to
another individual eases the burden on the Coordinator and Principal. This is an
ideal job for someone who can be involved heavily, but for only a short time, as it is
a specific event-oriented responsibility. (If there is to be an annual planting day in
sub- sequent years, then the position can rotate to include a new individual every
year.)
4. Resource Leader will:
Collect, store, and distribute educational resource materials that will help
teachers make use of the garden
Write articles when the school wants to publicize the project in school
newsletters, local papers, or other outlets
Tip: Librarians make excellent Resource Leaders. Additionally, enthusiastic parent
volunteers could take this role or work closely with this individual to form a
subcommittee for School Garden Education Resources.
5. The Parent-Teacher Liaison will:
Keep the schools PTA, PTO, and/or Local School Council informed of the
gardens progress and events
Recruit parents and members of the community to assist with the garden by
volunteering with labor or contributing money or supplies
Tip: This should be a person who is knowledgeable about the garden, and who is also
comfortable speaking before groups.
6. Fundraiser/PR Leader will:
Seek additional funds to sustain the garden.
Seek sources of funding from local, state, and national agencies
Work closely with the Principal and assume the lead role in publicizing garden
successes in terms of soliciting and securing funds
Tip: Securing funds might begin with seeking donations or in-kind support from
neighborhood businesses and organizing a school fundraiser.

Tips for forming a great team


Most of the team members will probably be teachers from the school, but the
team will be stronger and have a better chance of surviving if it also includes
people from other areas of the school community.
The team might include other school staff such as librarians, resource
teachers, maintenance staff, administrative staff, and cafeteria staff. Each of
these professionals brings a different expertise and perspective to the
project.
The students themselves will have valuable ideas to offer, so having student
representatives on the team is an asset.
Neighbors and other community members might also have time, ideas, and
resources to contribute as team members. Parents, especially, should be
recruited for involvement. They are already members of the schools
neighborhood and community and have a strong vested interest in the
success of the schools garden, that is, the enhancement of their childs
education! At-home parents can be good sources of help, as they may have
flexible schedules that allow them to make phones calls, gather resources,
and generate ideas that classroom teachers havent the time to do.

Building Your Team!


Computer/tech teachers can help connect the curriculum to technology and
plant research through the Internet.
Physical education teachers can connect the garden to physical activity, stress
relief, stretching, and exercise as well as safe lifting and digging.
School nurses or dieticians can help create a nutritional emphasis on gardens
that include vegetables and herbs.
Include Special Needs Teachers. Gardens are wonderfully flexible learning
environments and can be used effectively for learners of diverse abilities.
Special needs teachers can help ensure that the garden design will
accommodate unique needs such as the use of wheelchairs or walkers. They
can also ensure that the design includes a wide range of learning
opportunities for everyone.
And remember... A schools core team may consist of additional members who share
leadership and responsibility for the jobs described above.Other participants may be
involved in a supporting rather than leading capacity.
All team members should attend their own garden team meetings and teacher
training sessions, work actively with students during planting days, and take
responsibility for overseeing maintenance of the garden during the school year and
summer.

Role of a School Garden Team


Once a school garden team is organized, the team members should develop a work
plan and outline their expectations. The school garden team members will make
decisions about how they will execute the tasks listed below.
1. Set regular meetings.
2. Outline tasks and time commitments; maintain a calendar for the teams
activities.
3. Plan the garden design and installation with input from as many school
community members as possible.
4. Continually work to increase participation by each member and to recruit
more members.
5. Create an open forum for input and discussion by participants and new
members.
6. Create events and programming in the garden (e.g., open houses,
graduation parties, and harvest festivals) to invite school families,
neighbors, and other members of the community to celebrate the garden
and become more involved in efforts to sustain it. See Getting the
Community Involved.
7. Establish a plan for on-going maintenance.
8. Develop a rubric for evaluating the success of the project in order to
identify strengths and weaknesses that will affect sustainability.

Go Team Go!
Responsibility for the school gardens continued success and sustainability ultimately
rests under the leadership of the school garden team. The school may face some
challenges in keeping the garden growing strong on all fronts, but these issues can
be overcome.
The team might be challenged but remember that its the team members abilities to
take leadership roles and apply what they gain from teacher trainings and their
relationship with the collaboration that will affect the long-term outcome of the
garden.
PRIMARY SCHOOL NATIONAL STANDARDS

National Science Standards


Plant-based activities, gardening, and environmental studies provide great
opportunities for implementing National and State Science Education Standards.
Such opportunities go far beyond the basic study of plants themselves to include life
cycles, ecosystems, soil, weather, organisms, and many science process skills such as
measuring, charting, collecting data, and reporting.

Kindergarten
Content Standard: Observe, investigate, describe and classify living things; explain life
cycles, diversity, adaptations, structure and function of cells and systems
reproduction, heredity, interdependence, behavior, flow of energy and matter and
changes over time.
Performance Standards: The student uses senses to observe characteristics of
organisms using hand lenses when appropriate (earthworms, insects, flowers,
vegetables, seeds, etc.). Describes similarities and differences between organisms
(verbal descriptions, drawings and dictated findings). Can sort and classifies seeds,
contributes to a picture graph. Describes similarities and differences between
organisms; (verbal descriptions, drawings, dictated findings). Observes various
classroom plants and classroom animals, contributes daily to needs, describes basic
needs and how to keep them healthy. Observes and describes organisms in their
environments; (habitats on school grounds, trees, under rocks, puddles, aquaria,
etc.). Observes organisms in their environments; (distinguishes living and non-living
things; describes different organisms and what they eat, etc.). Draws and decides on
a rule to sort organisms observed. Sorts and tallies pictures of organisms observed.
Essential Knowledge and Skills: The student uses senses to find out about
surroundings and her/himself. Explains how different senses give different
information. Chooses magnifiers to help see things that could not be seen without
them. The student cares for organisms in order to understand that most living things
need water, food and air.
Technology Integration: The student uses tools such as magnifiers, thermometers and
microscopes to examine organisms.

Grade 1
Content Standard: Observe, investigate, describe and classify living things; explain life
cycles, diversity, adaptations, structure and function of cells and systems,
reproduction, heredity, interdependence, behavior, flow of energy and matter and
changes over time.
Performance Standards: The student observes and describes differences and a variety
of different types of similarities in basic characteristics and behavior of organisms.
Investigates and describes the relationship between structure and function within
organisms (e.g., wings and flight; roots, stems, seeds, leaves of plants and their roles
in meeting basic needs). Grows a colony of earthworms in the classroom. Examines,
with the use of hand lens when necessary, the different individuals in the populations
and writes or uses pictures to show the similarities and differences between them.
Grows a plant from a bulb and describes similarities and differences between this
plant and those of the other students. Writes or uses pictures to compare the plant
to any other plant in their neighborhood. Compares and describes the behavior of
living things in relation to the nature of their environments (e.g., plants and animals
in a terrarium and in an aquarium). Observes and cares for classroom animals and
plants and explains the similarities and differences in their requirements.
Distinguishes real from fanciful attributes given to plants and animals in stories,
movies, poems, CD-ROMs, etc.
Essential Knowledge and Skills: The student chooses magnifiers to help see things they
could not see without them. Cares for organisms and concludes that plants and
animals both need to take in water, and animals need to take in food. In addition,
plants need light. Investigates organisms to know that different plants and animals
have external features that help them thrive in different kinds of places. Explains
differences in stories that sometimes give plants and animals attributes they really do
not have.
Technology Integration: The student uses tools such as computers, clocks, hand
lenses, thermometers, and balances to collect information. Uses word processing
programs to write about organisms.

