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My School Garden Essay in English for Class 3 Students

Essay on my school garden for class 3 students.

Essay writing is an important part of the school curriculum. It adds value to a kid’s imagination and writing skills. Essay writing is given as a part of brain exercise as it helps students to put their thoughts into words.  Here is a fantastic essay for Class 3 students on My School Garden. The School Garden is one of the most popular hangout spots for kids. The pupils are always drawn to the school garden because of its lush foliage and tranquillity.

Nature never ceases to amaze us with her splendor. We may discover everything in gardens, from beautiful flowers and plants to colourful birds and butterflies. The importance of nature and the environment is taught to children through school gardens. Kids can participate in a variety of activities, including planting a tree in their school gardens. 

My School Garden Essay

My school has a very large garden. It’s not a very big garden, but it’s one of the most special gardens I have ever seen. My school backyard is placed in front of that most important school building.

I have seen many employees and gardeners work on taking care of the garden throughout the time we have classes. They plant a variety of fruits and trees. They water them and take care of the flowers.

The garden has a big range of fruits and flowers. Thick thorny shrubs border the garden. My school backyard has flowers such as sunflowers, tulips, marigolds, daisies, roses, jasmine, etc. It also has large bushes such as neem, litchi, and a mango tree.

We are only allowed to go to the garden for the duration of our recess, and once our environmental science teacher took us there to become aware of various plants. The garden not only makes our school lovely but additionally adds some much-needed greenery. I love spending time in my school garden.

Gardening is an addicting passion for many individuals. For some, keeping their garden neat and tidy is a harsh disciplinary measure. The importance of a house's garden or surrounding grass cannot be overstated. It not only enhances the visual appeal of the area but also allows residents to live a little closer to nature. People who enjoy plants and flowers are more likely to maintain gardens; they are also more likely to be engaged in gardening and approach it as a pastime.

Gardening is a highly skilled activity that also requires the practitioner to be patient and hardworking. This is due to the fact that gardening necessitates the utmost commitment and care. For the owner, a garden is a very special location. Having one's own garden implies being able to stroll through it whenever one desires. People with gardens can cultivate their own fruits and vegetables, as well as organic and ayurvedic plants. Many individuals even use hybrid planting to get flowers and seeds with a hybrid quality.

Flowers in the garden not only make it seem beautiful and vibrant, but they also add a natural scent to the living spaces. Flowers are an important aspect of the garden and contribute to its beauty. Having a garden around the house is desirable for a variety of reasons. However, in order to get the benefits of a beautiful garden, it must be well cared for and maintained. It is for this reason that gardening is so important.

Gardening entails the cultivation of plants and flowers, as well as their maintenance and proper care. It's a delicate business, and those who haven't done it before may find it challenging at first. It is a difficult task. Plants require patience to grow. Planting seeds in the ground and watering them on a regular basis would be insufficient. Other parameters, like as soil fertility, ambient temperature, manure, and so on, must be considered.

They also require enough light for photosynthesis and nutrition. People who have a genuine passion for growing plants might take on the task of gardening on their own. Those who want a garden but aren't keen on the gardening aspect can hire a professional gardener to take care of it for them.

Gardening is a broad term that encompasses a wide range of activities. Gardening, in its broadest sense, is the act of cultivating plants in a garden. Yards are found in many houses, flats, buildings, and businesses; they come in varying sizes and rely on the amount of space available. Many individuals also enjoy cultivating a kitchen garden, which is a garden that only grows vegetables, edible plants, flowers, and herbs. Gardening is a task that should be approached with caution. The importance of accuracy cannot be overstated. A single blunder here or there can lead to the plant's complete destruction. As a result, it should be completed with sufficient time and care.

Gardeners' primary responsibilities include watering plants on a daily basis, ensuring their nutrition, adding manure and fertilizers to the soil, and planting new seeds. Plants can also be grown from saplings purchased from a nursery. Bonsais can also be improved if you are interested.

As a result, gardening is a fun activity. It does necessitate complete dedication, but the wait is well worth it. Gardening aids in the development of supple hands capable of attending to the tiniest of details. It cultivates patience and faithfulness in the gardener. Gardening also instills in the gardener a renewed enthusiasm for flora. It's an investment position that necessitates the presence of a capable and responsible individual.

FAQs on My School Garden Essay in English for Class 3 Students

1. How to write a “My School Garden” Essay in 10 lines?

An essay can be written in 10 lines-

Our school has a wonderful garden.

It's enormous and lush with vegetation.

Ramu kaka, our school's gardener, looks after it.

Every year on World Forest Day, we also plant a tree sapling in our school garden.

We also water the plants every now and again.

In our garden, we have a variety of flower and fruit plants.

The perfume of jasmine and tulips grown in our garden always refreshes and scents our school campus.

There are also various trees such as peepal, mango, and lichi.

During recess, many youngsters go to the garden to play.

Our garden is something we are really proud of.

2. How is fruit and flowers described in the Essay?

In the essay, it says, the school's garden is densely forested with trees and vines. Plants include fruits, flowers, and vegetables. In the midst of the garden, there is a well. The garden is organized into four sections, with one section devoted solely to flowering plants.

Marigold, jasmine, champak, and rose plants are among them. Fruit plants can be found in the second section. Apple, guava, papaya, banana, and coconut plants are among them.

Vegetable plants such as potato, brinjal, tomato, bottle gourd, pumpkin, bitter gourd, snake-gourd, bean, and arum grow in the third section, while spinach and other vegetables grow in the fourth. We cultivate cabbage and cauliflower in the winter. Onions and garlic are also grown on the farm.

3. What is the summary of Essay My School Garden in 150-200 words?

A school garden should be present in every school. At our school, we have a lovely garden. It was created by students and instructors working collaboratively. We began working on the project last year. We learned about this from our agricultural teacher, and it piqued our interest. Inside the school, there were plenty of unoccupied areas. We approached the headmaster about it, and he was extremely pleased.

We chose a spot with a length of 25 feet and a width of 20 feet. For a small garden, that was not a small space. We provided water for three days there. We followed our agriculture teacher's advice. To work in the garden, we formed a group. We went to the local nursery to get plants once the land was ready.

We chose to plant the garden's only flowers. We went out and bought a lot of plants, which we then planted in the garden. We put in a lot of effort to provide water and keep the garden clean. It is now a very lovely garden.

4. What is a garden for class 3?

A garden is a well-kept patch of land adjacent to a home. It is designated for the growth of new plants, shrubs, herbs, flowers, fruits, and trees, among other things. A garden can be made up of both natural and man-made items. Artificial grass, for example, can be found in some gardens. Natural and man-made materials are used in the garden.

Gardens are an essential component of any home. They play a critical role in the provision of clean air and a healthy environment. They contribute to the aesthetic appeal of homes.

5. What are the tips for effective essay writing?

The tips are-

Children must write whatever they think of and make changes later

Take breaks in between while writing essays so that it doesn’t get monotonous

After the body, write the introduction and conclusion. Write the introduction and conclusion when you've decided what your essay will be about.

Children can use phrases they learned

Make changes to the initial essay draft. 

Put the essay away for a few days. This provides you with a new viewpoint on your essay, allowing you to modify it more efficiently.

Kids-learning • Class 3

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• Class 3 My School Garden Essay

Interesting Essay on My School Garden for Class 3 Students

Here we present to you a brilliant essay on My School Garden for Class 3 kids. The School Garden is one of the favourite places of students in the school. The greenery and the serenity of the school garden always entice the students.

Nature never fails to surprise us with its beauty. From mesmerising flowers and plants to colourful birds and butterflies – we can find them all in gardens. School Gardens allow kids to comprehend the importance of nature and the environment. Kids can do lots of activities such as planting a tree in their school gardens. You can also download My School Garden Essay in English for Class 3 in PDF format.

Download “My School Garden Essay in English for Class 3” for PDF

Interesting Essay on My School Garden for Class 3 Kids

• I study at Delhi Public School.
• We have a huge garden in our school.
• My school garden is not only big but also very pleasing.
• It is situated in front of the main building of the school.
• It has dedicated gardeners who regularly water the plants.
• The gardeners also cut the shrubs in an even shape so that the garden looks more organised.
• The garden has roses, sunflowers, daisies, marigolds and so many other kinds of beautiful flowers.
• It has shrubs and trees like Ashoka trees, Neem trees, Banyan trees, Peepal trees, etc.
• The garden also comprises fruit-bearing trees such as Mango trees, Orange trees, Guava trees, Pomegranate trees, etc. On ripening, these fruits are distributed among the students of my school.
• After having lunch, I love spending time in my school garden admiring its beauty.

That was My School Garden Essay in English for Class 3 kids. It is a common topic for essay writing in primary classes. Apart from my school garden essay in English for Class 3, there are a lot of other frequently asked essays for Class 3 , which we have provided in the linked article. Besides, practising essay writing refines language skills in kids.

Loved the given essay on my school garden for Class 3? You can check out other awesome resources for children, like intriguing worksheets, brain-tickling general knowledge questions, easy trivia questions, CBSE poems, most famous stories for kids, and a lot more in our Kids Learning section.

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School Gardening – Project, Essay, Design, Plan, Importance, and Benefits

Table of contents, benefits of school gardening, where to start your school garden.

• Find Your Site/Location

What Sort Of Soil Is On-Site?

What sort of beds will you use, where is your water access, can you go vertical, tools required for school gardening, plan and style your garden site, sample designs of school gardening, fertilizers required for school gardening.

School Gardening

Hello gardeners, today we are here with an interesting topic so-called school gardening. This article is all about what is school gardening, how to start school gardening, and what are the requirements for school gardening.

Introduction to School Gardening

School gardens are a wonderful and beautiful way to use the schoolyard as a classroom, this will reconnect students with the natural world and the true source of their food, and this will also teach them valuable gardening and planting concepts and skills that related to several subjects, such as science, art, health, physical education, and social studies also, as well as several educational goals, that includes personal and social responsibility.

A Step By Step Guide to School Gardening

In a school garden, school children tend to work on planting flowers and vegetables in gardens. The school garden is another activity of regular school work. It is a different effort to get children out of doors and even away from books. It is a very healthy realism putting more vigor and intensity into schoolwork.

School gardens help children learn

School gardening is the study of life for school children. This is an act of caring for living soil and plants that gives children a foundation for understanding the principles of plant birth, growth, maturity, death, competition, cooperation, and lots of other lessons that transfer to human lives. In a school garden, children also experience these lessons on their hands through a learning method that is very rich and they even learn activities. The results teachers see a day is now supported by science: school gardens can also help our youngsters learn better, both academically and emotionally.

Working or participating in a school garden helps children to stay active, reducing obesity

Teachers across the country agree that when children participate in gardening, they move their bodies more than when passively listening in a classroom. Jumping, bending, lifting, and stretching all this type of things take place in a typical gardening session.

Gardening moderates moods and eases anxiety

There is a piece of evidence that exposure to beneficial microbes in the soil can help regulate the neurotransmitters affecting our brain’s emotional state. A whole practice involving exposing yourself to green spaces or green thumb to lift the mood has even emerged globally, with convincing results. But gardens are more than just another green space: they are hands-on, outdoor classrooms that teach children self-regulation and mindfulness—both of which have been shown to decrease anxiety and depression.

School children who garden at school develop empathy and practice risk

Teachers who garden with their students can notice increased empathy towards other students and the organisms living in their school patch. That is all because tending to a ‘bug hotel’ or watching birds and earthworms survive in the garden helps the children to understand the interdependency of nature. A school garden also helps to provide the perfect place for children to learn about boundaries and responsibility by practicing new activities in a safe place. By using a paring knife, trying out a hammer, or balancing on the edge of a raised bed are all ways for children to test their knowledge and learn new skills in a supportive environment.

After getting your school garden from idea to harvest is a journey with many steps. Luckily many others have traveled this before. The list to start have five main key steps or points that are recommended by teachers and parents with their experience in successful school gardens. If you have already completed your design and if you are looking for materials to order, you need to have raised garden beds, planters, rain barrels, composters, watering items, and gardening supplies.

You need to form a garden committee

A garden committee makes many decisions about how a school garden will look, what it will be used for, and how it will operate. The committee may start as a primary planning body that later develops into an operational committee, or it may simply offer direction for a garden coordinator. Whatever model or plan you choose or select, the committee should at least consist of 5-10 members representing the following areas:

• Your school’s administration
• Teaching staff
• Community volunteers

You need to determine goals for your school garden

Once when you have your committee in place, you need to determine goals or plans for your garden. This is an important next step. Many schools build gardens for different reasons. Here are some common goals and objectives are listed below:

Who will use the garden completely? Which grade levels will spend time within the garden? How will they use the space? Some of the schools tend to assign only one bed for every classroom, while other schools share the beds over multiple classrooms.

How often will students use the garden? Biological processes are always happening within the garden—not just during planting and harvest. Aim to possess children to visit the garden weekly during your gardening season and fewer frequently when things are dormant. Even when things appear to be sleeping, there are still lessons to find out. Regular visits will help children develop a reference to space.

Who is going to be liable for scheduling? Someone on your garden’s committee, usually an educator, will get to oversee the timing of classroom visits. Too many children within the garden directly can show pride out of the experience.

Who else is required to accomplish your goals? If you propose to supply the varsity cafeteria with fresh vegetables for a part of the year, you’ll get to plan your activities around local seed and harvest times. Consult local experts through your neighborhood nursery or extension office to urge information right for your climate and soil conditions.

Find Your Site /Location

Now it’s time to know the main purposes for your garden, you need to review available sites and need to determine which one is right for your needs. Along the way, you also need to consider the following questions:

• How much space do you need to meet your school gardening goals?

How many beds does one decide to install to supply food for your school’s needs? What’re the simplest thanks to dividing that space into beds? The other items include compost bin, tool shed, potting tables or benches, trellises, etc

Is there is enough sun for your school gardening?

Direct exposure to sunlight is one of the most and main important needs to your garden will have. While salad green plants need about 4 hours of sunlight per day, your site will ideally need to have 7-8 hours of sunlight to accommodate the broadest range of fruits and vegetables. If you are unsure about how much light your site gets, you need to use a sunlight calculator to be sure of growing plants.

• Is the site secure for your school gardening?

In most of the locations or areas, school gardens must be fenced to keep away from animal pests and little feet looking for shortcuts at recess. You need to fence at the initial stages to protect your plants from animals, pests, etc.,

The key to successful gardening is building and maintaining healthy soil. Starting with healthy, living soil gives your garden the nutrients it must thrive. And while you’ll add fertilizer before planting, healthy soil is quite just nutrients. The simplest soil structure is fluffy, lightly textured, and filled with organic matter that’s continually breaking down. It provides enough air pockets or air circulation for roots to infiltrate and water to travel.

If there’s dirt available on site, conduct a soil test to seek out what nutrients you’ll add. Performing an easy squeeze test will assist you further evaluate your soils and organic matter content?

If like most soils, yours needs help, the simplest sources of organic nutrients are finished compost and well-rotted manure (at least two years old). Both of those can augment whatever soil is out there on-site for a winning combination of nutrients plus organic matter.

While a standard in-ground garden is that the simplest to put in, it requires that good quality soil be available onsite. You’ll order additional soil or well-seasoned compost to reinforce what’s there, but there should be something to start with. The benefits of in-ground gardens include flexibility, good moisture retention, and therefore the ability to feature cold frames or hoop houses as required increasing the season.

Raised beds are commonly utilized in school gardens because they create weed control easy and are accessible for all ages and skills. They also are available a spread of heights, widths, and lengths. In most cases, use beds 3 or 4 feet wide so that children can reach the middle of the bed without standing on the soil.

Raised garden boxes generally haven’t any bottoms and sit directly on the soil. This is often the perfect set-up. However, if you want to install your beds on concrete, consider purchasing beds with integrated bases and increasing the peak of your garden to a minimum of 18 inches. Taller beds will offer you more versatility in terms of what plants you’ll grow. Any garden beds that have bottoms fitted to them must be designed to make sure good drainage.

