It’s that time of year for gearing up the garden—or starting one—for the upcoming growing season. We know, when we stop to think about it, that all our kids deserve and will benefit from time in a garden. So why don’t we insist on school gardens and preschool gardens? Here are some ways everyone can help.
1. Talk Up the Benefits of Gardening
When discussions turn to childhood obesity, falling test scores, troubling student behavior, and kids not getting outdoors, don’t overlook the power of school gardens as a highly positive, effective, and nurturing part of the solution.
We know that our kids need more outdoor time, more physical activity through the day, and less screen time. We know that healthy food is essential for kids’ health, behavioral development, and academic performance. We know that growing and eating fresh whole foods can help kids develop healthy food choices and life skills that can last a lifetime. The more we talk about this as a tool to address these issues we face, the better.
Robert Wood Johnson gives school gardens its highest evidence rating as “Scientifically Supported” resulting in greater “willingness to try” and increased consumption of fruits and vegetables.
2. Help Start a Garden
If your neighborhood school or preschool doesn’t have a garden, you can help. Form a committee of teachers, staff, parents, grandparents, and other community volunteers to provide stable support as individual champions come and go. Donate garden supplies, solicit donations from businesses, build the garden, and get planting. Seek advice from local gardening experts or check online (we are partial to our HCFS Board member Tom Bartel’s GrowFoodWell.com).
If you can’t start a full garden right now, consider a small container garden to start. Add a timer and drip system if that will fit your needs. If that’s still not feasible, find a way to get kids to a nearby garden at another school, backyard, or community garden and do some indoor growing in the classroom or hallway as you work toward a full garden.
3. Lend a Hand
Kids need to be involved in all aspects of the garden, but help with planting, weeding, watering, harvesting, and educating may be needed so the garden coordinator doesn’t end up “doing it all.” With a number of helping hands, these chores can be handled readily by volunteers who also provide role models for the children. Help form and be a part of a garden support committee to make your garden sustainable over time.
4. Be a Summer Champion
If your school or preschool is not in session during the summer, having help keeping the garden going is a critical need—and one of the most common reasons that schools opt out on gardens. If neighbors pitch in to help, along with kids who are available, this obstacle can be readily overcome. Why don’t we tap into summer kids programs to help, or give some older kids a meaningful summer job? Taking home fresh produce could be an added perk for volunteers. If your school has container plants, perhaps you could take some containers home to care for during the summer.
5. Nurture Garden Naturalists
The premise of our Wild School Gardens project is that school gardens are excellent places for deeper ecological learning about the role of nature in growing food. You could help kids in providing plants and nesting sites for birds, pollinators, and other beneficials. Volunteering to guide students in quiet observation of wildlife in, under, over, and around the garden can enhance this learning. Many Citizen Science projects, whereby observations are shared with scientists, could use the guidance of experts in the community such as entomologists, birdwatchers, farmers, agronomists, fellow gardeners, and others.
6. Help with the Fall Harvest
At peak harvest, the amount of food can be overwhelming, so volunteering to help harvest can provide welcome support. Excess food can be processed and frozen for later use, and this is where some assistance can be critical.
7. Realize Obstacles are Surmountable
If a garden is “not possible now,” first dig a bit deeper and ask if this is really true, or are the obstacles and impediments really surmountable? We often have preconceptions about garden funding, labor, and long-term viability that make gardens seem an overly daunting task, so be prepared to help work through the challenges with the knowledge that schools and preschools across the country are making this happen. If a full garden must be delayed, try a container garden for now. Next best would be some indoor growing activities, but best coupled with visits to a nearby school, backyard, or community garden to get the children some time with real living soil and wildlife in, under, and all around.
8. Care Enough for our Kids to Make this a Priority
Volunteer, grow, eat, vote, donate, and pay taxes with our kids and their future in mind.
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