Grade 2
Content Standard: Observe, investigate, describe and explain the properties,
structure, and origin of the earth system, the solar system and the universe. Observe,
investigate, describe and explain changes in the earth and sky with time, energy in
the earth system and geochemical cycles.
Performance Standards: The student observes, describes, and compares physical
properties of soil, water retention, layer formation, and decomposition of materials.
Observes erosion on school ground or in the neighborhood. Compares three
different types of soil to describe observable properties and investigates effect of
each on plant growth. Collects, organizes, and analyzes patterns in data to infer the
effect of different types of soil on plant growth. Constructs histograms, stem-and-
leaf plots and box plots of the seeds growth planted in different soils. Constructs and
explains time series plots of root growth in different soils. Investigates how water
moves through different earth materials.
Essential Knowledge and Skill: The student conducts investigations to know that soil is
made partly from weathered rock, partly from plant remains and also contains many
organisms.
Technology Integration: The student uses tools such as computers, clocks, hand
lenses, thermometers and balances to collect information about the weather.

Grade 3
Content Standard: Observe investigate, describe and classify living things; explain life
cycles, diversity, adaptations, structure and function of cells and systems,
reproduction, heredity, interdependence, behavior, flow of energy and matter and
changes over time.
Performance Standards: The student creates an artificial habitat using plants and
animals together. Identifies food sources for different organisms based on
observation of the habitat and creates food webs based on observations (fish, crabs,
fruit flies, plants). Explains the role of each organism in the food chain. Observes and
records effects of changes on the created habitat (e.g., changes in light,
temperature, water, population). Grows, observes, and completes the life cycle of a
plant including pollination and collection of seeds for the next generation. Measures
and makes drawings of observations of the growth of a plant. Collects and describes
evidence to explain effects of temperature, light, and water on the life cycle,
dispersal methods, traits, and variation in plants. Investigates and describes the parts
of plants; explains and predicts the functions of different parts of a plant.
Essential Knowledge and Skills: The student collects evidence from selected habitats
to know that changes in an organisms habitat are sometimes beneficial to it and
sometimes harmful. Infers that for any particular environment, some kinds of plants
and animals survive well, some survive less well and some cannot survive at all.
Concludes that insects and various other organisms depend on dead plant and animal
material for food. Reasons that almost all kinds of animals food can be traced back
to plants. Produces evidence to explain that some source of energy is needed for
all organisms to stay alive and grow. Investigates organisms to know that they
interact with one another in various ways besides providing food. Concludes that
many plants depend on animals for carrying their pollen to their plants or dispersing
their seeds.
Technology Integration: The student uses tools including hand lenses, clocks,
thermometers, balances, computers, rulers, meter sticks, measuring cups,
calculators, micro- scopes, cameras, safety goggles and sound recorders to collect
and analyze information. Uses educational software, drawing and writing tools to
gather information about the life cycles of several plants in different environments
and produces a report showing the role of animals in pollination and/or seed
dispersal of three plants.

Grade 4
Content Standard: Observe, investigate, describe and classify living things; explain life
cycles, diversity, adaptations, structure and function of cells and systems,
reproduction, heredity, interdependence, behavior, flow of energy and matter, and
changes over time.
Performance Standards: The student observes and groups organisms or specimens to
identify similarities and differences among them (live specimens as well as videos,
and pictorial representation of animals, plants, fungi, singe-celled organisms,
bacteria). Constructs a large or small-scale compost pile in the fall and records
changes in decaying material over time. Explains reasons that these changes are
taking place (compost pile can be indoors or outdoors and product can be used for
spring planting). Uses and explains data collected for a back-to-back histogram,
parallel box plot or time series plot to compare pollution on plant growth. Uses
stereomicroscope to examine the organism in compost tea at monthly intervals.
Draws representative organisms and explains why there are changes in the types of
organisms present at different times.
Essential Knowledge and Skills: The student observes that organisms interact with one
another in various ways besides providing food. Investigates ways that many plants
depend on animals for carrying their pollen to their plants or dispersing their seeds.
Conducts a long-term investigation to know in any particular environment, some
kinds of plants and animals survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot
survive at all. Deduces that over the whole earth, organisms are growing, dying and
decaying and the old ones are producing new organisms. Observes and describes
how organisms interact with one another in various ways besides providing food.
Observes that many plants depend on animals for carrying their pollen to their plants
or dispersing their seeds.
Technology Integration: The student uses measuring tools to collect accurate data for
comparing objects and events for designing and constructing things. Uses
communication and word processing software to construct journal entries and
scientific reports of related narratives.

Grade 5
Content Standard: Observe, investigate, describe and classify living things; explain life
cycles, diversity, adaptation, structure and function of cells and systems
reproduction, heredity, interdependence, behavior, flow of energy and matter and
changes over time.
Performance Standards: The student compares fossil plants and animals in the
classroom, field, or museum. Prepares comparative charts, tables, descriptions, etc.,
to show similarities and differences with existing organisms.
Essential Knowledge and Skills: The student examines environments to know for any
particular environment, some kinds of plants and animals survive well, some survive
less well, and some cannot survive at all. Gives examples of how some source of
energy is needed for all organisms to stay alive and grow. Examines various fossils to
know they can be compared to one another and to living organisms according to
their similarities and differences. Some organisms that lived long ago are similar to
existing organisms, but some are quite different.
Technology Integration: The student uses a variety of tools to collect and analyze data
such as the computer, calculators, microscopes, cameras, hand lenses,
thermometers, compasses, balances, hot plates, meter sticks, sound recordings, and
safety apparatus. Uses multiple sources of information such as the Internet, print,
instructional TV and databases.

Grade 6
Content Standard: Observe investigate, describe and explain the properties,
structure, and origin of the earth system, the solar system and the universe. Observe,
investigate, describe and explain changes in the earth and sky with time, energy in
the earth system and geochemical cycles.
Performance Standards: The student observes, records, and describes patterns of
changing weather and how they are measured. Designs and carries out
a study to compare the composition of soils sampled form three different locations in
the area.
Essential Knowledge and Skills: The student performs experiments to know although
weathered rock is the basic component of soil, the composition and texture of soil
and its fertility and resistance to erosion are greatly influenced by plant roots and
debris, bacteria, fungi, worms, insects, rodents, and other organisms.
Technology Integration: The student operates a weather station and makes daily
measurements of temperature, pressure, humidity, wind direction, and rainfall.
Maintains graphs of these data and compare with daily weather maps as well as radar
maps of cloud cover. Identifies the types of clouds (cumulus, cirrus, stratus, and
numbus) and makes weather predictions. Uses communication and word processing
software to construct journal entries and scientific reports or related narratives.