Your site should ideally be no quite one hose length far away from the closest faucet or standpipe. If you propose to put in in-ground irrigation, space far away from your water source will affect the pressure needed to urge water to your site.

Schools eager to get the foremost out of their space often add vertical elements. This includes trellises on raised garden beds, wall pockets of varying sizes hanging on fences or walls, and stacked garden towers during a central, accessible location. Just make certain to put vertical elements so that they don’t shade any beds behind them.

Since most gardens are designed for one class to go to at a time, the number of tools will usually reflect the typical class size at your school. The subsequent list of materials was adapted from the Healthy Planet Foundation’s basic supply list for a schoolyard garden.

• Watering can (3)
• Hand trowels (25-30)
• Round shovel (2)
• Flat shovel (2)
• Garden hoe (2)
• Digging fork (2)
• Drinking water safe hose (1)
• Garden twine (1 200ft roll)
• Gardening gloves (25-30)
• Plant labels (50)
• 1 wheelbarrow
• 1 spray nozzle

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Working with a faculty garden or landscape designer is be often beyond the reach of faculties sticking to a bare-bones budget.

To begin, talk with other schools in your district that have already got successful gardens and ask who helped them with their design.

In case if you miss this: Growing Organic Spinach At Home .

Starter Teaching Garden

If your primary goal is to provide a hands-on learning opportunity, a basic teaching garden can contain a couple of simple beds targeting crops that produce during the varsity year. This low-cost design features raised beds planted with vegetables, along with side a little pollinator garden or insectary which will double as a cut garden. Including flowering plants in your design increases the training opportunities for your garden as an entire.

Materials required:

• 4 x 8 raised garden beds (4)
• 4 x 4 raised garden beds (2)
• Raised bed climbing trellis (2)
• Mixed vegetable and flower seeds
• Winter squash
• Nasturtiums
• Shrubs/perennials:
• Strawberries
• Blanket flower
• Asters/sedum

School Food Garden

For a bigger school whose goals include in-season food production for a cafeteria or food utility program, the subsequent design includes a spread of vegetables, flowers, and fruit:

• 4 x 8’ raised beds (12)
• 3.5’ x 4.5’ hexagonal raised bed (1)
• 1 compost bin
• 1 tool shed
• 1 in-ground pumpkin patch
• Raspberries

Primary Sensory Garden

Thematic gardens are an excellent thanks to connecting children with nature using an unconventional angle. This garden type targets children within the primary grades by engaging their senses of touch, smell, sight, and taste. The precise selection of plants during a sort of textures encourages handling, and in some cases, eating.

• 3’ x 6’ L-shaped raised beds
• 3.5’ x 4.5’ hexagonal bed

Seedlings required:

Taste: Basil, parsley, chives, rosemary, lettuce, and strawberries

Smell: Lavender, thyme, Agastache foeniculum, and lemon balm

Sight: Nasturtiums, speckled lettuces, and purple curly kale

Touch: Succulents, red flowering sedum, and chaparral sage

Chemical fertilizers may give plants a fast fix, but they have been shown to deplete soil over the future. Instead, feed your plants and your soil at an equivalent time with an all-purpose organic. You’ll need half a pound for every 10 square feet of soil. Perennial plants and shrubs will produce other, more specialized requirements. You’ll also grow a canopy crop chosen for your climactic area to feature nutrients in the soil. Ask your local nursery or seed supplier for more information.

May I receive a sample proposal on school gardening?

Can you please help me with some seedlings and trays for nursery

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Essay on School Garden

Students are often asked to write an essay on School Garden in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on School Garden

The importance of a school garden.

A school garden is a wonderful place to learn and play. It helps students understand nature and develop gardening skills.

Learning in the Garden

In a school garden, students learn about plants, insects, and the environment. They also learn responsibility by caring for plants.

Fun and Relaxation

The school garden is also a place for fun and relaxation. Students can enjoy the beauty of nature and take a break from their studies.

School gardens are important for education and enjoyment. They provide a unique learning environment and a peaceful retreat.

Also check:

• 10 Lines on School Garden

250 Words Essay on School Garden

A school garden is a powerful educational tool. Through gardening, students become responsible caretakers, learn about complex environmental systems, and develop an appreciation for the natural world. It’s a living laboratory where lessons are drawn from real-life experiences rather than textbook theory.

Interdisciplinary Learning

The garden serves as a bridge connecting various academic disciplines. In biology, students learn about plant growth, photosynthesis, and pollination. In chemistry, they discover how different soil compositions affect plant health. History and cultural studies can be explored through the cultivation of plants linked to specific regions or periods. Mathematics and economics come alive in the garden as well, through practical tasks such as measuring plant growth or managing a garden budget.

Developing Life Skills

Beyond academic learning, a school garden also fosters essential life skills. Responsibility, patience, and cooperation are learned through hands-on gardening tasks. Students experience the satisfaction of nurturing a plant from seed to harvest, cultivating a sense of achievement and self-confidence.

Environmental Stewardship

School gardens cultivate environmental stewardship by highlighting the importance of sustainable practices. Students learn about composting, recycling, water conservation, and organic farming. This hands-on experience with the environment can foster a lifelong commitment to ecological sustainability.

The Therapeutic Value

Finally, gardens have therapeutic value. The act of gardening can reduce stress and improve mood, contributing to overall mental health. In a world increasingly dominated by screens and indoor activities, a school garden serves as a vital counterbalance, promoting physical activity and connection with nature.

In conclusion, a school garden is more than just a plot of land; it’s a dynamic environment where students can enrich their understanding of the world and their place within it.

500 Words Essay on School Garden

The concept of the school garden.

The school garden, a concept that has been gaining momentum in recent years, is an innovative approach towards integrating education with nature. It serves as a practical outdoor classroom where students can learn about biology, ecology, and agriculture in a hands-on manner.

The school garden is not just a place for cultivating plants; it’s a microcosm of the larger environment. It provides a living laboratory where students can observe the interplay of natural elements, and learn about the intricate balance of ecosystems.

Role in Education

A school garden plays a pivotal role in education. It provides a platform for experiential learning, where theoretical concepts taught in classrooms are brought to life. For instance, students can observe photosynthesis in action, understand the importance of biodiversity, or learn about the process of composting.

Moreover, the garden can be a tool to teach subjects beyond science. Mathematics can be incorporated through measurements and calculations related to garden layout or plant growth. History and geography can be taught by growing plants native to different regions or historical periods.

Implications for Health and Well-being

In addition to its educational benefits, a school garden can significantly contribute to the health and well-being of students. Gardening activities can serve as a form of physical exercise, promoting fitness and reducing the risk of childhood obesity.

Furthermore, the garden environment can have therapeutic effects. It can reduce stress, improve mood, and enhance students’ connection with nature, fostering their mental well-being.

Developing Environmental Stewardship

A school garden can instill a sense of environmental stewardship in students. By participating in the garden’s creation and maintenance, students gain a deeper appreciation for nature and understand the importance of sustainable practices. They learn about the consequences of their actions on the environment, fostering a sense of responsibility towards it.

Challenges and Opportunities

Implementing a school garden is not without challenges. It requires resources, planning, and ongoing commitment. Schools must ensure that the garden is accessible, safe, and engaging for all students. They must also integrate garden-based learning into their curriculum effectively.

Despite these challenges, the potential benefits of a school garden are immense. It presents an opportunity to revolutionize education, promote health and well-being, and cultivate environmental stewardship among the future generation.

In conclusion, a school garden is more than just an aesthetic addition to a school’s landscape. It is a dynamic, interactive space that can transform education, nurture well-being, and foster a sense of responsibility towards the environment. As we move towards a future where the importance of sustainability becomes increasingly apparent, the concept of the school garden becomes not just desirable, but essential.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on My School Garden
• Essay on My Garden
• Essay on Garden

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The Impact of School Gardens on Students

Updated 18 August 2023

Downloads 39

Category Education ,  Life

Topic Gardening

The article by Caitlin Flanagan in the Atlantic Magazine titled “Cultivating Failure” highlights a wide range of arguments with respects to school gardens and how they affect students’ performance at school. Caitlin’s argument is that these gardens are stripping students of valuable time to become “educated”. The exact words are “dooming urban students to a life of poverty and “cultivating failure,” just as expressed in her title. The author argues that even immigrant students from Mexico are being pushed back to the fields of manual labor through their middle school garden. The content of this article is relevant not just to the students in high school but also those in colleges as it juxtaposes some of the factors that affect productive education, and how education can be limited by activities such as gardening. According to Caitlin Flanagan, schools are cheating the most vulnerable students. The author in her scathing attack on the school gardens calls them "a giant experiment, one that is predicated on a set of assumptions that are largely unproven, even unexamined". From the quote, it is evident that the author does not support the idea of the school garden and views them as a waste of time to most students. However, it is not hugely correct to argue that the schools are lowering the standards of education in the schools.  Caitlin Flanagan does not give statistical evidence to her claim. She does not justify her allegations with proven facts and figures. When she argues that the school gardens subject students to menial labor, she ignores the fact that the menial labor is part of the curriculum and that it helps build the students and prepare them for the future. Flanagan argues that “although garden-based curricula are advanced as a means of redressing a wide spectrum of poverty’s ills, the animating spirit behind them is impossible to separate from the haute-bourgeois predilections of the Alice Waters fan club.” From this quote, does it then mean that school gardens are only ideal for the privileged? These are arguments that are widely refutable.

Works Cited

Michael Fries, K. (2010). Failure to cultivate: Why school gardens ARE important. Retrieved from https://grist.org/article/cultivating-failure-why-school-gardens-are-important/

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Let It Grow

• Posted July 31, 2018
• By Leah Shafer

Amid the litany of education reforms that emphasize innovation and new methods, school gardens stand out as a low-tech change. In an era where kids' lives are more sedentary, and where childhood obesity has risen  dramatically, gardens support and encourage healthful eating as a key component of children's physical wellbeing, which can aid their academic and social success, too. And as the consequences of food deserts and poor nutrition on life outcomes become starker, advocates say that school gardens can act as a counterweight — an outdoor respite for children growing up in environments that can be otherwise unsafe or barren.

Where cries of "Eat your broccoli!" and "Haven't you had enough sugar?" fall flat, how exactly can school gardens prompt healthier eating habits — and what are the best practices for establishing one?

Good Nutrition: What Works, and What Gets In the Way

We know that increased access to healthful food can improve diet and health. Studies have found that multiple supermarkets within a one mile radius of a person’s home is correlated with a significantly higher consumption of fruits and vegetables, and that greater access to produce, lower produce prices, and higher fast-food prices are related to lower BMI , especially among low-income teenagers.

Changing eating habits goes beyond questions of access. If children aren’t used to trying new foods, they just won’t do it. Cooking nutritious food is also a learned skill, and one that many kids and teens haven’t acquired. And many people are drawn to family dishes, regardless of their nutritional value, because of the emotional connection they have with those foods.

“In far too many schools around the country, nutrition education looks like an authority figure standing at the front of the classroom pointing at a government poster on the wall." — Curt Ellis, CEO of FoodCorps

Schools can — and many argue should — play a critical role in shifting children’s perceptions of food and enhancing access to healthful foods. “Every time kids set foot in the cafeteria, they are absorbing messages about food and what a healthy meal should look like,” says Bettina Elias Siegal , an expert on children and food policy.

But the way schools traditionally teach nutrition isn’t working. “In far too many schools around the country, nutrition education looks like an authority figure standing at the front of the classroom pointing at a government poster on the wall. And that has been true for generations, and it has not driven the kind of healthy eating culture that our children need to succeed in school and in life,” says Curt Ellis, the CEO of FoodCorps . His organization has placed service members at 350 schools across the country to deliver gardening and cooking lessons and encourage a school-wide culture of health and nutrition.

“Just as we have learned that rote memorization is no longer the right way to teach kids math or English skills, the same is true with nutrition education,” Ellis says.

The Benefits of School Gardens

School gardens provide students with a real-time look at how food is grown. There are different models for how these gardens work, but in many, children of different ages have regular lessons in the garden, learning how to grow, harvest, and prepare a variety of fruits and vegetables.

Several students have shown that gardens can be key in shifting children’s nutritional practices:

• A 2017 evaluation of FoodCorps conducted by the Tisch Center for Food, Education, and Policy at Teachers College, Columbia University found that in schools that provide frequent, high-quality opportunities for hands-on nutrition learning, students eat up to three times more fruits and vegetables at school lunch — regardless of whether or not that food was grown in the garden.
• The effects extend outside the school day, too. A 2018 randomized control study by Nancy Wells at Cornell University found that children whose schools provided regular school garden lessons had more access to low-fat vegetables and fruit at home than children without that curricula.

Why do gardens have such an impact on children’s eating habits?

• Unlike lectures or worksheets on healthful practices, gardens provide an experiential, hands-on learning environment , “where kids get the chance to smell the leaves of the tomato plant and eat carrots with the dirt still on,” says Ellis. Working in a garden is a real-world activity; it engages students and encourages them to explore and reason independently.
• While most children receive only 3.4 hours of nutrition education a year, maintaining a school garden necessitates that nutrition lessons become a consistent, built-in part of students’ educational experience , says Eva Ringstrom, director of impact at FoodCorps. Research has shown that it takes between 35 and 50 hours of nutrition education a year to change kids’ preferences over the long term, she says.
• That repeated exposure can also build the emotional connections to food that are essential to behavior change. When children spend weeks or months growing their food, they feel proud of and connected to it — which is key to trying new dishes with an open mind.

Where Learning Grows

Are you ready to start teaching in the garden?  CitySprouts , which partners with schools around Boston to develop gardens as teaching tools, offers  lessons in science, math, storytelling, art, and nutrition,  for preK through middle-school. The Collective School Garden Network , based in California and Arizona, offers comprehensive resources  and a curriculum database , to help you justify, build, and learn in a school garden.  

Best Practices for Schools

For educators considering planting the seeds of a gardening program at their school this year, Ellis, Ringstrom, and Siegel offer best practices on fostering a community of health and wellness.

• Focus on skill development — and connect it to the cafeteria, the supermarket, and home. Changing how students eat requires more than providing access to fresh foods and shifting students’ preferences. Many students need to be taught how to inspect fruit and vegetables for freshness, or how to wash and cook them. Others need help learning how to hold a lunch tray in one hand and use salad tongs with the other. Make sure your nutritional program extends from the garden to the cafeteria, to the supermarket, and to the kitchen at home.  
• Integrate the garden into other classroom lessons. Many school gardens are run by a single teacher or volunteer, but the whole school can get involved, too. Students can make predictions and conduct experiments in the garden during science, plot out the dimensions of the garden in math, or learn about the history and politics of food access in social studies, for example.
• Make your approach culturally relevant and place-based. Says Ellis, “If we are doing a FoodCorps program in a largely indigenous community in the Southwest, our approach to food and food culture is going to look different from our work in the Mississippi Delta, which is different from rural Iowa.” The climate and traditions of your local community can — and should — matter when it comes to growing food.
• Don’t provide unhealthful food. Every way in which students interact with food at their school is a lesson on what should be part of their daily diet. When schools host near-constant fundraisers with cookies and cupcakes, or the cafeteria sells à la carte processed, “copy cat” junk food, it undermines the lessons of the garden program.
• Foster a mindset of exploration. Eating healthfully requires kids to be open to trying new foods. Encourage students to taste vegetables from the garden multiple ways. Remind them that liking a new food takes time — and that the same food can taste differently depending on how it's cooked. In the cafeteria, offer “tasting stations” that allow students to try different vegetables before they decide which one they’ll put on their tray.

Tips to Encourage Healthy Eating

From taste tests to iPad surveys to letting students pick the menu — here are the strategies that school nutrition experts use  to get kids to try new foods. And watch the video for a fun 30-second summary.

