Educational school gardens are cropping up all over
Want to grow a school garden?
San Diego Master Gardeners have been helping start and sustain school gardens since 1998. Today more than 150 Master Gardeners volunteer in schools around the county.
Over the years, the group has compiled an extensive resource guide on its website that is available at no charge to interested parents, teachers and community groups. Included is “Plant a Seed, Watch It Grow,” a web guide on how to start school gardens. Also available are grant calendars, resources and curriculum ideas, as well as how to request a Master Gardener school consultant and find school gardens to visit.
To learn more, visitmastergardenerssandiego.org/schools/schools.php.
When gardens are classrooms, lessons are abundant — the life cycle of caterpillars, Native American foods, plant anatomy, mapping, math, journal writing and more.
But academic growth isn’t all that blossoms as seeds sprout, compost “cooks” and pumpkins swell. Social skills, nature appreciation and cultural understanding grow there, too.
All help explain why school gardens are enjoying a renaissance here. More than half of the county’s 600 elementary and secondary schools have gardens in what were weedy landscapes, barren asphalt or neglected parts of playground. Some are new, while others are rejuvenated plots that originated years and even decades ago in the wake of World War II Victory Gardens.
School gardens generally survive on minuscule budgets — a few hundred