Grade 7
Content Standard: Observe, investigate, describe and classify living things; explain life
cycles, diversity, adaptations, structure and function of cells and systems
reproduction heredity, interdependence, behavior, flow of energy and matter and
changes over time.
Performance Standards: The student designs and conducts at least one experiment
to show the influence of the physical environment on the survival of primary
producer. Describes what the ecosystem would be like in the absence of
decomposers. Selects one species of plant and one species of animal in studied
ecosystem. Justifies why each can be considered a species. Selects a group of animals
or plants in the studied ecosystem and devises a key based on external features,
which may be used to distinguish one species from another. Designs a simulation of
how the characteristics of one species might change with successive generations if
one of the physical conditions in the ecosystem were gradually changing. For
example, the average annual rainfall might increase or the average temperature
might decrease.
Essential Knowledge and Skills: The student examines energy inter-relationships to
know that food provides the molecules that serve as the fuel and the building
material for all organisms. Plants use the energy from light to make sugars from
carbon dioxide and water. This food can be used immediately or stored for later use.
Organisms that eat plants break down the plant structures to produce the materials
and energy they need to survive before other organisms consume them. Observes an
ecosystem to understand that two types of organisms may interact with one another
in several ways: They may be in a producer/consumer, predator/prey, or parasite/host
relationship. Or one organism may scavenge or decompose another.
Relationships may be competitive or mutually beneficial. Some species have become
so adapted to each other that neither could survive without the other. Examines an
ecosystem in detail to know that over a long time, matter is transferred from one
organism to another repeatedly and between organisms and their physical
environment. As in all material systems, the total amount of matter remains
constant, even though its form and location change. Describes how energy can
change from one form to another in living things. Animals get energy from oxidizing
their food, releasing some of its energy as heat. Almost all food energy comes
originally from sunlight. Identifies in the studied ecosystem at least one member of
each of the kingdoms of living things (plant animal, fungus, protist, bacteria).
Explains why any of the kingdoms is under-represented or absent. Grows a
population of one species of fern from spores. Uses stereomicroscope to follow and
record the complete life cycle from spore germination, gametophyte development,
sexual reproduction, embryo development and growth of mature sporophyte.
Collects data to demonstrate variation within the population. Explains how the
various stages of the life cycle enable ferns to survive in the natural environment.
Compares different reproductive strategies to know that in some kinds of organisms,
all the genes come from a single parent, whereas in organisms that have sexes,
typically half of the genes come from each parent. Performs investigations to know
that animals and plants have a great variety of body plans and internal structures that
contribute to their being able to make or find food and reproduce. Observes a wide
range of organisms to understand that one of the most general distinctions among
organisms is between plants, which use sunlight to make their own food, and
animals, which consume energy-rich roods. Some kinds of organisms, many of them
microscopic, cannot be neatly classified as either plant or animal.
Technology Integration: The student uses measuring tools to collect accurate data for
comparing objects and events or for designing and constructing things. Uses
communication and word processing software to construct journal entries and
scientific reports or related narratives.

Grade 8
Investigations focus on Physical Science at this grade level. Use of a school garden to
support science standards would depend on
the teachers application of lessons to the garden.
Cross-Discipline Learning
PRIMARY SCHOOL NATIONAL STANDARDS

National Math Standards

Kindergarten
Measuring the schoolyard garden, both before and after construction, with
various non-standard units.
Identifying shapes in the garden.
Recording the daily temperature on a classroom chart.

Grade 1
Measuring the schoolyard garden both before and after construction with
non-standard and standard units.
Identifying two and three-dimensional shapes in the garden.
Collecting data on daily temperature in the garden and recording it on a
classroom chart.
Recognizing patterns in the garden.

Grade 2
Measuring the garden in metric units.
Dividing garden beds to gain understanding of simple fractions.
Measuring the daily temperature and recording it.
Identifying symmetry and asymmetry in the garden.

Grade 3
Measuring the perimeter and area of the garden.
Measuring temperature of air and soil in the garden.
Diving garden beds into fractional units.
Identifying geometric shapes and concepts in the garden.

Grade 4
Measuring the garden and creating a map to scale.
Identifying geometric shapes and concepts in the garden.
Using the garden measurements to demonstrate fractions and decimals.
Create a graph to illustrate data from plant studies, such as a bar graph to
show the number of seedlings that sprout or a line graph to show the growth
of a plant over time.

Grade 5
Measure perimeter and area of the garden using metric units.
Calculate the volume of soil in a plant bed.
Create graphs to illustrate data from plant studies in the garden.
Identify geometric shapes and concepts in the garden.

Grade 6
Measure the garden; calculate the volume of soil in a garden plot.
Observe a plant over time and graph its growth over time.
Solve story/word problems related to the garden.

Grade 7
Measure and calculate perimeter, area, surface area, and volume of garden
beds.
Create graphs to show data collected from experiments in the garden.
Identify geometric shapes and concepts in the garden.

Grade 8
Perform experiments in the garden, collect numerical data, and create a
graph.
Identify geometric shapes and concepts in the garden.
Practice various measuring techniques in the garden.
PRIMARY SCHOOL NATIONAL STANDARDS

National Social Studies Standards

Kindergarten
Identifying garden plants that are used or have been used by various cultures.
Relate folk tales, fables, and myths to the garden.
While discussing family roles of various cultures, highlight agriculture and/or
gardening practices.

Grade 1
Relate legends, myths, stories, and fables to the garden.
Apply what is learned about rules of conduct and work to behavior in the
garden.
Relate study of elements of culture to the plants and activities in the school
garden; grow plants used by various cultures.

Grade 2
Apply rules of conduct, rights and responsibilities to behavior in the school
garden
Introduce botanical/garden/agricultural details into study of the diversity of
backgrounds of Americans; grow plants from other cultures in your school
garden.
Use the garden to illustrate simple economic concepts.

Grade 3
Highlight gardens, plants, agriculture, and nature in study of cultural diversity.
Grow plants from theses cultures in the school garden.
Consider how inventions and new developments in agriculture have
influenced gardening practices used in the school garden.

Grade 4
Use the garden to illustrate economic concepts such as effects of supply and
demand.
Grow plants from Africa and Asia.

Grade 5
Discuss botanical/agricultural contributions by various cultures and grow
some of the plants discussed.

Grade 6
Use the garden to illustrate economic concepts such as effects of supply and
demand.
Grow plants from Africa and Asia.

Grade 7
Investigate how agricultural discoveries and inventions changed daily life and
affect practices in the school garden.
Grow plants farmed or used by indigenous people.

Grade 8
Investigate plants used by various Western Hemisphere civilizations; grow
some examples.
PRIMARY SCHOOL NATIONAL STANDARDS

National Geography Standards

Kindergarten
Compare a simple map of the garden to the actual garden.
Create and identify symbols to represent features on the garden map.

Grade 1
Compare a map of the garden to the actual garden
Use a map legend to identify features on the garden map.
Observe the weather and seasons effect on the garden.

Grade 2
Create simple maps of the school garden.
Collect data on weather and seasonal changes in the garden.