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My School Garden Essay for Class 3

Nature never disappoints to amaze us with its beauty. From vibrant flowers and plants to cheerful birds and butterflies – we can see them all in gardens. The School Garden is one of the most favourite places of students in the school. Kids can do many activities there, for example, planting a tree in their school gardens, playing, etc. In this essay, I will be describing my school garden in detail.

We are providing two essay samples for students of class 3 on the topic ‘My School Garden’ for reference.

Short Essay on My School Garden of 100 Words

I study at Delhi Public School. My school garden is filled with some very pretty and colourful flowers and plants. Sometimes butterflies come to our garden too.

Our garden is huge. My school garden is not only big but also very pleasant.

It is located in front of the main building at my school. It has a dedicated gardener, Ramu kaka, who regularly water the plants.

Our garden has flowers like marigold and roses; and trees like the peepal and neem tree. After having my lunch, I love spending my time in the school garden admiring its beauty. I love my school garden.

Engage your kid into diverse thoughts and motivate them to improve their English with our  Essay for Class 3  and avail the Simple Essays suitable for them.

Long Essay on My School Garden of 150 Words

I study at Delhi Public School. My school has a very big garden. It’s not just a big garden, but it’s also one of the most pretty gardens I have ever seen. My school garden is located just in front of that main primary school building.

I have seen many workers and gardeners work on maintaining the garden during the time we have classes. They plant a variety of plants and trees. They water them and take care of the flowers.

The garden has a large variety of plants and flowers. Thick thorny shrubs border the garden. My school garden has flowers such as sunflowers, tulips, marigolds, daisies, roses, jasmine, etc. It also has huge trees such as neem, litchi, and a mango tree.

We are only allowed to visit the garden during our recess, and once our environmental science teacher took us there to identify various plants. The garden not only makes our school beautiful but also adds some much-needed greenery. I love spending time in my school garden.

10 Lines on My School Garden In English

• We have a beautiful garden in our school.
• It’s huge and is filled with greenery.
• Our school’s gardener, Ramu kaka, takes care of it
• We also plant a tree sapling in our school garden every year on World Forest Day.
• We also water the plants sometimes.
• We grow different types of flower and fruit plants in our garden.
• Our school campus is always refreshed and scented with the fragrance of jasmine and tulips grown in our garden.
• There are many trees like peepal, mango, and lichi there too.
• Many children go to the garden to play during break time.
• We are proud of our garden.

Frequently Asked Questions on My School Garden

Question: What to plant in a school garden?

Answer – Many plants can be grown in a school garden. Some of the plants that are commonly seen in gardens are hibiscus, roses, and tulips.

Question: How can the students help to maintain the school garden?

Answer – Students can help by not plucking the beautiful flowers and leaves and not littering the garden space. They can also water the plant once in a while with the teacher’s permission.

Question: Why is it important to have a clean school garden?

Answer – As humans, we all need plants for oxygen and a balanced environment. So having a clean garden in school will not only keep us healthy, but it’s also beneficial to our environment.

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ecoliteracy.org

The School Garden Debate: To Weep or Reap?

The Atlantic article lambasted school gardens and stirred up charged emotions. But what are the facts?

I was speaking today with a mom at my sons' school. She was concerned about a teacher who was doing such a poor job that even his students were complaining that they weren't learning enough.

"We're all worried about the economy," she said. In this climate, any sign that a school (even an excellent or basically good one) may be failing to absolutely and definitively prepare our children for whatever the future will bring is likely to provoke greater anxiety than usual.

This collective economic angst, I believe, is what Caitlin Flanagan played into in "Cultivating Failure," an article that lambastes school gardens in the January/February 2010 Atlantic . But to separate the angst from the facts, it is necessary to first look at the angst and then the facts.

Flanagan opens the article by asking the reader to imagine being a young and desperately poor Mexican who has made the dangerous and illegal journey to California to work in the fields to give his or her child the chance at a better life. An entirely different life. A life that embodies the American dream. A life made possible by education.

But, ironically, it turns out this child is forced to spend hours tending a garden at school so he may learn what his parents could easily teach him about how food grows. He is effectively robbed, Flanagan argues, of the time he should be spending reading important books and learning math — the things he actually needs to lift himself out of poverty. In the end, he is likely to be relegated to an "uneducated underclass" while his better educated peers prepare to pass him by.

With the growing trend of school gardens, "the idea of a school as a venue in which to advance a social agenda has reached rock bottom," she concludes. And who is to blame? An "agglomeration of foodies and educational reformers who are propelled by a vacuous if well-meaning ideology" — in other words, by unexamined assumptions that spending time in school gardens will give children a better chance at getting an education and a high-school diploma.

To some, this may have appeared (at least on first blush) to be a devastating critique. Moreover, it pitted the more advantaged in our society against those desperately counting on school to help them raise themselves out of poverty. And this invocation of class differences, as well as racial and ethnic ones, beckons the reader into the terrain of charged emotions, where it can be challenging to keep one's focus on the facts.

In truth, the first time I read Flanagan's article, I too felt a paroxysm of worry. Was this growing trend in education actually robbing our most vulnerable students of more basic and important learning experiences? Were school gardens, more broadly, ill-suited to the central task of nurturing what we all want for our children, that they grow up to be happy and well-rounded young people who can successfully make their way in the world?

Or, as one Berkeley resident commented on an Atlantic blog: "No one is opposed to gardens. No one is opposed to healthy eating. Just don't put it in the schools." What if he and Flanagan were right? What if school gardens are not part of the solution to the problem of bad schools, but, rather, part of the problem?

In Search of Answers

With these questions in mind, I called Michelle Ratcliffe, one of few people in the United States who has a doctorate in agriculture, food, and the environment.

"She's right about two things," said Ratcliffe. "One is that not everyone learns from experiential place-based education," which is often a feature of school gardens.

"The other thing is that school gardens are not a fringe element anymore, but are becoming a social norm," said Ratcliffe, farm-to-school program manager for the Oregon State Department of Agriculture. "I must have received 1,000 calls this past year from people asking me to help them start a school garden or farm-to-school program." There are, as Flanagan cites, already nearly 4,000 school gardens in California alone and many more nationwide.

But what about Flanagan's main argument — or, rather, the rationale on which she rests her criticism of school gardens — that there is not "one bit of proof" that spending time in a school garden will result in kids' getting an education or a high-school diploma?

"She is so wrong about that," said Ratcliffe, echoing the sentiment of numerous other experts who have been writing on the subject in recent weeks.

To be sure, school gardens are still relatively new in the world of education, which means that there has not yet been time to develop a robust body of peer-reviewed quantitative controlled studies on the topic. But there is research and a significant body of teacher experience to consider, as evidenced by many of the educators who have written responses to this article.

But here is the larger and more insidious point: Flanagan suggests that because there has not yet been significant research to show that school gardens advance reading and math, they are a distraction from a school's central mission.

This reflects a jump in logic that would make most teachers' heads spin. School gardens are not in the same category as after-school electives, such as chess, cooking club, or chorus. Schools use gardens not to give their students a chance to develop a hobby but to enhance their overall instruction. They see gardens as laboratories where students apply what they have learned in the classroom and where a fragmented curriculum can become unified through hands-on experience that draws on math, science, and social science. They are places where students can explore the living environment and be challenged to consider: What is the web of life? How do organisms interact with each other and the physical environment? How do we get and use the food energy all living organisms need to survive and begin to understand the effect of human activities on the biosphere?

Moreover, Flanagan ignores an enormous body of research (on social and emotional learning, project-based learning, and student health and academic achievement, as well as the study of science and ecological literacy.) She also ignores nearly a century of educational philosophy and practice that makes one basic point very clear: If you want students to perform well in school and beyond, you have to consider the whole child and whole-school experience.

Social and emotional learning. The whole student, of course, includes the student's social and emotional learning, something that can be naturally cultivated in the garden. And as a recent meta analysis published by the Collaborative on Emotional and Social Learning reported (), schools with social and emotional learning programs lead on average to a:

• 11 percent improvement in achievement test scores
• 9 percent improvement in school and class behavior
• 9 percent decrease in conduct problems, such as classroom misbehavior and aggression.

Project-based and place-based learning. School gardens can create opportunities for  what is  called project-based and place-based learning; and on this there is a growing body of research that highlights benefits, including:

• Higher scores on standardized reading, writing, math, science, and social studies tests
• Improved behavior in class
• Increases in self-esteem
• Improved conflict resolution, problem solving, and higher-level thinking

Research also shows that teachers become more excited and motivated, more engaged with students, and more able to collaborate effectively with other educators. (For a sampling of some of the research, see the Center for Place-Based Learning and Community Engagement: , and the Buck Institute for Education: .)

Student health and academic achievement. After decades of epidemic rates of childhood obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and other diet-related illnesses, the health of young people has recently become the focus of a new initiative led by Michelle Obama (who, yes, planted an organic garden with school children on the White House lawn in 2009).

Given this trend, it is not surprising that more schools have planted gardens, where students have the opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge of fresh and healthy food; where, as garden educators nearly universally report, students are more likely to try fruit and vegetables they have never tried before; and where, as research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows, they may develop the habits that make them more likely to eat healthier foods as adults.

It is also not surprising, as reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention () have stated: "The academic success of America's youth is strongly linked with their health." Children who eat well are more likely to perform well and have fewer behavior problems (a finding that might resonate with any of us who have ever noticed the impact of food on our own performance).

The only surprising thing is that the Atlantic published an article that failed to make these basic connections.

Science and ecological literacy. While Flanagan narrowed her look at school gardens down to whether they promote reading and math, she ignored the field that has been the focus of most research — namely, science.

For example, one 2005 study, "Growing Minds: The Effect of a School Gardening Program on the Science Achievement of Elementary Students," ( ) found that students who participated in school gardening activities scored significantly higher on science achievement tests compared to students who had no garden-based learning.

She also ignores the fact that gardens are an ideal right-sized place for students to develop the ecological literacy they will need to address the coming environmental challenges and be leaders and citizens who understand how the natural world works, see the patterns that connect human activity to nature, and have the knowledge and values to act effectively on that understanding.

As Dorothy Blair, an assistant professor at Penn State University, concluded in a review of the research on the benefits of school gardens in the Winter 2009 issue of The Journal of Environmental Education ( < www.eric.ed.gov> ):

  "Gardens can improve the ecological complexity of the schoolyard in ways that promote effective experiential learning in many subject areas, particularly the areas of science, environmental education, and food education."

Where Are We Now?

Flanagan's critique deeply upset many educators who have reason, experience, and, it turns out, the research to support their belief that school gardens have a positive influence on students and the whole schooling experience.

In times when so many truly serious challenges face us — in education, the economy, and the environment — that is unfortunate. It serves no discernable social purpose to take sweeping potshots at people doing good, creative, and heartfelt work on behalf of students. Instead of tilting at windmills, one wonders: Why not bring such skillful and passionate writing to the real problems that plague schools, including inadequate funding, bureaucracies that stifle teacher independence, and a system which continues to put test performance above actual learning and, perhaps more important, above cultivation of a love of learning? 

Still, in the end, perhaps Flanagan has done the school garden movement a great service. Anyone who loves education, after all, ought to love a good debate. So let's thank her for raising the tough questions — for while she may have failed to answer them, she provided a fine platform for others to do so.

A shorter version of this essay originally appeared in the Huffington Post ( ).

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Why school gardens are important

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Editor’s Note: The 2013 N.C. General Assembly’s Legislative Study Committee on Food Desert Zones found that “School gardens are an important tool for helping students be involved and connected with healthy foods.”

Should every school have a garden?

On a chilly morning in January, I pulled into the parking lot of Warren County High School. I’d driven up to Warrenton from Raleigh for a volunteer workday in a rare kind of place: a GAP certified (Good Agricultural Practice) school garden, initiated by a high school garden club, where collards and cabbage can be grown using state-certified food safety practices and then sold into the Warren County School cafeterias. Partway through the morning, among rich soil and over-wintered cabbages, with my hands full of weeds and my body starting to warm from the activity, I straightened up and took a good look at the people around me in the garden.

While pointing at the 10-foot deer fence, the greenhouse, the various plots, and the school building itself, they talked about how this garden has been pulling people together from its inception.

Across the raised bed was the younger brother of one of the high school garden club members. Next to him was the NC FoodCorps fellow, Caroline Stover, and her Warren County colleague, FoodCorps service member Rachel Head. There were lots of kids, some teachers, community members, and some volunteers that must have been upwards of seventy years old. Really? Nearly 50 people had turned out to weed a school garden on a winter morning?

I stood up and walked over to a group of youth, and soon found myself in the thick of the story I’d hoped to find. These high schoolers were in the garden club at Warren County High School. They explained the hard parts of starting the garden three years ago, and how the experience has changed their attitudes towards food, nutrition, and even towards their hometown. While pointing at the 10-foot deer fence, the greenhouse, the various plots, and the school building itself, they talked about how this garden has been pulling people together from its inception.

School gardens support strong communities

They said they now saw themselves as part of the future of this rural county, as part of a new food economy and a strong community. They explained how, with the support of FoodCorps and Working Landscapes , a local nonprofit building food system opportunities in the county, they had prepared for and passed an NC Department of Agriculture audit for GAP certification. They explained how their work builds the local economy, provides local food to classmates, delivers fresh produce to teachers, and builds positive perceptions of farming and new connections among youth in their community.

Now I was starting to understand what motivated this diverse crowd to come out on a cold morning.

Should every school have a garden? In every school district?

Rachel Head, the local FoodCorps service member, said it this way: “Today is a perfect illustration of how school gardens can interact positively with a community. Fostering these inter-generational relationships in educational, learning places is great for community enrichment.”

Here’s another thing: Drawing on the support of folks like Head, every school in Warren County except one has a garden. And that last one is being planned.

Warren County Schools are well on their way to 100 percent school gardens, but how important is that? Should every school have a garden? In every school district?

I met a woman named Amanda Lee Brown at the workday who believes the answer is yes. This nursery operator’s ambitious vision includes a garden and greenhouse in every school in Wilson, Wayne, and Nash Counties that connect leadership, technology, and experiential learning with the food and health needs of future generations. “Good food prepares kids for more curiosity, and when kids grow vegetables they’ll want to eat vegetables,” Brown says, echoing the “grow kale, eat kale” philosophy of Ron Finley.

School gardens are educational tools

Where else is this happening? With only a little web research, I learned that the school system in Davis, CA, the home of agricultural research giant UC-Davis, has a farm-to-school program with a garden in every school. It’s easy to find similar programs across the country. Where the message I heard in Warren County emphasized building community, food awareness, and the local economy, the school gardens in Davis “support California’s academic content standards and provide important hands-on learning experiences for students.”

It made sense to me that school gardens had to work on an educational level too. To find out what was going on in Western NC, I called up Emily Jackson, who filled in the blanks.

“When I was a classroom teacher and started a garden,” Jackson told me, “the question wasn’t nutrition or food access, the question was how to motivate kids to learn … You don’t have to talk a kid into working in a garden. They get it.”

“You don’t have to talk a kid into working in a garden. They get it.” – Emily Jackson

Emily Jackson works for the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP) as the Program Director for their 12-year-old Growing Minds Farm to School program. ASAP programs reach 23 counties in Western NC as well as portions of South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia. Jackson’s Farm to School program includes school gardens, farm field trips, local food in school cafeterias, cooking classes, and even teacher training programs that expose new teachers to the educational opportunities is gardens.

ASAP is clearly bringing a holistic, “all hands on deck” game plan to their Farm to School work. In 2013-14, Jackson’s team worked with 120 schools, with all ages of students. I asked Jackson why school gardens were so important as part of their approach. She talked about community connections, school spirit, food, and health. But what she really emphasized? Gardens are amazing educational tools:

• School gardens are interdisciplinary, allowing any subject to be taught.
• Gardens encourage experiential learning and teaching to all learning styles.
• Gardens allow learning through inquiry.
• Kids get excited about being in a garden, learning to pick and eat fresh food, and will pay attention to lessons if they know they’ll get to pick beans or carrots or kale at the end of them.
• In schools with many languages spoken, gardens help overcome language barriers.

