Lessons from Starting a School Garden

Liz Pratt

Star Middle School

Students at Star Middle School planting in their new garden

The Challenge

This last school year, I took on the task of converting 1,200 square feet of waist-deep weeds into a school pollinator garden with my students. The challenge seemed daunting, expensive, and overly ambitious. Time soon proved most of my fear-induced predictions true. However, persistence and resilience ultimately paid off, and we were left with a beautiful garden space to call our own. Here are a few lessons that I learned, which I hope can inspire other environmental educators.

The finished garden at Star Middle School

Planning

Start your school garden plans realistically and simply. Complexity and scale can be added in the future as needed. I started with an abundant space and realized realistically, I could only develop a small portion of it in the first year. I did not want to overbuild and struggle to maintain the area. So, I started with four simple goals: fixing the watering issues, clearing the weeds, improving the soil, and planting some pollinator-friendly plants in the ground. The first three goals took eight months alone, but they set the stage for future success. 

Resources and Budgeting

When starting a school garden, resources need to be secured to turn a dream into a reality. Resources can come in various forms, including financial grants or monetary donations, donated supplies, and volunteer time. In my case, I was grateful to have received a starting grant from Sustainingus.com and adaswch.org, plus some matching classroom donations from Micron.com. I quickly realized that with little starting supplies and a vast space, I would need to be very creative with my limited funding. A large portion of the money was allocated to shovels, hoses, garden beds, soil, and mulch. This left only a $100 plant budget and $0 for compost. Student learning, lab experiments, and weekend volunteer hours filled in the funding gaps.

Overcoming Obstacles

My first purchase was two raised garden beds that were either lost or stolen by a delivery driver. It took a couple of months of trying to locate them, to eventually getting them both replaced. During this waiting period, I had to persuade the grounds crew at my school to install a water spigot in the space, turn off the flooding sprinkler heads, and discontinue spraying toxic chemicals on the weeds. My students helped assemble the garden beds and filled them with leaves from my yard to create compost over the winter months. Plants needed to be grown from a penny-sized budget. Some plant seeds were purchased, and others were collected for free from the dead heads of flowers in my yard. These activities allowed my students to understand how compost and soil are formed, where seeds originate from, and how seeds vary dramatically. We sprouted seeds through winter sowing and under grow lights in our science lab. Plant containers were created from recycled materials, such as milk jugs, water bottles, and yogurt containers. Some plant experiments were successful, while others were not; however, learning and resilience expanded.

Students decorate their bird habitat in the garden

Trust the Process and Your Students

There were many days that I thought the project would fail. Weeds were removed, and weeds always grew back. Volunteers came and did not always “grow” or come back. April arrived, and the weeds were finally subdued. Plans were made to install the garden the week of Earth Day. Supplies piles grew and grew, and my fears increased. How could I organize and control 190 students through the day to create anything other than an epic mess? Spring fever was intense, and my seventh graders were restless. The installation week came, and the students surprised me. The most difficult students grabbed shovels and put forth the most effort. When I sent students to collect stones, they came back with literal boulders. When I gave them simple bed designs, they created something truly magical. Instead of spraying each other with hoses, they watered the plants. Instead of apathy, I saw investment. They worked harder than they had all year and were very proud of their efforts. Finally, on the first day of summer, when the students were long gone, the last drip line was installed, and the improved water system was turned on. As if on cue from Mother Earth, a butterfly landed to feed from a new flower, thanking me for my perseverance. 

Results Will Come

Over the summer months, the garden has continued to bloom. Seeds have sprouted, plant stalks stretched, leaves opened, and flowers fill an area that once was an eyesore. Bees swarm the dancing sunflowers, birds drink from the water features, and dog-walkers stop to admire the new beauty. The open areas in the garden await a new group of students in the fall, which will hopefully add more plant beds, growth, and resilience to the soil, making it worthwhile all over again.