Grade 3
Create map of school garden using relative locations: distance, scale, and map
symbols.
Discuss the neighborhood and/or community involvement in the school
garden.
Collect data on weather and seasonal changes in the garden.

Grade 4
Create a scale map of the school garden.
Collect data on weather and seasonal changes in the garden. Discuss their
impact on the school garden.
Use the garden to describe interaction of climate, weather, soil, and natural
vegetation.

Grade 5
Highlight crops and other plants that moved with human migrations; grow
some examples.
Collect data on weather and seasonal change in the garden; compare this to
historical patterns.

Grade 6
Highlight crops and other plants that have influenced growth and decline of
empires, political policy, and other human activities; grow some examples.
Collect data on weather and seasonal change in the garden; com- pare this to
historical patterns.

Grade 7
Highlight crops and other plants that have human activities across the globe;
grow some examples.
Collect data on weather and seasonal change in the garden; com- pare this to
historical patterns.

Grade 8
Discuss the effect of climate on vegetation as it relates to the school garden.
Use the school garden as an example when discussing patterns of land use.
PRIMARY SCHOOL NATIONAL STANDARDS

National Reading/English/Language Arts Standards

Kindergarten
Reading childrens literature on plants, gardens, or nature.
Exercises in following directions when planting or caring for the garden.

Grade 1-3
Reading childrens literature on plants, gardens, or nature.
Writing and talking about the garden; asking questions about what is
happening in the school garden.

Grade 4 & 5
Reading childrens literature, both fiction and nonfiction on plants, gardens,
or nature.
Writing and talking about the garden; giving a written or oral report on the
garden.

Grade 6
Reading literature, both fiction and nonfiction on plants, gardens, or nature
and identifying literary devices in such literature.
Communicating about plans and tasks in the garden; making group decisions.

Grade 7
Reading literature on plants, gardens, or nature including a selection of folk
tales, fables, and parables, and multi-ethnic literature.
Writing a report or a research paper on a garden-related theme.
Communicating about plans and tasks in the garden; making group decisions.
Group presentations on a garden-related theme.

Grade 8
Relating Greek and Roman mythology to the garden.
Writing a research report on a garden-related theme.
Individual and group presentation on garden-related themes.
Basic Garden Design Principles

Line
The visual line is formed by the contrast between features. Lines in a design help
move our eye through the space, whether they be flowing curves or energetic
angles. Vertical lines move your eye up and down. (Dont forget opportunities to
make use of vertical space in your garden, which can add a whole other dimension.)
Horizontal lines draw your eye across the scene. Curving lines will tend to draw you
into the space, as you want to see where it leads.
Example: A line is formed by the edge of the turf grass and the flowerbed.
Tip: Strong lines that denote the edge of beds are much easier for young students to
identify. If kids can distinguish between spaces, they will stay on paths and out of the
middle of beds, as long as they can make out the distinction.

Form
Design features perceived by our eye have an overall form and are used to add
interest through contrast, harmony, or repetition.
Example: A pyramidal evergreen or a vase-shaped ornamental tree can draw our eyes
in and create focal points in the landscape. Or, an arch or two upright scrubs can be
spaced to create a visual entrance to the garden.

Texture
Rough or smooth, textures affect our perception of the relative distance of the
object. Fine textures tend to recede and coarse textures tend to advance.
Contrasting coarse and fine textures tend to provide energy.
Example: Magnolias, with their large leaves, are considered coarse- textured, while
Japanese Maples, with their delicate, serrated leaves are fine-textured.

Color
Color can provide a subtle, soothing mood when used in monochromatic families or
they can inject energy when used with contrasting, complimentary colors.
Example: Red, orange, and yellow are considered hot colors, appear to advance
(appear closer), and are excitable colors. Blues, purples, and greens are considered
cool colors, appear to recede into the distance, and are calming colors.
Tip: People tend to design landscapes around flower colors first, but really should
focus on the lines, forms, and textures of the overall plants, as the flowers are only in
bloom for a short time.
Did you know that most meditation gardens use cool colors, while large theme parks
often use hot color schemes to keep people excited and moving? Perhaps the overall
presence of green in any garden is one contributing factor to gardens being regarded
as calming places.

Repetition
Add harmony to the design by repeating an element, particularly form or color,
throughout the landscape.
Variety
Add energy and interest by varying the features so its not all the same view; think in
terms of seasonal variations and varying
focal points at different times of year.
Balance
Place comparable masses on either side of a feature; may be symmetrical or
asymmetrical.
Emphasis/Focal point
Create a spot in the landscape where the eye pauses and looks for a longer period,
usually because something is particularly interesting or pleasing.
Sequence
Provide cues for the garden visitor on how to move through the various areas and
what to do in each; refer to the sequence of the flowering and seasonal colors of the
planting scheme.
Scale
Keep in mind the relative sizes of the areas within the garden and the features and
plants used.
Choreography of experience
When designing a garden, the designer is in essence choreographing a dance of
movement through a space; she is specifically planning how you will move through
that space and what you will do in each area, for example. Do you meander slowly
along a stepping stone path? Do you move quickly along a broad, paved walkway?
Are there quiet alcoves with seating that entice you to pause and reflect? How the
garden space is arranged creates a particular experience visitors will have as they
move through it.
Transitions
Spatial transitions refer to how the various areas of the garden relate to one another.
For example, how do you transition from the vegetable growing area to the prairie
and butterfly meadow? Seasonal transitions refer to how the garden includes
features and plant choices that keep the space interesting and functional in every
season even winter!
Movement
This is how you move through a space, but it also refers to plant movement. For
example, ornamental grasses are great for adding movement to the planting design.
Focus
This is where your eye rests, which is often on the details of the plants or the added
features (like arbors or artwork). The spot where your eye comes to rest naturally is
called the focal point. Too many focal points in a small space are mentally
confusing, as the eye does not know where to rest.
Sense of space
This is the overall feeling the space conveys when you view it and when youre in it.
For example, is the garden sunny, open, and colorful? Is it shady, secluded, and quiet?
What atmosphere do you want to create?
Composition
This is the overall garden, the overall impact of the space, and how all of the features
and areas work together to create a whole.
Understanding Your Climate
Where you are located in the country dictates your climate, or the overall weather
and temperature conditions in your area. Climate also affects what activities you may
be able to do during a given season. The term growing zone is used by the nursery
and gardening industry as a common reference point for determining the range of a
plant. A plant hardy in zones 3 to 7 is well suited for all of Connecticuts hardiness zones
as long as the plant is properly located to meet its light, soil, moisture and wind exposure
needs. A plant listed hardy in zone 7 to 9, however, will likely only survive in
Connecticuts chillier zone 6 if given extra winter protection.
What is my microclimate?
Microclimate refers to the small-scale conditions specific to your site. For example, if
your garden is on the east side of a large building, it likely will be sheltered from
prevailing western winds during the winter and may only receive direct sunlight
during the morning hours. Conversely, if your site is on the southern or western side
of a brick building, it likely has hotter, drier conditions given the exposure to
afternoon sun and radiant heat from the building.

Do I Really Need Drawings?