In Durham, the two-year-old Durham Public Schools Hub Farm provides another illustration of the deep educational opportunities around gardening and outdoor learning. Amid a rehabilitated barn, an innovative floating classroom, chickens, and row crops, this project serves 70-300 students per week from kindergarten to 12th grade, using a range of agricultural activities along with extensive woods and three ponds to engage students in a wide educational spectrum.

Katherine Gill, Project Manager and landscape architect at the Hub Farm, says, “Everything we do ties into science, health, nutrition, and physical activity, but we are also able to tie in literacy, math, arts, music. Hands-on, applied learning really allows students to experience a full breadth of learning and engagement.”

Numerous studies confirm the power of garden-based learning that results in increases in science achievement scores, greater health and food knowledge, and improvements in general learning outcomes. Robin Moore, of the NCSU-based Natural Learning Initiative, has written that, “Gardens offer immediate educational potential . . . enabling children to interact with nature, to learn about the ecological cycle. By cooperating with each other, peers achieve almost immediate visible results from their own hard work.”

Numerous studies confirm the power of garden-based learning that results in increases in science achievement scores, greater health and food knowledge, and improvements in general learning outcomes.

The direct educational opportunities that all of these gardens allow, however, is not the end of the story. There is more to a child’s development than formal lessons.

Reverend Willliam Kearney, a consultant and former cop that I met at the Warren County High School garden, sees kids learning patience and overcoming disciplinary challenges by spending time in school gardens. School gardens also foster positive social change. “Working together in gardens builds relationships,” he says, “that overcome assumptions and help bring down walls between us.”

Cris Laurens, a teacher at Raleigh’s Powell Elementary School, shares similar stories related to her work in Powell’s garden. When given the chance to spend afterschool hours in the school garden only if they could stay free of disciplinary problems, she has seen students become more self-aware of actions, working hard to control behavior, and being rewarded, strangely enough, with afterschool garden work.

Starting school gardens: It has to work for the teachers

In her twelve years with ASAP’s Growing Minds, and with her experience as a classroom teacher, what does Emily Jackson think about getting school gardens going?

She starts by saying that the teachers’ ability to make things happen is critical for success. We all know, she says, “That teachers are overburdened and asked to do too many things.”

She goes on to tell me something that seems hard to square with teachers’ workloads.

“Teachers are most often the garden champions, the do-ers who can make it happen. Mostly teachers get gardens going.” Teachers, already overworked, are nevertheless the ones we need to look to if school gardens are going to be successful.

Michele McKinley of Wake County’s Advocates for Health in Action (AHA) sees both sides of this situation as well. AHA has been involved in school garden promotion for over six years in Wake County. McKinley stresses the need for teachers to see a garden as a learning tool and overall benefit to their day, instead of avoiding garden use “because they are feeling like it’s ‘one more thing to do.'”

Allow flexibility. Start small. Learn and expand as you go.

To make school gardens and garden-based teaching possible for our overworked teachers, Jackson says that we have to make it easy for teachers to be involved. Don’t start with a set garden curriculum; allow teachers to integrate the garden setting into what they are already doing. Allow flexibility. Start small. Learn and expand as you go.

Jackson says that starting a garden involves upfront work that can’t be avoided. Creativity and community resources can help overcome this barrier.

In a Raleigh example of garden building, a landscape contracting firm called Greenscape partnered with the landscape design practice Naked Fruits , and collaborated with students and an outdoor living group called Come Alive Outside to help Root Elementary develop its garden. According to AHA’s Michele McKinley, this unique collaboration provided, “service for the Greenscape folks, applied learning opportunities for the NSCU students, and school students and staff benefiting from a garden –a learning tool—they can use for a long time.”

In another Raleigh example, my own firm, Community Food Lab , designed a school garden at Powell Elementary School that was built in a series of ‘garden mob’ work days that brought together students, parents, teachers, and community organizations to get the whole garden built over two years. These events allowed a lot of work in a short time, built a shared sense of accomplishment, and fostered lasting connections.

Studies confirm the stories. Students’ life skills, social skills, behaviors, and self-understanding all improve with time spent in school gardens.

This kind of collective garden building is a first step into what Jackson sees as another hidden benefit of gardens: they can help parents feel comfortable at school.

“Schools can be scary, uncomfortable places for some parents. Gardens are terrific ways for some parents to begin engaging at school,” Jackson says.

School gardens, GAP, and food access

“We know that children are not getting the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables daily,” says McKinley, “School gardens can be a really important strategy to change that.”

How can a raised bed outside a second grade classroom, or a GAP certified cabbage plot change the fruit and vegetable intake of our school kids?

Well, there are two main ways that change happens.

First, kids take what they learn in a garden home with them.

“As kids learn more about food they seek that same quality and experience of food when they get home.” – Tim Williams

Tim Williams with Warren County’s Working Landscapes sees kids of all ages disconnected from food. School gardens, he says, are ways to get them engaged with food. “As kids learn more about food they seek that same quality and experience of food when they get home,” he says.

Emily Jackson agrees, and sees intergenerational excitement happening as well. “Lessons in the gardens can go home with students. Kids get excited and can get their families involved in gardening. Often, you get grandparents involved, too,” she says.

Jackson’s work at ASAP also includes some hard data.

ASAP has been collecting surveys that ask parents how often their children come home from school and mention what they did in the school garden. Their study isn’t complete yet, but Jackson says that the patterns they are finding in school-to-home garden sharing are “fabulous.” When kids spend time in a school garden it is one of their favorite things to tell their parents about.

School garden food can reach people through food donations, direct sales to consumers, or when GAP-certified gardens can sell right into the school cafeteria.

Second, change in local food access happens when school gardens get their produce to folks that need it. School garden food can reach people through food donations, direct sales to consumers, or when GAP-certified gardens can sell right into the school cafeteria.

Michele McKinley notes that, “Some school gardens donate their produce (all or some) to programs like Plant a Row for the Hungry, so school gardens are contributing to healthy food access to at-risk populations that need healthier choices.”

The DPS Hub Farm also distributes food in various ways. In addition to an on-site farmstand and occasional sales at the Durham County Health Department, “we sell some produce to local restaurants,” Katherine Gill says, “and are also starting to work more directly with DPS Nutritional Services to do taste tests and family dinners at school cafeterias.”

Gill points out that the Hub Farm’s work with DPS Nutritional Services doesn’t, at this time, include selling produce to be served in school cafeterias, because they aren’t yet GAP-certified.

A natural opportunity for garden-to-table learning comes when school gardens sell directly into schools, but this isn’t an option for the vast majority of NC school gardens. NC schools can only serve GAP-certified produce, grown in state inspected farms and gardens.

School systems … use growers that are GAP certified as a way to ensure the safety of the food they purchase and serve.

There are currently only two GAP school gardens in NC that are certified to sell into school cafeterias. GAP stands for Good Agricultural Practice, and the two GAP certified school gardens are located in Stokes County and Warren County. Remember how I said the Warren County High School garden was rare?

The GAP certification process is administered by the NC Department of Agriculture , and it involves a periodic audit of the growing, harvesting, and food handling processes for a particular crop. In Warren County, the high school garden club chose to obtain GAP certification for collard greens and cabbage, so these two products are what they can sell to the school.

School systems (and many other large buyers) use growers that are GAP certified as a way to ensure the safety of the food they purchase and serve. School cafeteria GAP requirements are consistent across NC, meaning that food grown in a non-certified school garden cannot make its way into the cafeteria.

For schools interested in growing GAP-certified produce, it is important to weigh the costs and benefits of becoming certified. Warren and Stokes counties have schools gardens that have achieved certification, and the DPS Hub Farm is planning to become GAP certified. The process is not without expense, however.

To start, GAP certification has costs associated with the audit and travel for the inspector, though the state offers some cost-sharing opportunities. Other, maybe unexpected, costs are associated with equipment and infrastructure, like fences or hand washes that the GAP standards require. Also important to consider is the training needed to make sure that every person growing or harvesting certified food is up to speed on the procedures. At Warren County High School, the whole garden club spent hours learning all the ins and outs before the state inspector came to audit them, so that their harvesting process was precisely performed.

Community building, educational opportunities, food access, and the health of students and families all come through the school gardens.

As more small farms and school gardens become GAP-certified, more school systems will be able to include diverse local produce in their nutrition programs.

In the meantime, teachers and students can still reap the amazing rewards that school gardens deliver. Community building, educational opportunities, food access, and the health of students and families all come through the school gardens.

“School gardens are the best overlap of bringing health and education together,” Emily Jackson says, “which so rarely happens. But it’s a natural fit. You don’t have to talk a kid into working in a garden. Kids get food.”

And as a teacher? Jackson recalls her days as a classroom teacher.

“The garden was my favorite because of its constancy through all the seasons. On nice days, I could just lay a blanket down and have reading time with my class in the garden.”

A native of North Carolina, Erin White is a designer, entrepreneur, and teacher working for healthy food systems. Erin formed his two-year-old design firm, Community Food Lab, out of his belief that healthy communities need healthy food systems, and that socially-oriented design has an important role to play in both.

With degrees from North Carolina State University and Bowdoin College, he also has experience as a chef and line cook, as an on-site farm manager, a statistician with the NC Central Cancer Registry, and a framing carpenter. Before launching into food systems work, he spent four and a half years in architectural practice in Boston and NC.

Erin is the interim chair of the Capital Area Food Network, a board member of Wake County’s Advocates for Health in Action, and the proud father of a six-month old boy. He and his wife tend a large garden at home in Raleigh, NC.

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How to start a school garden: your complete guide, from striking your garden committee to hosting a school-wide ‘dig day’, learn how to start a school garden for education, eating, and fun..

WHERE TO START DETERMINING GOALS LOCATING YOUR GARDEN PLANNING AND DESIGN SAMPLE DESIGNS MATERIALS NEEDED FUNDING SOURCES CASE STUDIES

With more and more gardens popping up across the continent, many parents and teachers are asking themselves what all the fuss is about. Are school gardens becoming an essential fixture in the schoolyard just like jungle gyms and swing sets? And if so, why?

It’s no secret that gardens provide many benefits over and above the fresh produce. There are some excellent reasons why more and more schools are taking the plunge.

Benefits of School Gardens

1. school gardens help children learn..

Gardening is the study of life. The simple act of caring for living soil and plants gives children a foundation for understanding the principles of birth, growth, maturity, death, competition, cooperation and many other lessons that transfer to human lives. In a school garden, children experience these lessons ‘hands on’ through a learning method that is rich and inclusive to varied learning abilities. The results teachers see every day are now supported by science: school gardens can help our children learn better, both academically and emotionally. For more information, read School Gardens: Can They Make Our Children Smarter?

2. Gardening together strengthens ties between school and community.

School gardening programs offer opportunities for community members to get involved, reducing the social isolation of seniors with skills to share and connecting children to older generations. They also help connect schools to local businesses and groups when they request sponsorship or volunteer assistance.

3. Getting their hands dirty helps connect children with nature.

Children who garden get a close-up look at natural processes and the living organisms that thrive in these environments. By learning to care for a living, breathing ecosystem, children develop an understanding of nature’s importance in their lives and the lives of other beings. This fosters a culture of environmental stewardship.

4. Gardening strengthens children’s immune systems.

There’s more and more evidence that getting dirty exposes us to a variety of microbes that can fortify our health and balance our immune systems against our overly sterilized world. This is particularly true for children who benefit from reduced allergies and asthma when exposed early in life to dirt and the outdoors. The vitamin D they absorb when gardening doesn’t hurt, either!

5. Working in a school garden helps children stay active, reducing obesity.

Teachers across the country agree: when children garden, they move their bodies more than when passively listening in a classroom. Jumping, bending, lifting, and stretching all take place during a typical gardening session.

6. Gardening moderates moods and eases anxiety.

There’s some evidence that exposure to the beneficial microbes in soil can help regulate the neurotransmitters affecting our brain’s emotional state. A whole practice involving exposing yourself to green spaces to lift the mood has even emerged globally, with convincing results. But gardens are more than just another green space: they’re hands-on, outdoor classrooms that teach children self-regulation and mindfulness —both of which have been shown to decrease anxiety and depression.

7. Children who garden at school develop empathy and practice risk.

Teachers who garden with their students notice increased empathy towards other students and the organisms living in their school patch. That’s because tending to a ‘bug hotel’ or watching birds and earthworms thrive in the garden helps children understand the interdependency of nature. A garden also provides the perfect place for children to learn about boundaries and responsibility by practicing new activities in a safe space. Using a paring knife, trying out a hammer, or balancing on the edge of a raised bed are all ways for children to test their edges and learn new skills in a supportive environment.

8. Teaching and food gardens improve children’s diets.

Academics and journalists agree: children who garden eat more fresh vegetables. This extends beyond what they nibble on during classroom gardening time. Apparently just having a garden at school increases their intake of vegetables at home . And that’s good news for parents, teachers, and kids.

Whatever your reasons for wanting to start a school garden, the benefits are many. (Special thanks to The Classroom Gardener for sharing their expertise on school garden benefits.) So how can you help a garden come to your school?

Where to Start

Getting your garden from idea to harvest is a journey with many steps. Luckily many others have travelled this road before. The following list includes five key steps recommended by teachers and parents with experience operating successful gardens. If you’ve already completed your design and are looking for materials to order, visit our school garden site for more information about Raised Garden Beds , Planters , Rain Barrels , Composters , watering items and gardening supplies .

1. Form a Garden Committee

While it might only take a single motivated educator to start a school garden, forming a committee early in the process will give your garden longevity and help prevent burnout for any one member.

A garden committee makes decisions about how a school’s garden will look, what it will be used for, and how it will operate. The committee may start as primarily a planning body that later morphs into an operational committee, or it may simply offer direction for a garden coordinator. Whatever model you choose, the committee should ideally consist of 5-10 members representing the following areas:

• Your school’s administration
• Teaching staff
• Community volunteers

If your school garden will support your school cafeteria or another nearby food program, it’s a good idea to include a representative from your school’s food service department as well. The more diversity you can achieve, the better representation you will have and the better the end results.

Aim to find committee members with a passion for the project, along with a broad range of skills. Duties might include:

You can structure your garden committee like a regular board with a chairperson to organize meetings and communicate details, or opt for something more informal. Either way, be sure your school’s administration is involved and informed. Getting parents involved from the beginning also helps families take more ownership down the road.

Parents and children help out at Fletcher Elementary School’s “Dig Day.” Photo: Healthy Planet US.

2. Determine Goals for Your Garden

Once you have your committee in place, determining goals for your garden is an important next step. Schools build gardens for different reasons. Here are some common goals and objectives.

To provide outdoor, hands-on learning. The classic teaching garden helps teachers provide their students with real-life learning. The hands-on environment compliments lessons about plant and insect life cycles, along with experiential activities like building a bug hotel, …Art, math, English, and social studies: all these lessons can find a home in the teaching garden.

To cultivate food for school programs. Some schools use school gardens to augment their school lunch or food services programs. Fresh greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, and more can all end up in the kitchen or in the school cafeteria salad bar.

To send fresh fruits and vegetables home with students. In some locations , children don’t have access to fresh produce or lack the resources at home to afford them. Schools gardens can provide the chance to experience vine-ripened goodness while meeting the goals of the curriculum.

To reduce school-generated food waste. Adding a composting system to a school garden helps teach children about the decomposition process and eliminating food waste. Many schools even encourage teachers and students to bring compostables from home to really get the process going.

To provide a therapeutic space for children and young adults. Gardens are peaceful, healing spaces where many can find rest and respite from the world around them. Many therapeutic programs feature gardens for their healing abilities.

