My son goes to a wonderful neighborhood public school, K through 5, about a mile away -- my dd1 will start K there in the fall. We're in NJ, so zone 6. I've been involved in the garden club there the last couple of years and now seem to have fallen into a leadership role -- ack, help!
So the school is a square, with an open center courtyard that's the garden. It's pretty sizable with trees, a low deck, a pond, plus our raised beds for garden club. The school was probably built in the 50s, so it's one floor, with windows in all the rooms that face the courtyard). There are overhangs on all the walls that make up the courtyard so a lot of the edges/beds aren't that great for gardening because the overhangs are very shady and don't let the rain in. There are also flower/shrub beds on the outside of the school outside the outward facing classrooms.
Garden club tends to get going in the spring when the weather warms up, but we haven't had much luck getting going again in the fall what with all the other back-to-school things going on.
So here are some of the issues I'm facing that I'd like input on:
1) In our raised beds, we've done a lot of typical garden crops -- beans, tomatoes, greens, carrots, strawberries, pumpkins. With some of these like the strawberries and peas and salad greens we can get harvestable produce before school lets out in mid-June, but a lot of the summer crops like tomatoes then get harvested by families who sign up to care for/water the garden during the summer months, or the staff, or by volunteers who donate the produce to the local crisis food bank. In other words, planting crops that mature over the summer doesn't do a lot to reward/involve the kids who planted them in the spring.
What can we plant for more gratification sooner, or how can we do it so that we get ongoing involvement of the students in the final results of their efforts?
Are there any resources you know of for curriculum ideas to get teachers more involved in the garden, so that their students can get out there and enjoy it (i.e. get more people involved than just garden club members)?
Any other thoughts or experiences that would be relevant?
Thanks!
So the school is a square, with an open center courtyard that's the garden. It's pretty sizable with trees, a low deck, a pond, plus our raised beds for garden club. The school was probably built in the 50s, so it's one floor, with windows in all the rooms that face the courtyard). There are overhangs on all the walls that make up the courtyard so a lot of the edges/beds aren't that great for gardening because the overhangs are very shady and don't let the rain in. There are also flower/shrub beds on the outside of the school outside the outward facing classrooms.
Garden club tends to get going in the spring when the weather warms up, but we haven't had much luck getting going again in the fall what with all the other back-to-school things going on.
So here are some of the issues I'm facing that I'd like input on:
1) In our raised beds, we've done a lot of typical garden crops -- beans, tomatoes, greens, carrots, strawberries, pumpkins. With some of these like the strawberries and peas and salad greens we can get harvestable produce before school lets out in mid-June, but a lot of the summer crops like tomatoes then get harvested by families who sign up to care for/water the garden during the summer months, or the staff, or by volunteers who donate the produce to the local crisis food bank. In other words, planting crops that mature over the summer doesn't do a lot to reward/involve the kids who planted them in the spring.
What can we plant for more gratification sooner, or how can we do it so that we get ongoing involvement of the students in the final results of their efforts?
Are there any resources you know of for curriculum ideas to get teachers more involved in the garden, so that their students can get out there and enjoy it (i.e. get more people involved than just garden club members)?
Any other thoughts or experiences that would be relevant?
Thanks!