Yes. A plan drawing of your school garden is a sketch of the space and your proposed
use for it. It doesnt need to be an elaborate drawing, nor done by a professional.
And, yes, you can do it! Plan drawings are not that complicated.
Materials you need: graph paper, tracing paper, colored pencils and a ruler.
A plan drawing is a critical and valuable communication tool and allows you to show
teachers and students what will be built, including the location and size of the
individual classroom beds so they can start planning their crops. The first step in
developing a good set of plan drawings is to develop a solid base map that shows the
dimensions and existing conditions of your garden site. A base map is the point from
which you are starting to build the garden, or the original site. You will refer back to it
repeatedly. After developing your base map, you will create subsequent designs on
tracing paper (placed over graph paper) and to be viewed as an overlay to the base
map. This overlay is so that viewers can see the proposal design in relation to whats
already there, as shown on the base map.

What is a base map and how do I develop one?


A base map is the result of a series of direct field observations of your site. The base
map will serve as a foundation to guide your garden design, will help you choose the
right features and plants for your site conditions, and will help you keep everything in
scale. Use the information you gathered in Analyze the Site about size, climate,
neighborhood, light, soil, drainage, traffic, and
existing features to develop your base map.
Your base map can also be called a scale drawing, where: 1 foot in real life = 1/4 or 1/8
inch on graph paper. Once the base map is drawn, you can use tracing paper overlays
to draw simple bubble diagrams to experiment with ideas for different zones of use
within the garden.
Bubble diagrams are simple circles on a piece of tracing paper that lay atop your
base map in order to define the locations of the various garden features.
Since you have made the base map to scale, you can assess on paper if, for example,
there is enough room for pathways or to plant a tree that will reach 40 feet across at
maturity. Better to do this type of planning on paper than to plant a tree in the wrong
location!
Then add another piece of tracing paper can be used to quickly draw another
possible layout; just keep refining until you have a version that addresses each of the
goals you have identified for your garden. You can create many bubble diagrams to
experiment with different ideas. This is perfectly fine because now is the time to
experiment with various placements of use areas rather than when the garden is
being constructed! Once the bubble diagram is developed, more tracing paper can be
used to start planning the actual features of the gardenthe paths, trees, planting
beds, sundials, etc. The drawing will allow you to see how these areas and features
relate to each other, and comprise the overall composition of the garden.
Tip: Having a plan drawing provides a great fundraising tool! If you can show
potential funders your plan, then they know you are serious and have given careful
consideration to your project, and therefore will be more likely to help with funding.

Include Everyone in the Process


It is highly recommended that a school garden team use an inclusive design
process to collect input from all members of the school and incorporate the
collective ideas into a design for the school garden that represents everyone who will
be using it. The inclusive design process invites teachers and students to contribute
creative ideas and provide input in the final design before garden installation. It
emphasizes consideration of how the garden will be used, rather than its
appearance, and puts the creative power in the hands of the school team.
The inclusive design process can aid in developing the appropriate adaptations to the
garden to meet the needs of individuals with special needs or disabilities.
Again, as there is a practical demand to launch a working garden for the current
school year, this inclusive design process can be one that develops over the entire
school year, and the garden design can be an adaptive one that changes with the
seasons.

Hold a Design Workshop


Organize a Design Workshop that relies on the inclusive design process whereby all
participants can openly discuss ideas. A well run Design Workshop generally results in
strong feelings of ownership and pride in the garden and the school.
Tip: A Design Workshop is slightly different than a Vision Meeting, something we
recommend you hold prior to holding a Design Workshop. The Vision Meeting is
about the overarching goals and the character of the garden, its primary uses, and
the schools priorities for the space. The Design Workshop is more about garden
design, a plan for building it, and plant selection. The outcomes of the Design
Workshop should be informed by the outcomes of the Vision Meeting. Begin by
deciding who will participate. The simplest way is to have the garden team invite
representatives from the student body, faculty, neighboring community, and local
businesses to meet for one or more half-day workshops to brainstorm ideas. In some
cases, it might be more appropriate to have several different sessions that could
accommodate the availability of participants. Another approach would be to involve
the entire school by having each classroom spend an hour generating ideas and then
having a representative from each classroom participate in the half-day brainstorm
session.

Logistics of a Design Workshop


Brainstorm ideas - Give everyone a chance to contribute ideas to the garden design.
Formulate a design concept - Sift through the brainstorm session and solidify
everyones ideas. Create and approve a final design - Work closely on the drawings
and design plans and reach a consensus to approve the final garden design
Get some professional help if you need it! During the design process many school
garden teams find it helpful to have professional advice. Developing a master plan for
the space will ensure that all components of the garden design work together, even
if the garden is to be built in stages over time.
A local landscape architect or designer might offer services to a school garden
project at little or no cost. A Master Gardener or an experienced gardener in the
neighborhood might be delighted to help with the design and plant selection.
Tip: Just make sure the Design Facilitator is an individual who will truly listen to
your ideas, and not just tell you theirs. A landscape design for children (and lots of
them!) will be different from traditional landscapes, and the designer should keep
this in mind throughout the process.

Approving Your Final Design


The school garden team should reach a consensus about the final garden design. If
there are major objections to the garden plan, the team members must voice them at
this preliminary stage and offer constructive ideas to bring the garden closer to the
schools vision. Team members may need to accept that some ideas are not possible.
Remember, you can do anything, but you cant do everything! Once a final design is
approved, the school is ready to begin construction and organize planting day
events.

Building the Garden!


School gardens take much more intense use and foot traffic than traditional
landscapes, and construction techniques must yield super tough, durable features.
While a raised bed made of 2' x 6' lumber may work in your backyard, it will not
withstand hundreds of little visitors over years of traffic in a school garden.
Anchoring 6" x 6" beams with 30-inch rebar stakes may seem like overkill, but not
when there may well be thousands of little feet walking along them.

Getting the Entire School Involved


The school garden will be at the top of your mind, but may not be at the forefront of
the minds of those in the school less involved. The more you can bring it to their
attention and get them thinking about it, the more connections will be developed,
and the more the garden will be used.
Here are some ideas for keeping the garden on peoples minds:
Talk about the garden in every possible faculty meeting.
Ask the principal for a time slot in the next school-wide assembly to promote
the garden among the students.
Incorporate the garden as a teaching tool even before it is built.
Ask the students for their ideas of what should be in the garden and then
really listen! Most students have great ideas about possible garden designs or
features, but we tend to think that as adults we know what is best. For
example, adults at one school did not think about developing a dragon
garden, but their second graders did. The result was a tremendous level of
ownership by the students.
If the faculty has established the primary educational goals, put those forth to
the students and invite their design ideas, so that the resulting garden will
naturally support the underlying education goals with the students at the
center.
Ask for the students to develop their own garden design plan and discuss
those plans that offer the best design solutions. Develop a composite plan
based on the best student plans so it includes multiple ideas. Post the
composite drawing in public places at the school so students can see the
vision.
Promote the project to parents in the school newsletter and the student
newspaper.
Put up a banner announcing the future site of the school garden.
Recruit classes to sign up for Planting Day. Ask if they want to have
ownership of a particular garden area for long-term maintenance.
Involve the art classes in producing outdoor art for the garden.
Ask younger students to start seeds on their classroom windowsills. Its
difficult to grow seedlings without a grow light, therefore its beneficial to
have one in your classroom. If heavier construction projects are to be done by
a contractor, have the students come out and take tours during this phase.
Make sure the students do any work that is possible for them to do including
moving wheelbarrows or pails of compost to amend soil; planting the smaller
shrubs, perennials, and annuals; and mulching the beds.
Celebrate the garden with refreshments and special events once its planted.
Visit the garden regularly with your class, whether for active investigation,
quiet reading time, or simply to observe and write in their journals.