Identifying the primary and secondary goals for your garden will help you determine what size and style of garden you need. Once you have a sense of your garden’s direction, consider the following questions to further hone your vision:

• Who will use the garden? Which grade levels will spend time in the garden? How will they use the space? Some schools assign one bed for each class to tend, while others share the beds over multiple classrooms.
• How often will students use the garden? Biological processes are always taking place in the garden—not just during planting and harvest time. Aim to have children visit the garden weekly during your gardening season and less frequently when things are dormant. Even when things appear to be sleeping, there are still lessons to learn. Regular visits will help children develop a connection with the space.
• Who will be responsible for scheduling? Someone on your garden’s committee, usually a teacher, will need to oversee the timing of classroom visits. Too many children in the garden at once can take pleasure out of the experience.
• Who else is needed to accomplish your goals? If your plan is to provide the school cafeteria with fresh vegetables for part of the year, you’ll need to plan your activities around local seed and harvest times. Consult local experts through your neighbourhood nursery or extension office to get information right for your climate and soil conditions.

3. Find Your Site

Now that you know the main purposes for your garden, review available sites and determine which one is right for your needs. Along the way, consider the following questions.

How much space do you need to meet your goals? How many beds do you plan to install to produce food for your school’s needs? What is the best way to divide that space into beds? What other items (compost bin, tool shed, potting tables or benches, trellises , etc.) do you need? The answers to these questions will help you design the configuration of your beds and how much space you need to contain them.

Is there enough sun? Direct exposure to sunlight is one of the most important needs your garden will have. While salad greens need about 4 hours of sunlight each day, your site will ideally have 7-8 hours of sunlight to accommodate the broadest range of fruits and vegetables. If you’re unsure how much light your site gets, use a sunlight calculator to be sure.

Where is your water access? Your site should ideally be no more than one hose length away from the nearest faucet or standpipe. If you plan to install in-ground irrigation, the distance away from your water source will affect the pressure needed to get water to your site.

What type of beds will you use? While a traditional in-ground garden is the simplest to install, it requires that good quality soil be available onsite. You can order additional soil or well-seasoned compost to augment what’s there, but there should be something to start with. Benefits of in-ground gardens include flexibility, good moisture retention, and the ability to add cold frames or hoop houses as needed to extend the growing season.

Raised beds are commonly used in school gardens because they make weed control easy and are accessible for all ages and abilities . They also come in a variety of heights, widths, and lengths . In most cases, use beds 3 or 4 feet wide so that children can reach the center of the bed without standing on the soil.

Raised garden boxes generally have no bottoms and sit directly on the soil. This is the ideal set-up. However, if you must install your beds on concrete , consider purchasing beds with integrated bases and increasing the height of your garden to at least 18 inches. Taller beds will give you more versatility in terms of what plants you can grow. Any garden beds that have bottoms fitted to them must be designed to ensure good drainage.

Many schools also use horse troughs, either alone or in conjunction with other raised beds.

Can you go vertical? Schools wanting to get the most out of their space often add vertical elements. This includes trellises on raised garden beds, wall pockets of varying sizes hanging on fences or walls, and stacked garden towers in a central, accessible location. Just be sure to place vertical elements so they don’t shade any beds behind them (e.g. place them south of shorter beds if you’re located in the northern hemisphere).

What type of soil is on site? The key to successful gardening is building and maintaining heathy soil. Starting with healthy, living soil gives your garden the nutrients it needs to thrive. And while you can add fertilizer before planting, healthy soil is more than just nutrients. The best soil structure is fluffy, lightly textured, and full of organic matter that’s continually breaking down. It provides enough air pockets for roots to infiltrate and water to travel.

If there is dirt available on site, conduct a soil test to find out what nutrients you can add. Performing a simple squeeze test will help you further evaluate your soil’s tilth and organic matter content.

If, like most soils, yours needs help, the best sources of organic nutrients are finished compost and well-rotted manure (at least two years old). Both of these can augment whatever soil is available on site for a winning combination of nutrients plus organic matter.

Is the site secure? In most locations, gardens must be fenced to keep out animal pests and little feet looking for short cuts at recess. Factor your need for a fence into your initial site considerations. Is there a location close to an existing fence that could help reduce your expenses for full perimeter fencing?

Even if you don’t have much foot traffic or pests in the vicinity, consider securing your garden with a fence to deter human mischief. Locating your garden in a well-lit area with neighbors nearby is another way to discourage nighttime visitors.

School gardens that include pollinator favorites attract beneficial insects.

4. Plan and Design Your Site

Working with a garden or landscape designer is often beyond the reach of schools sticking to a bare bones budget, yet it can also be a way to save costs in the long term.

To begin, talk with other schools in your district that already have successful gardens and ask who helped them with their design. If your garden will be small—just a few beds—the main question you’ll need to answer is where to locate those beds and how to place them (see above). For larger gardens, there are other important considerations.

Consider the following elements as you begin the design process. Which ones would complement your garden? Which ones would support your teaching goals?

Bring a checklist to your first garden design meeting.

Once you have an idea of the elements you want in your garden, you can start to cost out what’s possible for your space. Here are three garden designs showing a variety of possibilities.

Sample Designs

Starter teaching garden.

If your primary goal is providing a hands-on learning opportunity, a basic teaching garden can consist of a few simple beds targeting crops that produce during the school year. This low-cost design features raised beds planted with vegetables, along with a small pollinator garden or insectary that can double as a cut flower garden. Including flowering plants in your design increases the learning opportunities for your garden as a whole.

A basic teaching garden includes a mix of fruits, vegetables, and flowers.

Materials: 4 x 8 raised garden beds (4) 4 x 4 raised garden beds (2) raised bed climbing trellis (2) mixed vegetable and flower seeds

• winter squash
• nasturtiums

Shrubs/perennials:

• strawberries
• blanket flower
• asters/sedum

School Food Garden

For a larger school whose goals include in-season food production for a cafeteria or food service program, the following design includes a variety of vegetables, flowers, and fruit:

Materials: 4 x 8’ raised beds (12) 3.5’ x 4.5’ hexagonal raised bed (1) 1 compost bin 1 tool shed 1 in-ground pumpkin patch mixed vegetables, flowers, and shrubs as noted above, plus:

• raspberries

A larger food garden includes space for vining squash, fruiting shrubs, and tomatoes.

Primary Sensory Garden

Thematic gardens are a great way to connect children with nature using an unconventional angle. This sensory garden targets children in the primary grades by engaging their senses of touch, smell, sight, and taste. The specific selection of plants in a variety of textures encourages handling, and in some cases, eating.

• 3’ x 6’ L-shaped raised beds
• 3.5’ x 4.5’ hexagonal bed
• Taste : Basil, parsley, chives, rosemary, lettuce, strawberries
• Smell : Lavender, thyme, anise hyssop , lemon balm
• Sight : Nasturtiums, speckled lettuces, purple curly kale
• Touch : Succulents, red flowering sedum, purple sage

An elementary sensory garden offers plants that encourage hands-on exploring.

5. Consider Materials

With your new design in hand, consider what materials students and educators will need to make the most of your garden. This includes thinking about both the building and operational phases.

Recycled Plastic or Wood? If your garden will contain raised garden beds , what will those be made from? Although treated wood lasts longer where wood is concerned, it is coated in chemicals that can leach into the soil and get taken up by plants. Recycled plastic beds are made of solid HDPE plastic which is safe for gardening, will not rot or degrade, and is very durable. These beds are heavy and expensive. However, they are worth the cost since they are so long lasting. Cedar beds are beautiful and rot resistant when compared to other woods, and some even come with a natural, silica-based treatment that is safe and non-toxic. For those that don’t, the application of eco-wood treatment (also safe and non-toxic treatment) will improve longevity when applied to the inside of the beds. Other less expensive species of wood can be used, of course, which might not last as long as cedar. Ask your local lumberyard about options they recommend.”

• Cedar vs. Recycled Plastic vs. Composite Raised Garden Beds

Soil As noted above, soil is best amended by compost and organic, well-aged manure. But what if there’s no soil on hand to fill your beds? Purchasing good garden soil requires research. Often “topsoil” may appear healthy, but on closer inspection it consists of low quality dirt and sand. Talk to local suppliers about their sources, specifying that you want to grow vegetables. Many municipalities now offer compost for sale from local landfills or industrial composting facilities. Avoid anything that isn’t processed under high heat, because it may contain weed seeds.

• Raised Beds: Preparing Your Garden Beds for Spring
• 3 Useful Soil Mixes for Planters and Raised Beds
• How to Build and Nourish Healthy Garden Soil

Fertilizers Chemical fertilizers may give plants a quick fix, but they have been shown to deplete soil over the long term. Instead, feed your plants and your soil at the same time with an all-purpose organic fertilizer . You will need half a pound for each 10 square feet of soil. Perennial plants and shrubs will have other, more specialized requirements. You can also grow a cover crop chosen for your climactic area to add nutrients to the soil. Talk to your local nursery or seed supplier for more information.

• Up, Down, All Around: A Simple Way to Understand Fertilizers

Irrigation As noted above, different irrigation systems are available to suit different garden designs. While drip irrigation is ideal for some set-ups, it can also be expensive and require some ongoing maintenance. Using soaker hoses or hand watering are viable options, depending on the size and configuration of your beds. You can also set up rainwater catchment systems using rain barrels to store water during the rainy season.

• Drip Irrigation vs. Soaker Hoses: Which is Better for Your Garden?
• Tips for Installing a Rainwater Collection System

Tools Since most gardens are designed for one class to visit at a time, the number of tools will usually reflect the average class size at your school. The following list of materials was adapted from the Healthy Planet Foundation’s basic supply list for a schoolyard garden.

Watering can (3) Hand trowels (25-30) Round shovel (2) Flat shovel (2) Garden hoe (2) Digging fork (2) Drinking water safe hose (1) Garden twine (1 200ft roll) Gardening gloves (25-30) Plant labels (50) 1 wheelbarrow 1 spray nozzle

Fencing As noted above, school gardens benefit from a secure fence. Wire mesh fencing with wooden or metal posts is usually more cost effective than wooden slat or picket fencing. Choose your preferred material, and then calculate the length needed by measuring around the perimeter. Be sure to add clearance for paths around all sides of each bed. Paths greater than three feet will accommodate a wheelbarrow (allowing you to turn and dump its contents).

Exuberance is a common sight in schoolyard gardens. Photo: Healthy Planet US.

6. Funding and Information Sources

Long before you begin to compile your materials, you’ll need to think about how to raise money for your garden. In most cases, schools apply for grants for start-up costs then manage their gardens through a combination of community donations and volunteer labor.

As you design your garden and build your list of supplies, consider what local sources might be available. Is there a local garden center that will give you a discount on supplies? Can families assist with installation to reduce or eliminate labor costs? Local service groups may also be eager to help through labor or monetary donations.

The following organizations offer funding resources and information for school gardens. Explore those in your catchment area, and then call for more information.

United States American Heart Association : The American Heart Association has a “Teaching Gardens” program for grades one through five. Eligible schools receive materials for planting day, including garden beds, soil, seedlings and plants, along with cooking demonstrations, lesson plans, and a Teaching Garden Toolkit. Big Green : Big Green offers support for low income schools to start or expand a teaching garden. A list of eligible districts is available on their website. Budding Botanist : Each grant recipient will receive a package of tools and educational materials valued at $500 along with a check for $2,500 to spend on the materials needed to install a new or expand an existing school garden Food Corps : Food Corps delivers garden education programs in high-need schools. They help connect children with healthier foods in schools so they can reach their full potential. Grow to Learn : Providing funding for New York school gardens, Grow to Learn also offers free materials and technical help for schools and educators starting or expanding their teaching gardens. KidsGardening : KidsGardening is a leading resource for garden-based educators across the country. They maintain an extensive list of funding programs for school gardens. Slow Food USA : Slow Food USA maintains a list of grants available to schools interested in building or expanding their garden. The site also includes excellent educational and start-up resources. Whole Kids Foundation : The Garden Grant program provides a $2000 grant to support a new or existing edible school garden.

Canada The Classroom Gardener : Serving the Lower Mainland, BC, The Classroom Gardener supports teachers and students with a cross-curricular, on-site school garden learning experience. Evergreen Foundation : Evergreen has compiled an extensive list of gardening grant projects in Canada. Nutrients for Life : Serving specific provinces across Canada, the Learning Garden program offers grants and resources for startup school gardens. Whole Kids Foundation : Created in partnership with FoodCorps, the garden grant program provides $2000 for new or existing edible garden projects.

Crowdfunding Some schools choose to raise funds through their local community, and because some of the funders listed above require matching funds for their grants, crowdfunding is one way to streamline the work of processing these donations. The following platforms currently offer low-cost options for digital fundraising.

• Gofundme.com : This crowdfunding platform currently doesn’t charge a platform fee. It helps individuals easily set up accounts to handle donations direct from contributors.
• Indiegogo.com : Indiegogo offers a crowdfunding platform to individuals and groups seeking donations, and to start-up businesses and individuals seeking investment in unique ideas.

Case Studies: 3 School Gardens

Teaching garden with benefits.

O’Farrell Charter School, San Diego

For the past two years, children at the O’Farrell Charter School have planted, tended, and harvested fruits and vegetables in their school garden as part of their hands-on science learning. The garden currently includes 10 raised beds and four trees (avocado and tangerine), along with a compost bin. With a primary goal of teaching children, the garden also provides fresh produce for families after the lessons are all done. That’s important, because O’Farrell is an urban school, and some families don’t have access to fresh, affordable fruits and vegetables.

The garden was the brainchild of an educator who received a donation from one of her parents and decided to put it towards a communal growing space. Healthy Planet Foundation provided the balance of funds, and parents and students volunteered their time to dig and assemble the garden during a weekend “Dig Day”. For their participation, students received community service hours.

Today students perform most of the tasks to keep their garden running, while custodial staff maintain the irrigation lines. The school has already purchased four more trees (lime and avocado) to add to their garden, and they have plans to increase production by planting and harvesting more frequently.

Says principal Anne Mathews, “We have butterfly releases that we do in the garden, we look at worms and the life cycle of insects—that’s all done in the garden. A lot of science activities that we do now are outside…and those are things that we couldn’t do before. It introduces a sense of realism to the students because they can touch and look.”

Productive Food Garden and Greenhouse

Windermere High School, Vancouver

With a goal of providing food for the school cafeteria and for a local residence housing low income families, educators and students at Windermere High School started small. After more than three years, the garden has expanded to include 13 raised beds, a 16’ x 20’ greenhouse (partially heated by solar energy), and an industrialized composting system that can process everything from vegetables to bones.

Garden activities are closely linked with the curriculum thanks to support from the nearby university whose students help integrate its operations with provincial learning outcomes. Other partnerships in the community and with local organizations extend these opportunities. The garden’s mason bee condos offer students lessons in insect and life cycle science, while a new aquaponics system capturing nutrient production from fish will tie in with science and social studies curriculum.

School gardens connect children to nature and the community. Photo: Healthy Planet US.

The garden’s coordinator thanks the local community and the garden’s many partners for making the project so successful, noting in a published success story that, “Working in the garden has provided an avenue for the cross-grade interaction of students at our school. A strong sense of community has developed as is evidenced by the large number of students participating throughout the summer.”

Elementary Garden to Table Program

Traverse Heights Elementary School, Traverse City

Through a partnership with Michigan State University Extension, parents, students, and teachers at Traverse Heights have created a garden where students learn about agriculture and healthy eating in a hands-on way. The school garden has been in place for seven years and currently features 17 raised beds, an outdoor hoop house, and an indoor greenhouse.

In addition to learning about food systems and nutrition, the children at Traverse Heights enjoy lessons in science, language arts, and math in their school garden. Their ‘home-grown’ produce makes its way into the school cafeteria.

Another partnership, this one with FoodCorps , leads to regular taste tests at the school where children try healthy ingredients in new and exciting ways.

Wherever your school is located, a garden can offer hands-on learning that connects children to nature, their food, and one another. Gardens give educators the chance to link lessons to real life, in a context that children can understand. For more information, visit us at learn.eartheasy.com to explore our articles about growing and thriving together.

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School Gardening and Health and Well-Being of School-Aged Children: A Realist Synthesis

Timothy p. holloway.

1 School of Health Sciences, College of Health and Medicine, University of Tasmania, Launceston, TAS 7250, Australia

Lisa Dalton

Roger hughes.

2 School of Health Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, VIC 3122, Australia

Sisitha Jayasinghe

Kira a. e. patterson.

3 School of Education, College of Arts, Law and Education, University of Tasmania, Launceston, TAS 7250, Australia

Sandra Murray

Robert soward, nuala m. byrne, andrew p. hills, kiran d. k. ahuja.

4 Nutrition Society of Australia, Crows Nest, NSW 1585, Australia

Associated Data

Not applicable.

School environments can create healthy settings to foster children’s health and well-being. School gardening is gaining popularity as an intervention for healthier eating and increased physical activity. We used a systematic realist approach to investigate how school gardens improve health and well-being outcomes for school-aged children, why, and in what circumstances. The context and mechanisms of the specific school gardening interventions ( n = 24) leading to positive health and well-being outcomes for school-aged children were assessed. The impetus of many interventions was to increase fruit and vegetable intake and address the prevention of childhood obesity. Most interventions were conducted at primary schools with participating children in Grades 2 through 6. Types of positive outcomes included increased fruit and vegetable consumption, dietary fiber and vitamins A and C, improved body mass index, and improved well-being of children. Key mechanisms included embedding nutrition-based and garden-based education in the curriculum; experiential learning opportunities; family engagement and participation; authority figure engagement; cultural context; use of multi-prong approaches; and reinforcement of activities during implementation. This review shows that a combination of mechanisms works mutually through school gardening programs leading to improved health and well-being outcomes for school-aged children.

1. Introduction

Access to and consumption of healthy, nutritious food plays a crucially important role in maintaining good health and well-being and is a fundamental human right [ 1 , 2 ]. For many populations worldwide, however, deep-rooted and complex underlying problems associated with food systems influence the availability and access to healthy diets and nutritious food [ 2 ]. Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets both their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life [ 3 ]. Unfortunately, these conditions remain elusive for many [ 4 ], and in some instances, this leads to food insecurity. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the ability to be food secure largely depends on the uninterrupted supply and availability of different types of healthy food, food utilization, and the stability of each of these dimensions over time [ 3 ]. Additionally, a range of social determinants underpins the inequities in healthy eating [ 5 ]. For example, ‘urban poverty’, resulting from lower income availability, may lead to inadequate resources for people affected by such circumstances in accessing healthy diets, including fresh fruit and vegetables, and instead tend to consume higher quantities of sugars, fats, highly processed, and/or energy dense, ultra-processed foods [ 6 ].

Global urbanization and accompanying detachment from traditional agricultural practices have accentuated the decline in access to healthy food, including fruit and vegetables, and by extension, the associated nutritional benefits [ 7 , 8 ]. These dynamics are further complicated by the speed of transition to urban living and a simultaneous decline for some population groups in understanding healthy food production and consumption [ 7 , 8 ]. As a result, a plethora of public health interventions are geared towards increasing access to healthy, nutritious food. Community gardens, a space managed collectively by community members for growing food and non-edible plants [ 7 , 8 , 9 ], is a good example.

Community gardens are used in many settings, including residential neighborhoods, prisons, and schools [ 9 ]. Several scoping, narrative, systematic, and meta-analysis reviews suggest that school-based gardens are particularly useful in improving children’s nutritional outcomes [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ]. For example, studies report that children’s fruit and vegetable consumption increased [ 13 ], and they were more willing to taste unfamiliar foods such as fruits and vegetables, cooking and food preparation skills improved, and nutritional knowledge increased [ 14 ]. Further, recent evidence also suggests health outcome improvements that transcend nutritional or food-related benefits, such as enhanced academic learning, social development, and improvements in general health and well-being [ 10 , 16 ]. As childhood obesity rates have increased dramatically over recent decades, school gardens have specifically been identified as settings to engage children in healthier eating and physical activity, with the objective of obesity prevention [ 15 , 17 ].

School gardening is widely reported to improve health and well-being outcomes [ 10 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 17 , 18 ]. However, systematic reviews report that quantitative evidence for changes in fruit and vegetable intake is limited and largely based on self-report [ 10 ] or limited through non-randomized study designs [ 13 ]. Although qualitative evidence reports a range of health and well-being benefits for school-aged children, these are rarely substantiated by quantitative evidence [ 10 ]. While more robust study designs would contribute to building the evidence base, using theory-led methods adds value by examining causal explanations of how and why school gardening interventions work [ 10 ]. This is the basis that we sought to address in this realist review.

The aim of the study was to assess the mechanisms which lead to positive health and well-being outcomes for school-aged children and answer the research question, “How do school gardens improve health and well-being outcomes for school-aged children?”

A systematic realist approach was selected for its value in moving beyond an investigation of “what works?” to focus on “how or why an intervention works, for whom, and in what circumstances?” [ 19 ]. Program theory guides the conduct of such systematic reviews, wherein reviewers seek to understand complex interventions [ 20 , 21 , 22 ].

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. overview.

Using a three-staged approach, the realist synthesis was used as the guiding methodology to analyze articles reporting school gardening interventions with positive outcomes.

The stages were to (1) identify relevant systematic, and meta-analysis review articles, (2) screen the Stage 1 reviews to extract primary source articles reporting positive health and well-being outcomes, and (3) use the primary source articles (from Stage 2) to identify specific school gardening interventions that robustly evidence health and well-being outcomes.

2.2. Searching the Literature and Defining Eligibility Criteria

Three databases (Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed) were systematically searched using the term, “school garden*”, which ensured broad coverage of the review articles (Stage 1). Inclusion criteria comprised peer-reviewed review articles only, published between 2012–2021 inclusive, and in English only. Exclusion criteria were applied to articles, book chapters, conference papers, proceeding papers, meeting abstracts, books and documents, clinical trials, and randomized controlled trials. Only systematic and meta-analysis reviews were included, and their search strategies had to clearly specify and adhere to The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines [ 23 ]. These review articles allowed for quick and efficient identification of primary sources/articles reporting on school gardening interventions.

2.3. Selection of School Gardening Reviews, Primary Articles, and Interventions

Identified review articles (Stage 1) were exported to EndNote reference management software (EndNote™ 20, Clarivate Analytics, Chandler, AZ, USA). Duplicate records were removed. Titles and abstracts were manually screened for terms related to “school garden/s” or “school gardening”, and articles were assessed for eligibility and inclusion.

Stage 2 included screening the full text of each eligible article to identify primary articles reporting positive health and well-being outcomes. Positive health and well-being outcomes were defined broadly as having improved change, either determined quantitatively (e.g., increased fruit and vegetable intake) or improved benefit determined qualitatively (e.g., improved behaviors towards fruit and vegetables). Positive health and wellbeing outcomes were identified from either text, tabulated data, or figure data. All study designs were identified, comprising quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods studies.

During Stage 3, the full text of each primary article was reviewed to identify specific school gardening interventions.

2.4. Data Extraction, Appraisal, Synthesis, Analysis, and Evaluation

Publication details, including authors, year of publication, location, objectives, study design, duration, participants, sample size, outcomes investigated, method of measuring outcomes, and details of positive health and well-being outcomes, were extracted from all included articles. To help improve the completeness in the reporting of the various interventions, the Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) checklist and guidelines were used [ 24 ]. Data extraction was supplemented with key components: rationale, materials, procedures (activities), providers, delivery, timing, tailoring, modifications, and planning.

Data analysis drew on the principles of a realist synthesis for each school gardening intervention. This consisted of identifying the underlying causal or potential mechanism/s acting toward positive health and well-being outcomes by producing a Context–Mechanism–Outcome configuration for each of the school gardening interventions. If a number of primary articles were associated with a single intervention, then their data were combined during this Context–Mechanism–Outcome configuration process.

3.1. Identification of School Gardening Interventions

Stage 1 screening identified 6 reviews for inclusion [ 10 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 17 , 18 ] ( Figure 1 ; Supplementary Table S1 ); Stage 2 screening identified 65 primary articles with positive health and well-being outcomes; and Stage 3 screening identified 35 articles associated with 24 school gardening interventions [ 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 ].

Three stages include identification of review articles, positive health and well-being articles, and articles associated with school gardening interventions.

3.2. Context–Mechanism–Outcome Configuration

For each intervention identified, a Context–Mechanism–Outcome configuration was developed, using the extracted data together with supplementary information from the TIDier process ( Table 1 ).

Context–Mechanism–Outcome configuration of individual school gardening interventions.

Abbreviations: OSGP, Outreach School Garden Project; SAKGP, Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program; RHS, Royal Horticultural Society; EYWTBH, Eat Your Way to Better Health; GROW, Gardens Reaching Our World; GHK, Growing Healthy Kids; HOPS, Healthier Options for Public Schoolchildren; OWG, OrganWise Guys; SHCP, Shaping Healthy Choices Program; SHK, Sprouting Healthy Kids; TGEG, Texas!Grow!Eat!Go!; GfL, Gardens for Life.

3.2.1. Context of School Gardening Interventions with Positive Health and Well-Being Outcomes

Location, garden spaces, and facilitation.

Identified school gardening interventions were conducted across a wide range of geographical locations, including Australia [ 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 ], the United Kingdom [ 33 , 34 , 35 , 57 ], the United States [ 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 ], India [ 57 ], Kenya [ 57 ], Bhutan [ 58 ], and Nepal [ 59 ] ( Supplementary Table S2 ). Interventions mostly utilized gardens at school or child care premises, with the exception being community gardens or a summer camp garden [ 36 , 40 , 44 ]. Children and families participated in the design of gardens in interventions [ 27 , 29 , 30 , 57 ]. Initiatives were primarily facilitated by kindergarten, elementary, primary, and/or secondary school, and childcare center staff [ 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 57 , 58 , 59 ], with research teams [ 25 , 26 , 28 , 42 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 56 ], University departments [ 39 , 40 ], and external partners and/or specialists contributing in some contexts [ 25 , 26 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 58 , 59 ].

School gardening interventions were predominantly used to influence school-aged children’s knowledge, attitudes, and/or behaviors toward diet and nutrition, particularly in connection to increasing fruit and/or vegetable consumption [ 25 , 26 , 29 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 ]. In many instances, this was associated with the impetus of addressing the prevalence and prevention of obesity [ 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 ], particularly as low-income minority groups may be disproportionately affected by lower fruit and/or vegetable intake and experience higher rates of childhood obesity [ 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 55 ]. Additionally, the ability of school gardens to influence physical activity and active living formed part of the reasoning for some interventions [ 38 , 42 , 55 ].

Participants and Activities

Most of the interventions were conducted at primary schools, with participating children in Grades 2 through 6. In multiple instances, nutrition and gardening education was integrated into the curriculum itself and delivered through school garden and kitchen activities [ 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 37 , 42 , 43 , 50 , 51 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 58 , 59 ]. Specifically, children were provided with opportunities to participate in growing, harvesting, and consuming garden produce (usually fruit and vegetables), with some enabling the sharing of meals together in a ‘family style’ environment [ 29 , 30 , 40 , 44 , 46 ]. Parental and family engagement were also encouraged through newsletters [ 25 , 26 , 36 , 40 , 52 ], take-home activities [ 36 , 37 , 55 ], and opportunities for volunteering [ 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 ]. Teacher training was also an important component in several interventions, particularly with nutritional and gardening activities [ 34 , 35 , 39 , 41 , 58 , 59 ]. Several interventions facilitated cultural awareness, including opportunities for cultural exchange or appreciation for culturally tailoring interventions in accordance with demographic profiles as focal points [ 27 , 40 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 55 , 57 , 58 , 59 ].

Some interventions were adapted from existing curricula, activity guides, peer-reviewed resources, or garnered from previous pilot initiatives. For example, several interventions were based on the curriculum of Junior Master Gardener ® (College Station, TX, USA) and Health & Nutrition from the Garden programs [ 37 , 43 , 54 ], and several utilized the activity guide developed by Lineberger and Zajicek (1998) [ 25 , 26 , 50 , 51 ]. Further, a few interventions were based on the model of Montessori (1964) and grounded in school gardening research and garden-based learning [ 49 , 57 ].

Duration, Frequency, and Type

Typically, the duration of interventions ranged from 6 weeks to 3 years [ 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 ]. “Frequency” and “type” of intervention also varied considerably and included a mix of weekly lessons (teaching nutrition, cooking, and/or gardening) [ 25 , 26 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 36 , 37 , 40 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 53 , 58 , 59 ], occasional expert/specialist visits [ 30 , 34 , 53 , 56 ], field trips [ 46 , 53 ], take-home activities [ 52 , 55 ], nutrition and cooking demonstrations and/or workshops [ 40 , 52 ], parental lessons [ 44 , 47 , 54 ], and teacher training sessions [ 34 , 35 ].

3.2.2. Mechanisms Leading to Positive Health and Well-Being Outcomes

The combined action of nutrition-based and garden-based education, often integrated into the curriculum, was a common mechanism that contributed towards positive outcomes, particularly in connection to fruit and/or vegetables [ 25 , 26 , 33 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 50 , 51 , 58 , 59 ].

Experiential or “hands-on” learning experiences for students were also a common strategy amongst multiple interventions, with children involved in growing, nurturing, harvesting, preparing, and consuming produce from school gardens [ 25 , 26 , 27 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 36 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 55 , 57 ]. Reports also emphasized the effectiveness of experiential experiences as a pedagogical learning tool for students, with newly learned knowledge influencing attitudes, behavioral change, and building self-efficacy towards healthier eating [ 27 , 42 ].

The engagement and participation of families provided opportunities for intergenerational learning, informing behaviors and self-efficacy of children, and parents/guardians volunteering at school [ 27 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 36 , 37 , 49 ]. School teachers, principals, and other “authority figures” were important for behavioral modeling, leadership, and expertise as nutrition or gardening specialists [ 28 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 49 , 53 , 54 ]. Some interventions were tailored for minority groups, providing experiential learning opportunities in the context of cultural backgrounds and opportunities for intercultural learning [ 27 , 40 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 57 , 58 , 59 ].

A distinguishing feature was the use of multi-pronged approaches. For example, this included the adoption of multi-level and multi-sectoral methodologies, with involvement from individuals, community, and governmental agencies. In addition, programs implemented multi-component approaches including, for example, a combination of nutrition-based education, family involvement, development of community partnerships, support from the agricultural sector, and school wellness committees [ 33 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 52 , 53 , 58 , 59 ].

The reinforcement of activities leading to sustainability was also seen as a key mechanism, such as repeated and/or increased exposure to fruit and vegetables during the intervention duration. The notion of ensuring the impacts of school gardening activities was sustained was also accomplished by consistent and coordinated messaging through multiple intervention components [ 36 , 37 , 39 , 40 , 43 , 52 ].

3.2.3. Positive Health and Well-Being Outcomes

Positive health and well-being outcomes were primarily related to fruit and vegetables (e.g., increased knowledge, awareness, preferences, behaviors, intake, and variety) [ 25 , 26 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 ]; dietary fiber, and vitamins A and C (e.g., increased intake) [ 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 50 , 51 ]; anthropometric measures (e.g., improved BMI percentile, BMI z-score, and waist-to-height ratio) [ 40 , 41 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 52 , 55 ]; children’s well-being (e.g., increased social skills and confidence, improved social connections, and a greater sense of belonging) [ 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 ]; and parent’s/family’s health and well-being (e.g., improved healthy eating, greater family interaction, and greater connection to school) [ 27 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 49 ].