Safety and universal access


The garden should be built with the appropriate safety measures and accessibility
standards in place. Work closely with your contractor to ensure these elements are
included in the overall design. Safety parameters, like using untreated cedar lumber
instead of standard pressure-treated lumber and providing universal access
to certain features, are paramount in public spaces used by children. Be sure to work
closely with your contractor to design the appropriate safety measures in your
garden. It is important to provide garden access to all individuals with all abilities.
Building features of the garden that enable children with disability conditions from
preschool to high school to enjoy and maintain is important.
Needs of children with disabilities to consider when building a garden:
Physical space
Individual strength and endurance
Height and range of motion
Mobility and balance
Use of walking aids or wheelchairs
Ability to use hand tools
An enabling garden includes:
Paved surfaces
Drop-off areas and parking
Signage
Entrances and exits
Rest areas and comfort
Containers and raised beds
Drinking water
Emergency plans
For more information about accessible design standards and universal access, see the
U. S. Governments American Disability Act Web site.

Organizing Planting Day


Once the infrastructure of the garden is in place, consider holding a one-day planting
event for the students to plant the garden. This celebratory event is important, as it
allows everyone to get their hands in the garden and claim part ownership.
It is a lot of fun to have a minimum of 2 major planting day events throughout the
school year. One in the Fall (which can also be a Harvest event once the garden has
been active for a full year), and one in the Spring. One of the best planting day
programs in Rock n Renews history was a garlic planting party with 200 students, a
number of parents and faculty, held the week before Thanksgiving break. The day
after we planted the garlic it snowed, and yet because we did a good job of mulching,
later that Spring it was one of the best garlic harvests ever. There really are only a
few weeks where the weather is too cold to do work outside in the garden.
Planting Day Scheduling:

1. Select a day with a backup rain date (just in case).


2. Schedule classes to arrive at the garden and work in 30-40 minute shifts.
3. Assign a specific area of the garden for each group to plant, preferably an
area that relates to that groups curriculum or that they intend to care for
throughout the year.
4. Use any extra time to deliver a lesson plan on gardening, nature, or anything
related to the work they are doing.
5. Be sure to allow enough time for students to clean up before returning to
their classrooms. (Otherwise, youve got a major chore at the end of the day!)
Assign adults to work with small groups during each planting period Adults (parents,
volunteer staff, and teachers) deliver instructions and assist students with more
difficult tasks such as opening up the root systems of potted plants and monitoring
plant spacing and depth of holes. Make sure all adult volunteers are trained first, not
everyone knows how to properly remove plants from containers and loosen root
balls.
Recruit as many parent volunteers as possible. Parents will ensure adequate
supervision and should be familiar with the design and the plant materials to ensure
proper layout of plants into the beds.
Consider partnering older students with younger students. This approach can unify
your student body by providing younger students with one-on-one support they need
to do the work while giving the older students an opportunity to build mentoring
skills. It is fun for all students to mix and mingle in the garden.

Childrens Garden Themes


Vegetable Snack Garden: Encourage children to grow fruits and vegetables that they
would like to taste, favorites as well as new items. Incorporate nutrition lessons.
Grow a Pizza Garden that includes plant ingredients on a pizza. Grow a Salsa Garden
that includes plant ingredients found in salsa. Have students keep a food journal to
record what plants they eat. Build and observe a compost bin in your school garden
Discuss when to plant/harvest vegetables in the garden and learn about plant life
cycles.

Wildlife Garden: Incorporate a tree with berries for the birds in your garden. Use tall
grasses for cover for small animals such as rabbits. Install a birdbath or birdfeeder
outside a classroom window. Have your students research plants and flowers that
specifically attract hummingbirds, butterflies, or moths. In winter months, create a
variety of bird snacks to hang in the garden as a cold-season snack. Use plants with
seed heads that will naturally provide snacks for birds, such as sunflowers and millet.

3 Sisters Garden:
The Three Sisters are the three main agricultural crops of various Native American
groups in North America: squash, maize, and climbing beans (typically tepary beans or
common beans).

In one technique known as companion planting, the three crops are planted close
together. Flat-topped mounds of soil are built for each cluster of crops.[1] Each mound is
about 30 cm (12 in) high and 50 cm (20 in) wide, and several maize seeds are planted
close together in the center of each mound. In parts of the Atlantic Northeast, rotten fish
or eels are buried in the mound with the maize seeds, to act as additional fertilizer where
the soil is poor.[2][3] When the maize is 15 cm (6 inches) tall, beans and squash are
planted around the maize, alternating between the two kinds of seeds.

The three crops benefit from each other. The maize provides a structure for the beans to
climb, eliminating the need for poles. The beans provide the nitrogen to the soil that the
other plants utilize, and the squash spreads along the ground, blocking the sunlight,
helping prevent establishment of weeds. The squash leaves also act as a "living mulch",
creating a microclimate to retain moisture in the soil, and the prickly hairs of the vine
deter pests. Maize lacks the amino acids lysine and tryptophan, which the human body
needs to make proteins and niacin, but beans contain both and therefore maize and beans
together provide a balanced diet.

Garden Chores & Maintenance


Garden work does not end after construction and planting. A successful school
garden is well maintained and survives past the first few years. The visual condition
of the garden is the most obvious barometer of a school gardens sustainability.
Recruiting enough help for steady garden maintenance-particularly during the
summermay prove a significant factor in achieving sustainability. Two critical -
components of good garden maintenance are leadership and a good plan. Within an
established system, knowledgeable, well-trained leaders can guide volunteers and
accomplish the work that needs to be done.

Creating a Garden Responsibility Plan


The school garden team needs to create a Garden Responsibility plan for keeping the
garden watered, weeded, and cared for throughout the calendar year. The
Responsibility Plan can give tasks of weeding and watering to different classrooms
on a rotating basis, put a student garden club in charge of garden care after school or
outline the plan for summer/holiday maintenance schedule. The Responsibility Plan
depends on the particular situations at each school, size and type of garden and
number of classrooms actively using the space. Whatever the plan, the school garden
team needs to keep apprised of what is working and what is not and remain flexible
to the idea of changing plans and implementing procedures in case the garden or
team falls short of expectations.
Tip: Each school garden team must address its maintenance needs according to
available resources both inside the school and in the larger school community.