4. Discussion

Through this realist synthesis, we investigated how school gardening improves health and well-being for school-aged children, finding that a combination of mechanisms operates in tandem under different contexts for the success of the school gardening interventions to yield positive outcomes. The impetus of many interventions was to increase fruit and vegetable intake and address the prevention of childhood obesity. Most were conducted at primary schools with participating children in Grades 2 through 6 and were located in high-income countries, including the United States and Australia. The mechanisms ranged from embedding nutrition and garden education in the curriculum to experiential learning, engagement and involvement of family and “authority figures”, and the relevance of cultural context. Types of positive outcomes included increased fruit and vegetable consumption, dietary fiber and vitamins A and C, improved BMI, and improved well-being of children.

The review results in evidence that the benefits of combining nutrition-based and garden-based education are important in improving outcomes, particularly with attitudes and behaviors toward fruit and vegetable consumption. This suggests that classroom-based lessons may be enhanced through practical and garden-based lessons. For example, in the How do you grow? How does your garden grow? intervention, the curriculum encompassed a variety of topics in relation to health and well-being, reinforced through ‘hands-on’ exposure to gardening activities [ 25 , 26 ]. Similarly, the Nutrition in the Garden program integrated nutrition education into the curriculum, with particular emphasis on a practical application involving comprehensive gardening and cooking activities [ 50 , 51 ]. In addition, findings from Berezowitz et al. (2015), through a review of school garden studies, conclude that garden-based learning may favorably affect fruit and vegetable consumption but also positively impacts academic performance [ 11 ]. Similarly, experiential learning strategies have proved useful in improving children’s knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors toward eating more healthily, including those in school garden settings [ 18 ]. Schools, therefore, have significant potential to create garden spaces for enabling experiential experiences linked to the curriculum, leading to enhanced learning and improved health and well-being outcomes.

Family involvement in school gardening initiatives was at the center of impacting positive health and well-being outcomes, demonstrated across several interventions, with mechanisms working at multiple levels. Previous research reports that family involvement helps change eating behaviors in school-aged children [ 14 ]. Consistent with the “bioecological theory” and “primary socialization theory”, a child’s development is collectively impacted by numerous proximal (e.g., parents, peers, community) and distal (e.g., cultural norms, laws, customs) influences and their complex interdependencies [ 60 ]. Accordingly, the importance of parents in promulgating healthy nutrition behaviors in children cannot be underestimated. Garnering the cooperation/participation of as many parents as possible in school-based gardening can be strengthened using volunteering programs and take-home activities, including produce and recipes. These strategies have proven to be effective at meaningfully engaging parents with school-garden-related activities [ 14 ].

Visionary leadership and inspirational role models are integral to school-based gardening interventions leading to health and well-being outcomes. Strong engagement between students and “authority figures”, including school teachers, school principals, and external experts, has consistently been shown to be associated with positive health and well-being outcomes. For example, Growing Schools and The Gloucestershire Food Strategy identified clear leadership and vision from the head teacher as critical for initiating change [ 33 ]. Findings from the Royal Horticultural Society Campaign for School Gardening indicate how the willingness of teachers to engage with the intervention may be important towards a greater intake of fruit and vegetables [ 35 ]. In addition, Viola (2006) identified how support from the school principal is key in the Outreach School Garden Project, leading to improved nutrition knowledge and skills [ 28 ]. More recently, Mann et al. (2022) synthesized evidence of nature-specific outdoor learning outside of the classroom on school children’s learning and development and suggested that all teacher training efforts should include skill development activities pertaining to this type of pedagogical approach [ 61 ]. Integration of ideas such as these is important as teachers are often highly influential during childhood education and development, as indicated above.

Considering the increasingly diverse societies we dwell in, it is no surprise that many made a conscious effort to accommodate the varying cultural needs in their interventions. For instance, culturally-tailored components, together with experiential learning, were central to the LA Sprouts program, leading to many potentially beneficial outcomes, including changed behaviors and preferences towards dietary fiber, fruit, and vegetables for children of Hispanic/Latino heritage [ 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 ]. Similarly, Ornelas and colleagues (2021) reported the importance of drawing on cultural strengths and traditional practices in addressing childhood obesity through school gardening, specifically for American Indian communities [ 62 ]. Therefore, cultural aspects and/or ethnic diversity would be an important consideration in the design of school gardening programs to ensure potential health and well-being outcomes are culturally sensitive and sustainable.

This realist review highlights that several key elements and numerous permutations of context and mechanisms work mutually, leading to positive health and well-being outcomes in school-aged children that may be observed collectively ( Figure 2 ; Table 1 ). The synthesis demonstrates the potential for change when important contextual and mechanistic elements are drawn from a range of successful interventions that may be incorporated into current or proposed school gardening programs. This provides guidance in conjunction with published systematic and meta-analysis reporting on school gardening interventions. This also provides a template for consideration in designing new school gardening interventions or enabling adjustment and inclusion of additional elements to current interventions.

Context, mechanism, and outcome synthesis of school gardening interventions.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time a systematic realist synthesis with the accompanying use of program theory has been applied to school gardening interventions. The strength of this approach lies in using high-level research-based evidence through the identification of systematic and meta-analysis reviews. This informed identification of pertinent peer-reviewed primary articles with positive health and well-being outcomes and subsequent identification of school gardening interventions. This approach enabled the identification of evidence associated with school-based gardening interventions as previously identified and reviewed, allowing a comparison of our findings with the existing literature. Data extraction and TIDier checklist methodologies enabled holistic assessment of individual school gardening interventions, supporting robust configuration of context, mechanism, and outcomes and subsequent realist synthesis.

Notwithstanding the potential for positive outcomes that result from school gardens, it is important to note that the generalizability of the results from these interventions may be limited to high-income countries as most of the programs were based in Australia, the United Kingdom, and America. In addition, while a number of programs were based in areas of socio-economic disadvantage, addressing particular health inequities affecting low-income, under-resourced, and/or specific ethnic groups, including a focus on childhood obesity prevention, the results may not be entirely generalizable and transferable to other settings, either in other high-income countries or low-income countries.

5. Conclusions

Through this realist synthesis of identified school gardening interventions, we have shown how various mechanism work mutually to support positive health and well-being outcomes of school-aged children in particular contexts, which may assist with future endeavors. School gardening interventions potentially hold strong promise in supporting action toward the prevention of modern public health problems, including food insecurity and childhood obesity, both requiring urgent global attention.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the University of Tasmania library staff for assistance with literature search strategies.

Supplementary Materials

The following supporting information can be downloaded at: https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/nu15051190/s1 , Table S1: Identification of school gardening articles with positive health and well-being outcomes; Table S2: Summary of school gardening interventions.

Funding Statement

This research was funded by a National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grant (#113672) as part of the CAPITOL Project. The study funder had no role in the study design, collection, analysis, or interpretation of the data, in writing the report, or in the decision to submit the article for publication. The contents of this article are the responsibility of the authors and do not reflect the views of the NHMRC.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, R.H., K.D.K.A., T.P.H., S.J. and A.P.H.; methodology, R.H., K.D.K.A. and T.P.H.; formal analysis, T.P.H., K.A.E.P. and K.D.K.A.; investigation, R.H., K.D.K.A., T.P.H. and A.P.H.; resources, K.A.E.P., K.D.K.A., R.H., N.M.B. and A.P.H.; data curation, T.P.H. and K.D.K.A.; writing—original draft preparation, T.P.H.; writing—review and editing, K.D.K.A., L.D., R.H., S.J., S.M., R.S., K.A.E.P., N.M.B. and A.P.H.; project administration, R.H., N.M.B. and A.P.H.; funding acquisition, K.A.E.P., K.D.K.A., R.H., N.M.B. and A.P.H. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Informed consent statement, data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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How to Set up a School Garden

A school garden is becoming an educational must, but, without an experienced gardener on the staff, it’s difficult for schools to know where to start. Here at GrowVeg.com we’re frequently asked how to set up a school garden and in compiling this article I spoke to Sophie Ioannou, an Environmental Educator who runs gardens in London’s inner-city schools, including Pooles Park Primary; we've also included links to resources from many useful organisations.

Planning a School Garden

Sophia is used to establishing gardens in schools which possess little space and few resources, but for any school she advises, "Start off very small." This is because, in her experience, teachers do not have time to run a garden. "If you start simply," says Sophia, "you generate momentum and people take an interest." Before you know it, you’ll have a bank of volunteers and, meanwhile, won’t have burdened yourself with an enormous learning curve.

Even starting small, you need helpers. Sophia establishes a weekly rota with children as monitors for tasks such as composting and watering, but nevertheless gets in local volunteers at least once every other month to keep on top of maintenance.

Garden Organic's Food for Life Partnership contains a comprehensive breakdown on getting started and advises on planning, fitting the garden into the national curriculum, and provides instruction leaflets for students and teachers.

Sophia grabs whatever space is available and has tucked beds in corners and under windows, though somewhere sunny and well-drained is best. If the site is in full view, so much the better; the more interest raised, the more offers of help you’ll get.

Caitlin Mathis says: "Space plants well so little feet are free to go in and explore without stepping on too many plants." Raised beds have clear boundaries and, as you’re possibly taking on a tough piece of land, they mean that you won’t have to dig deeply and can fill them with good quality compost, vital for successful plants. Deep beds could even be placed on tarmac. Wherever they are, make them narrow enough for small children to reach across easily.

What to Grow in a School Garden

Easy-to grow vegetables include early potatoes (grow quickly and fun to dig); beetroot; pumpkins (lots of character and ready after the summer); cherry tomatoes (the easiest type to grow and eat); peas (delicious straight from the pod); rainbow chard (very colourful); and fast-growing saladings such as cut-and-come-again lettuces, oriental leaves and rocket. Have a look at our article Easiest Vegetables to Grow for more ideas. As Claudia Maskeroni advises: "Do not set them up for failure. Plant plants that they will actually harvest by the end of the school year."

The Royal Horticultural Society’s Campaign for School Gardeninghas superb resources , offering a simple school’s Vegetable Crop Schedule and Month-by-Month timeline, as well as a handy range of lesson plans .

Our own Garden Planner is always popular with children and we do special educational accounts so it can be used by a whole class at once - great as a wet-weather option if conditions outside aren't right for digging!

As your confidence grows, so more can be added. Kimberley Edwards suggests giving all classes their own garden in their first year, to see through until their last. "Let them do everything – design, plant, harvest, eat, so they learn from their mistakes." There’s a full rundown on planning and how to involve children from the very beginning at Kids Gardening .

Sophia recommends a greenhouse to start seeds off early and protect them from pests. Alternatively, volunteers can grow seedlings at home and bring them in for planting.

Every gardener will tell you that it’s impossible to garden strictly to plan. "We work with what’s happening on the day," says Sophie, who installs a pond and wildlife area where possible. "When food slows down, I might get them to develop the woodland area. It’s a holistic approach – encouraging pollinators into the garden – helping children to see the whole picture."

School Garden Funding and Free Resources

The RHS offers School Gardening Awards , and one possible source of materials in the USA is the National Association for the Exchange of Industrial Resources .

Margaret Burton suggests that local garden centres and timber merchants will contribute materials in return for a mention in the local paper. At Sophia’s schools, parents contribute seeds, leading to a "global garden" with okra, aubergine (eggplant), and pumpkins from Bangladesh.

Finally, don’t worry when things go wrong. An RHS report on school gardening states, "From failed crops to insect damage, children were forced to deal with setbacks to achieve positive goals." Resilience in the face of disappointment is yet another life-skill conferred by gardening.

By Helen Gazeley . Photos courtesy of Garden Organic .

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Essay on Garden for Students and Children

500+ words essay on garden.

Essay on Garden- For me, the garden is an important part of the house. From an early age, I have an interest in gardening. Garden is a place that gives relaxation to the mind and soul. Besides, gardening can be an interesting and productive hobby. Also, it teaches a person the value of patience, hard work, and love and affection. Because gardening takes a lot of effort in growing and maintaining. It also gives peace to the person who takes care of it.

Benefits of Garden

The garden is the only place in the house which calm senses and give a pleasing feeling to the mind and body. Also, you can install a gazebo in the garden and enjoy your garden’s beauty while sitting on it.

Besides, another benefit of the garden is that you can grow organic vegetables and fruits at home. The quantity of this product is large so you can share it with your neighbors.

Also, the homegrown fruits and vegetables are more delicious and taste better than the fruits and vegetables that we buy from the market.

Moreover, my garden has many flowering plants that give a pleasuring fragrance that makes the environment light and aromatic. The flowering plants that I have in my garden include roses, sunflowers, dahlia, jasmine, marigold, common, night-blooming jasmine, tuberose flower, hibiscus and many more. But, my all-time favorite is night-blooming jasmine whose pleasing smell spread at night and make the whole house aromatic.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Maintenance of a Garden

Everyone thinks that planting trees and plants is an easy task and anyone with a trowel, lopper, and weeder can easily do it. But, only gardeners and the people who do gardening knows the effort and energy that gardening needs. Besides, only water is not enough for plants they also need manure. Also, they need daily care in order to keep them healthy and fresh .

Moreover, most of the plants are green which means they need proper sunlight . Many people hire professional gardeners for taking care of their garden but doing it on our own is more pleasurable. Also, it helps us to connect with the garden.

Growing the Garden

Most of the plants and trees that are in my garden are either planted by me or my family members. We go to the nursery to buy seasonal plants every season and most of the flowering plants are replaced every season as they die due to climate change. After buying them we plant these saplings or plants in a strategical order. So, that garden looks more colorful.

To conclude, we can say that gardening is a very good and productive habit. Also, it helps a person to establish a connection with the greenery and love towards nature.

Besides, for most of the people, the best memories of childhood are attached to the garden. Garden is the place where families share their evening tea and discussion that keep their bond stronger. Above all, a garden is the most amazing place of the house no matter what the season is.

FAQs about Essay on Garden

Q.1 What is the purpose of a garden? A.1 Most people love the plants and trees that’s why they have a garden in their homes. Besides, this they provide a relaxing and calm surrounding with fresh air. And it decorates a side our house and gives a pleasing smell that makes the whole house aromatic.

Q.2 Why green plants grow better outside than inside? A.2 Green plants grow better outside because in comparison to indoor plants outdoor plants need sunlight to grow. This sunlight helps them to make their food by the process called photosynthesis which they consume.

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Essay on My Garden for School Kids & Students [Easy Words*]

January 21, 2021 by Sandeep

My Garden Essay: The most beautiful place in every house is undoubtedly the garden area. It is filled with greenery and flowering plants. Gardens are full of oxygen providers and have colourful blooms of plant varieties. They refresh a person’s mind and help him lead a peaceful life. Gardens are popular places for beautiful roses, sunflowers, daisies, pansies and lilies. They look fresh and fragrant when watered and groomed regularly.

Essay on My Garden 250 Words in English

Below we have provided My Garden Essay in English, suitable for class 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6.

The garden that surrounds my house is my favourite place to be. It is peaceful and helps me calm down when life becomes too much to handle. Having a garden, spending time in it and taking care of it have many benefits for everyone regardless of age or experience. It makes you feel proud of yourself for taking care of something so well; it reduces stress and gives you the chance to grow your fruits and vegetables.

My garden doesn’t look large from the outside, but you realize that there are much more plants than you thought when you’re inside. My garden has large trees, shrubs, herbs and gorgeous flowers . My favourite tree is the sapota tree, otherwise known as the chikoo tree. This is because when the sun sets in the evening, its rays filter through the leaves of the sapota tree, and the view is absolutely beautiful.

There is a path that runs throughout the garden and around the house. It is made of different materials at different points. I find this unique, and I think it adds character and makes the garden more special. The most important aspect of the garden is that it is entirely designed by my grandparents . They wanted to make the house feel more cosy and homely and decided that the best way to do that would be to have a garden all around where people could go if they felt sad.