Suggestions for Assigning Work


Make a game out of pulling weeds! Be creative about addressing kids and getting
them to do garden chores. Kids will happily weed if the task is proposed as a search-
and-destroy mission for the "weed of the week". Show students the "weed of the
week" and see how many they can find.
Example: See which team can pull the biggest pile of weeds. Children often dont
know the difference between the weeds and the good plants. Make weeding easier
for the kids by showing them pictures or examples of the weeds they are going to
pull that day. Assign classrooms to areas of the garden. By getting children involved
from the beginning (with planting the seeds or plants), they will feel like they have
ownership of the garden. This will depend on what type of garden you have and how
many classes are involved.
Create a School Garden Weekly Garden Schedule
Which would include the name of the Summer Maintenance Coordinator, daytime
phone number, the week dates, the tasks and challenges.

Strong school garden teams continue to seek, cultivate, and include participants
from within the school as well as from the broader community.
Schools that are eager to involve the community, especially parents, have the
greatest success because they: encourage visits by community members, provide
easy access to tools and materials for volunteer use, build educational or
recreational components into the garden experience, invite community members to
contribute wealth and wisdom and to play a role in active gardening
These practices keep the level of involvement and commitment high.
Commitment to Integrate Curricula
Integration of the garden across the teaching curricula over multiple grade levels is
essential to success. The school garden is a natural forum for cross-disciplinary
connections, enabling fluid learning across the curriculum. Plant-based activities
based on a school garden or outdoor habitat support a variety of learning styles and
abilities and are always hands-on and engaging, real-life learning endeavors that help
kids gain lifelong skills in a natural environment.
Tip: Vigilant evaluation of a program, both within the school and at the level of a
school gardening network, can help document improved student performance and
validate the value of gardening and plant- based activities within the educational
system.

Staff Turnover and Team Changes


The biggest challenge to sustainability is likely to be staff turnover. Without
commitment and involvement, the team, and ultimately the school garden, will
wither and die. As faculty members and administrators leave the school and are
replaced by new staff, maintaining a commitment to the original project goals
becomes more difficult. The ability of the team to maintain focus and commitment to
its vision is a significant factor in influencing the success and sustainability of the
garden.

Rating the Garden's Success


Establishing a clear, measurable set of goals for rating the schools success on a
range of criteria will provide a baseline to which you can measure on the success of
the whole program and therefore determine its sustainability.
Take the time to perform an annual self-assessment so that problems can be
identified and addressedits invaluable for ensuring the garden programs
sustainability. It offers the possibility to see programmatic weaknesses as well as
strengthens and introduces ideas for improvement that can benefit everyone
involved, particularly if a broad spectrum of the school community is involved in the
process.

Celebrating the Garden


Use of the garden for school and community programs, ceremonies, and other
events is one of the easiest ways to sustain your garden. People in the garden make
the garden come to life. Invite the community to join. Asking the community to join
the fun of workdays and planting days, harvest festivals, special programs, and
celebrations is worth the effort. The trick is to think of the garden as a place for such
events and encourage new audiences as well as regulars to participate each time.
Invite neighborhood groups to host a meeting or event in the school garden.
Welcome visitors as part of a neighborhood garden tour led by students and teachers
describing their work and lessons in the garden. Remember...the more people
experience the garden, the more they will think of and care for the garden and
therefore, the more successful and sustainable the garden will be. People who attend
such events may become engaged and be willing to volunteer in the garden in other
capacities.

Try these online resources to search for local school garden initiatives:
American Community Gardening Association
http://www.communitygarden.org
American Horticulture Society
http://www.ahs.org
Garden Mosaics
http://www.dnr.cornell.edu/gardenmosaics/
Junior Master Gardener Program
http://www.jmgkids.com/
National Gardening Association
http://www.garden.org/
Earth Day Network
http://www.earthday.net
Rock n Renew has worked with Earthday Network for 6 years to share curriculum
and activity information and to share the inspiring artistic influence that makes Rock
n Renew unique.
For an amazing volume of PDFs that will get teachers started lining up their lesson
plans to sustainability programming just register here:
http://edu.earthday.org/user/register
and begin exploring several options for your next lesson plan.

Ongoing Fundraising
Have you heard the phrase Nothing succeeds like success? That is the reason
Harvard Universitys endowment is well over a billion dollars. You can think of
endless examples of this phenomenon. People want to be associated with worthy
projects that are doing a good job and achieving goals. Everybody gets satisfaction
from pointing to a success and saying I helped this project get underway.
So the basic rules of successful, ongoing fundraising are to: 1) start your school
garden with the assistance of others, 2) share news about the project on a regular
basis, and 3) give your contributors credit for their help.
There is a fourth important rule: be open to new ideas and change. School gardens
should be dynamic, like all social constructs.
The school garden team and your contributors will welcome the chance to see the
idea of the garden evolve and expand to meet newly-formulated needs and fresh
resources. Create a positive feedback loop around your school garden and the people
and the money will come.
Obtaining funding to expand the garden and its programs is necessary. Tools,
materials, expertise, and labor are all required to sustain a garden and its programs,
and these items cost money.
For example: A manager of a local hardware store might be willing to provide a
discount on regular retail prices or even donate some tools and supplies outright Or
urseries and greenhouses may offer free or very inexpensive plant material.
Rock n Renew partner gardens are generally able to become 100% financially
sustainable within 3 years. This is done through a series of plant/flower/food/value-
added agriculture product sales done throughout the year. The funds raised from
these sales go to pay for all the supplies and tools needed to keep the garden
running smoothly. Apart from Rock n Renews initial role as educational consultant,
these ongoing fundraising activities are run by the schools and are completely self-
contained within the schools preferred infrastructure. Rock n Renew can simply help
to provide the templates for how to run these programs based on our best practices
that we have developed over the years.

Conducting an Evaluation
Conducting a self-assessment, is much like assessing student performance. Student
assessment actually begins as the teacher writes a lesson plan. In the process, she
identifies goals and objectives that will demonstrate whether the students have
learned the new content and skills.
You should have already determined your goals through defining measurable
outcomes earlier on in the school garden project. Read through each of the following
questions and take time to write your responses. You may want to have each teacher
who is participating respond to some portions individually, such as the first section
addressing learning goals.
Tip: At the conclusion of the evaluation, all of the components can be assembled
into an Annual Report for the school, which will be of great use in new funding
projects. This can also be featured online along with a series of blogs which can use
photos and videos to chart the progress of the garden throughout the years.
Getting the Kids Involved
Kids love to measure! If the group can use measuring tapes, have them develop the
base map. Let them work in small groups and then compare the various base maps
produced to assess accuracy. Discuss the issues of accuracy in measuring. A good tie
to the concept of replication in the real-world science experiments!
Tip on drawing to scale: If the group is too young for formal tape measures, have
them use their arms, feet, or whatever is handy as units of measurement to
measure the site.
Tip on measuring: Explore the marking on a ruler and talk about how you can draw
a place that is 20 wide on a much smaller piece of paper. If the real object measures
16 arm lengths, can we draw it on paper as 16 finger widths?

Ask your students to take temperature, light, and wind measurements at different
locations around your campus; see how the measurements are different or similar.
Discuss the weather patterns for your region and how the variations of your
schoolyard affect the conditions that plants may face. (For instance, is there a
protected courtyard area?) Ask them to create a diagram of the schools
microclimate conditions.
Tip: If you are studying weather as part of your curriculum, you may want to have
students repeat these measurements throughout the year to create an annual
climate log.

Take kids on a neighborhood walk with their journals and let them record their
observations; if they are too young to write, have them draw pictures. Discuss the
things they saw when you return to class.

For older students, it may be possible to have them actually measure the light with
light meters used for photography, an example of using the tools of science. For
younger students, simply focus on how sunny it is in various areas. Watch the
shadows move across the schoolyard throughout the day; visit each hour and mark
where the building shadows fall.

Let them get dirty! Have teams collect soil samples from locations scattered
throughout the site (say points 1-10), and then do feel tests on each of their labeled
samples. How do they describe and rank each sample? Put your sample into a jar and
fill it with water; let the jar sit overnight to settle and examine how the layers of
particles have distributed in the morning. The different particles will create separate
layers. Clay will sink to the bottom, with sand above it, and silt on top. Organic matter
will float to the surface and form a layer there. Students can then clearly estimate
percent sand, silt, and clay and compare it with the predictions they made when they
collected the samples.
For older students, have them test pH and basic nutrient rates for N, P, and K
(nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium) back in the classroom (simple kits are
available at garden centers.
Tip: Send a representative sample off to your university extension service for actual
testing; this usually costs less than $20.
To measure internal drainage, students can conduct a percolation test. Percolation
refers to the rate at which water drains, or percolates, through the soil. Dig a small
hole, about 1 x 1 and fill the hole with water and monitor how quickly the water
drains. If the water disappears in less than 30 minutes, the soil is extremely well
drained and probably has a lot of sand in it. If the hole still has water in it after an
hour, your site has poor drainage and likely has high clay content. Draw any areas of
poor or excessive drainage on your base map.
Let kids go out and look at the site during a rainstorm (under umbrellas, when there
is no lightening!); work in partners so one student can hold the umbrella and one can
draw the patterns of surface flow. Have them conduct a basic percolation test as
described above.
School References:

During 2010/2011 Rock Renew built school gardens at all 11 schools in the
Bayonne School district. During the 2011/2012 school year, Rock n Renew helped
these schools to grow over 1 ton of food! In addition, Rock n Renew helped students
from School 14s middle school and Bayonne High School Juniors to construct an
engineered Osprey nest (which became home to a family of Osprey) and also began
work on a 1/4 acre shoreline native plant restoration program which also included
restoring a series of mussel and oyster beds in Newark Bay and The Hudson River.
Through these ecological restoration programs students perform a variety of science
projects that examine water quality, soil quality, biodiversity, and a variety of other
topics.
Bayonne School District
Patricia L. McGeehan, Ed.D. Superintendent of Schools
667 Avenue A
Bayonne, NJ 07002
Dr. McGeehan can be reached through her assistant: Liz Fiadini
<LFiadini@bboed.org>

Rock n Renew has just launched a 5 year partnership with Cole Hammels (Pitcher for
the Philadelphia Phillies) and his wife Heidi and their foundation, The Hammels
Foundation and Bayard Taylor Elementary School in North Philadelphia, PA. RnR built
a $30,000 production-level greenhouse facility which will be used to grow food and
native plants to be integrated into school garden programs across N.Philly.
For photos of the project go to:
http://tinyurl.com/9lozqb4

Barbara DeBenedictis <BDeBenedictis@bboed.org>


Middle School Science- School 14, Bayonne, N.J
Rock n Renew built a school garden for the use of school 14s Gifted and Talented
program during the 2009/2010 school year.

Rock n Renew began working with The Browning School (NYC) in 2006.
The Browning School
Chris Dunham; Middle School Head
212 838 6280
cdunham@browning.edu

Sag Harbor Elementary School


Nina Landi; Kindergarden Teacher

High School for Enterprise, Business and Technology

The Grand St. Campus


Brooklyn, NY
Kenneth McGlaughlin

Rock n Renew recently helped Germantown Academy outside of Philadeplphia, PA


to restore a 40 acre wetlands and begin a multi-year ecology program to restore the
local watershed.

Rock n Renew is currently working with Mercersburg Academy in Western PA to


develop a Zero Food Waste program that will eliminate food waste from the school
waste stream and transition to 100% composting of all food waste.

Other schools Rock n Renew works with:


Churchill School
Columbia Grammar School
PS 112 Lefferts Park
PS 121 Throop
The Chidrens Workshop School, NYC
Stone Robinson Elementary School, Charlottseville, VA
The Crossroads School, Santa Monica, CA
Bronx Community College
Illinois Wesleyan University
South Seneca School District
Syracuse University
Utah State University
Louisiana State University
Missouri State University
University of Guelph
Fresno City College
Virginia State University
C.W. Post College of Long Island University
LaGrange College
University of Illinois - Springfield
Wilmington College
Drury University

Jonny Dubowsky Bio:


Jonny Dubowsky is the co-founder of Kama Aina Earth Products. Dubowsky has spent
the last three years developing a line of earth products that utilize local inputs to create
biodynamic and vital soil amendments for sale in the state of Hawaii. Mr. Dubowsky is
an environmental management specialist with a focus on soil remediation, compost
practices, wetland restoration, and a variety of ecological restoration modalities. He
creates custom environmental management plans for a variety of industries, including
specialty wood-products manufacturers, schools, universities, hotels, school districts and
skateboard companies, assisting businesses assess and mitigate their environmental
impact.
He is also the Director of the Rock n Renew Foundation, a non-profit which teaches
sustainability skills and has built over 200 school gardens with students across the
United States. He has developed interdisciplinary curricula, which encourage students to
integrate their academic studies and embed an active ecological consciousness into their
lifestyles. In addition, he is a co-founder of True Offsets, Inc., a carbon offset company,
which has established a fully accountable carbon offset trading platform. Jonny is also
active in the National Resources Defense Council, the Energy Action Coalition,
Powershift, and 350.org.

As a co-founder and partner in Honokaa Energy Partners, Mr. Dubowsky has spent the
last five years developing forest management and reforestation practices in the renewable
energy sector. Jonny Dubowsky is also an established singer/songwriter and performer
and his band Jonny Lives! Has appeared on Late Night With Conan O'Brien, The Today
Show, and every major radio show in the U.S. He has shared the bill with Stevie Wonder,
Debbie Harry, Meatloaf, Everclear, The Strokes, The Killers and many others and
continues to perform as an artist on Sony/ATV/Long Live Crime Records. His band
Jonny Lives! will perform at the NME Magazine festival in London, England on Nov.
1st. Look for them in Paris, Antwerp, Ghent, Guerneys Island, and Brighton.

Contact Info:

For more info or to set up a program for your school please contact:
Alexandra Wells
Field Director
Rock n Renew
Alex@rocknrenew.com
(408) 656-0363

Chelsea Madrigal
Director of Outreach
Chelsea@rocknrenew.com
1 (917) 539-6466

To book Jonny Dubowsky to lecture or perform at your college or university please


contact:
Jason Corliss
tel: 917.720.5450
info@verbatimlectures.com

Jonny Dubowsky
Founder/Director
Rock n Renew
(808)315-5400
jonny@rocknrenew.com

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