We don’t have a professional gardener to help take care of it. The family does all the work such as watering the plants, weeding the garden and keeping away pesky insects and animals. We pluck the sapota fruit very regularly. We also make sure that the part of the tree that leans over the fence isn’t chewed off my cows or subject to stealing by other naughty children.

How Palm Beach Gardens is growing: $40 million ice rink complex coming to Plant Drive Park

The park's softball field honors amanda buckley, a gardens high school standout who was murdered in 2007. the city will find a new way to honor her..

PALM BEACH GARDENS — An indoor ice rink is set for construction at Plant Drive Park , replacing its skate park and basketball and pickleball courts and most notably, a softball field that honors a Palm Beach Gardens High School standout murdered in 2007.

The City Council unanimously gave the greenlight on Thursday, April 4, for the Palm Beach North Athletic Foundation to build a 100,000-square-foot building with two full-sized ice rinks, a restaurant, a sports bar and medical space at the park nestled between Palm Beach Gardens High and Interstate 95.

The facility is expected to cost $40 million — for which the nonprofit is entirely responsible — and take two years to build, with the goal of opening in summer 2026. Its lease would last for 40 years and charge the foundation $10 a year.

It also includes a revenue sharing program, with the foundation paying $75,000 per year to the city two to five years after the facility's start, then increasing: $100,000 per year between six and 12 years, $125,000 per year between 13 and 18 years, $150,000 per year between 19 and 30 years and $200,000 from year 31 and beyond.

Score one for civility? Rant against Gardens official has annexation foe removed from council meeting

Past efforts to build rinks in Palm Beach Gardens fell short amid COVID

The agreement comes after a former plan by the foundation failed when the project did not meet budget benchmarks in 2022. Michael Winter, its founder, said he had difficulty garnering support during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

The original plan was for a 230,000-square-foot facility for hockey, rock climbing, volleyball and basketball at Gardens North County District Park, something that Winter said proved to be “too ambitious.”

City records list that Plant Drive Park “has been a marginal recreational facility for the city and has attracted malcontents who engage in illegal activities,” including vandalism.

Council member Bert Premuroso said he has fond memories of walking over to Plant Drive Park to play baseball when he was young in the 1970s. He added that he met his wife at the park 40 years ago.

“It’s not an easy decision to move this forward for me, but I am supportive,” Premuroso said. “It’s a beautiful area, but people will go to this center. If it’s built right, I think it will be very successful.”

City seeks ways to honor Amanda Buckley; softball field named for slain player

Plant Drive Park's softball field serves as a memorial to Amanda Buckley, a Palm Beach Gardens High standout player who was found murdered near Juno Beach in 2007.

The park features a sign over the scoreboard that says “Amanda Buckley Memorial Field of Dreams," a plaque and bricks engraved in her honor.

Charlotte Presensky, the city’s leisure services administrator, acknowledged the importance of honoring the memorial. She said the city’s staff “is already thinking about what we do to make these things whole."

“We have spoken to (the high school athletic director and the Palm Beach Gardens Youth Athletic Association) about the ability to honor the memorial, but we’re not there yet,” said Presensky during the meeting. “This is just the first step.”

Presensky said she knew Buckley and will be respectful of the memorial to do it the “right way.” Premuroso agreed.

“We will be supportive of anything that needs to be done to relocate anything related to the Buckley memorial," he said.

How Palm Beach Gardens is growing: Tiger Woods' TGL golf league wins OK for arena at PBSC campus

Some residents say hockey too expensive for kids who use Plant Drive Park

While the council was unanimous in its support for the project, residents had questions about it.

Mike Evans, whose daughter, a Palm Beach Gardens High sophomore, plays softball at Plant Drive Park, said during the meeting that “selling the park to a developer is a bad idea.” He said the park is used by many and its basketball courts are often filled with players.

Evans noted that the area around the high school is among the poorest communities in the city.

“(Hockey) is not affordable for the kids in that area,” Evans said. “Where are they going to go? This needs to be done in a respectful way.”

After the meeting, Evans said he wasn’t surprised by the vote of approval and he isn’t completely against the project.

However, he wants the Amanda Buckley memorial to move to Palm Beach Gardens High and for the school’s softball facilities to be upgraded, saying their field is “a mess.”

Evans said he noticed that baseball facilities in the city are well-equipped, while softball is often neglected.

“It’s frustrating that they look at girls' sports and don’t care,” Evans said.

Old Florida vs. New Money: Billionaire fights to dock his boat behind his house. His 164-foot boat, that is.

Gardens ice rink complex to host hockey, figure skating, curling

Wayne Gretzky, perhaps the greatest player in National Hockey League history and a northern Palm Beach County homeowner, plans to use the new rinks to host the Gretzky Hockey School, founded in 2014 by him and his son, Ty.

The sports complex will support a variety of ice sports, from youth hockey, figure skating, public skating and adult leagues to curling and sled hockey. The foundation said in a prepared statement that it hopes to add a third NHL-sized ice rink at some point.

The project also comes with corporate and private partners, including Palm Beach Gardens-based Carrier; Larry Robbins and the Robbins Family Foundation; the Florida Panthers NHL team; the Hospital for Special Surgery in West Palm Beach; and NFP insurance brokerage.

In terms of financing, the group has the backing of Ziegler, a privately held investment bank, according to Winter.

How Palm Beach Gardens is growing: New tower proposed for Mira Flores apartment complex

Foundation director calls Palm Beach Gardens ice rink complex 'passion project'

Winter skated for the first time at 2 years old, thanks to his parents who opened up a rink in the suburbs of St. Louis, through a nonprofit they started called “Affton Athletic Association.” It now runs three rinks in the St. Louis area.

Now he has four young boys of his own who all play hockey. He wants to pay the gift of a nearby ice rink forward.

“This endeavor has been a passion project since inception,” said Winter, who launched the foundation in 2017. “What personally drives me is knowing that thousands of kids are going to benefit.”

Winter, who lives in unincorporated northern Palm Beach County, plans to offer discounted public skating rates to Palm Beach Gardens residents. He expects to hire 70 to 100 people to work at the facility, whether the positions are part or full-time.

The ice rink will be the only facility of its kind in northern Palm Beach County, said Winter, who noted that interest in playing hockey has soared since the Florida Panthers played in the Stanley Cup Final in 2023.

The only other ice rinks in Palm Beach County are Palm Beach Skate Zone at 8125 Lake Worth Road in suburban Lake Worth Beach, and Palm Beach Ice Works at 1590 North Florida Mango Road near West Palm Beach.

“The only constraint we have is we need ice rinks,” Winter said. “As a young dad, I can attest that there is a dearth of places to take kids to (play sports) in an indoor, safe setting.”

Maya Washburn covers northern Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida-Network. Reach her at [email protected] . Support local journalism: Subscribe today .

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Guest Essay

Elite College Admissions Have Turned Students Into Brands

By Sarah Bernstein

Ms. Bernstein is a playwright, a writing coach and an essayist in Brooklyn.

“I just can’t think of anything,” my student said.

After 10 years of teaching college essay writing, I was familiar with this reply. For some reason, when you’re asked to recount an important experience from your life, it is common to forget everything that has ever happened to you. It’s a long-form version of the anxiety that takes hold at a corporate retreat when you’re invited to say “one interesting thing about yourself,” and you suddenly believe that you are the most boring person in the entire world. Once during a version of this icebreaker, a man volunteered that he had only one kidney, and I remember feeling incredibly jealous of him.

I tried to jog this student’s memory. What about his love of music? Or his experience learning English? Or that time on a summer camping trip when he and his friends had nearly drowned? “I don’t know,” he said with a sigh. “That all seems kind of cliché.”

Applying to college has always been about standing out. When I teach college essay workshops and coach applicants one on one, I see my role as helping students to capture their voice and their way of processing the world, things that are, by definition, unique to each individual. Still, many of my students (and their parents) worry that as getting into college becomes increasingly competitive, this won’t be enough to set them apart.

Their anxiety is understandable. On Thursday, in a tradition known as “Ivy Day,” all eight Ivy League schools released their regular admission decisions. Top colleges often issue statements about how impressive (and competitive) their applicant pools were this cycle. The intention is to flatter accepted students and assuage rejected ones, but for those who have not yet applied to college, these statements reinforce the fear that there is an ever-expanding cohort of applicants with straight A’s and perfect SATs and harrowing camping trip stories all competing with one another for a vanishingly small number of spots.

This scarcity has led to a boom in the college consulting industry, now estimated to be a $2.9 billion business. In recent years, many of these advisers and companies have begun to promote the idea of personal branding — a way for teenagers to distinguish themselves by becoming as clear and memorable as a good tagline.

While this approach often leads to a strong application, students who brand themselves too early or too definitively risk missing out on the kind of exploration that will prepare them for adult life.

Like a corporate brand, the personal brand is meant to distill everything you stand for (honesty, integrity, high quality, low prices) into a cohesive identity that can be grasped at a glance. On its website, a college prep and advising company called Dallas Admissions explains the benefits of branding this way: “Each person is complex, yet admissions officers only have a small amount of time to spend learning about each prospective student. The smart student boils down key aspects of himself or herself into their personal ‘brand’ and sells that to the college admissions officer.”

Identifying the key aspects of yourself may seem like a lifelong project, but unfortunately, college applicants don’t have that kind of time. Online, there are dozens of lesson plans and seminars promising to walk students through the process of branding themselves in five to 10 easy steps. The majority begin with questions I would have found panic-inducing as a teenager, such as, “What is the story you want people to tell about you when you’re not in the room?”

Where I hoped others would describe me as “normal” or, in my wildest dreams, “cool,” today’s teenagers are expected to leave this exercise with labels like, Committed Athlete and Compassionate Leader or Environmentally Conscious Musician. Once students have a draft of their ideal self, they’re offered instructions for manifesting it (or at least, the appearance of it) in person and online. These range from common-sense tips (not posting illegal activity on social media) to more drastic recommendations (getting different friends).

It’s not just that these courses cut corners on self-discovery; it’s that they get the process backward. A personal brand is effective only if you can support it with action, so instead of finding their passion and values through experience, students are encouraged to select a passion as early as possible and then rack up the experience to substantiate it. Many college consultants suggest beginning to align your activities with your college ambitions by ninth grade, while the National Institute of Certified College Planners recommends students “talk with parents, guardians, and/or an academic adviser to create a clear plan for your education and career-related goals” in junior high.

The idea of a group of middle schoolers soberly mapping out their careers is both comical and depressing, but when I read student essays today, I can see that this advice is getting through. Over the past few years, I have been struck by how many high school seniors already have defined career goals as well as a C.V. of relevant extracurriculars to go with them. This widens the gap between wealthy students and those who lack the resources to secure a fancy research gig or start their own small business. (A shocking number of college applicants claim to have started a small business.) It also puts pressure on all students to define themselves at a moment when they are anxious to fit in and yet changing all the time.

In the world of branding, a word that appears again and again is “consistency.” If you are Charmin, that makes sense. People opening a roll of toilet paper do not want to be surprised. If you are a teenage human being, however, that is an unreasonable expectation. Changing one’s interests, opinions and presentation is a natural part of adolescence and an instructive one. I find that my students with scattershot résumés are often the most confident. They’re not afraid to push back against suggestions that ring false and will insist on revising their essay until it actually “feels like me.” On the other hand, many of my most accomplished students are so quick to accept feedback that I am wary of offering it, lest I become one more adult trying to shape them into an admission-worthy ideal.

I understand that for parents, prioritizing exploration can feel like a risky bet. Self-insight is hard to quantify and to communicate in a college application. When it comes to building a life, however, this kind of knowledge has more value than any accolade, and it cannot be generated through a brainstorming exercise in a six-step personal branding course online. To equip kids for the world, we need to provide them not just with opportunities for achievement, but with opportunities to fail, to learn, to wander and to change their minds.

In some ways, the college essay is a microcosm of modern adolescence. Depending on how you look at it, it’s either a forum for self-discovery or a high-stakes test you need to ace. I try to assure my students that it is the former. I tell them that it’s a chance to take stock of everything you’ve experienced and learned over the past 18 years and everything you have to offer as a result.

That can be a profound process. But to embark on it, students have to believe that colleges really want to see the person behind the brand. And they have to have the chance to know who that person is.

Sarah Bernstein is a playwright, a writing coach and an essayist.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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Harrell School demolished after seven decades of service

Crews are demolishing Harrell School in Wichita Falls, closing the books on the Fifth Street (Seymour Highway) campus that served several functions over its 71-year history.

The building was badly damaged in a windstorm that struck the area on Aug. 10, 2023.

“We had damage that was more than the cash value of the building,” said Dr. Donny Lee, WFISD superintendent.

He said the school board decided to collect the cash value on the insurance and use the money to demolish the building and on other facility projects in the district. He said the decision worked in to the plan to reduce the number of buildings the district has.

More: WFISD poised to close Kirby, future of another campus up in the air for now

“We didn’t want that school that was heavily damaged to just sit on the property and be subject to crime or vandalism,” he said.

Harrell opened as an elementary school in the fall of 1953. It was named after longtime school board member J.T. Harrell, whose family had donated 10 acres for the campus.

The structure, considered a very modern design at the time, cost $286,000 to build. The Wichita Daily Times reported all 14 classrooms had large windows that looked out to “the natural beauty of Seymour Highway.”

The school served about 300 pupils from the surrounding neighborhoods of Westover Hills, Wichita Gardens, Inglewood and Patton.

More: Storm damage to Hirschi, Denver discussed at emergency meeting

In 1977 the school district decided the campus should have a new mission, serving as a vocational school. In 1978 Harrell offered classes for high school students in building trades, home furnishing and industrial electricity.  

Another change came in 2020 when WFISD closed the building that housed Denver Alternative School and moved the program and its students a few blocks west on Seymour Highway to the Harrell campus.

Following the storm, those students were moved to the building on Burkburnett Road that formerly housed the Farris Early Childhood Center. Lee said they will probably stay there for the foreseeable future.

“It suits the students very well. They love it,” he said.

Lee said the site of Harrell School will remain bare land for now.

“We’ll just keep it. We don’t have any plans for it right now,” he said.

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• Solar Eclipse 2024

What the World Has Learned From Past Eclipses

C louds scudded over the small volcanic island of Principe, off the western coast of Africa, on the afternoon of May 29, 1919. Arthur Eddington, director of the Cambridge Observatory in the U.K., waited for the Sun to emerge. The remains of a morning thunderstorm could ruin everything.

The island was about to experience the rare and overwhelming sight of a total solar eclipse. For six minutes, the longest eclipse since 1416, the Moon would completely block the face of the Sun, pulling a curtain of darkness over a thin stripe of Earth. Eddington traveled into the eclipse path to try and prove one of the most consequential ideas of his age: Albert Einstein’s new theory of general relativity.

Eddington, a physicist, was one of the few people at the time who understood the theory, which Einstein proposed in 1915. But many other scientists were stymied by the bizarre idea that gravity is not a mutual attraction, but a warping of spacetime. Light itself would be subject to this warping, too. So an eclipse would be the best way to prove whether the theory was true, because with the Sun’s light blocked by the Moon, astronomers would be able to see whether the Sun’s gravity bent the light of distant stars behind it.

Two teams of astronomers boarded ships steaming from Liverpool, England, in March 1919 to watch the eclipse and take the measure of the stars. Eddington and his team went to Principe, and another team led by Frank Dyson of the Greenwich Observatory went to Sobral, Brazil.

Totality, the complete obscuration of the Sun, would be at 2:13 local time in Principe. Moments before the Moon slid in front of the Sun, the clouds finally began breaking up. For a moment, it was totally clear. Eddington and his group hastily captured images of a star cluster found near the Sun that day, called the Hyades, found in the constellation of Taurus. The astronomers were using the best astronomical technology of the time, photographic plates, which are large exposures taken on glass instead of film. Stars appeared on seven of the plates, and solar “prominences,” filaments of gas streaming from the Sun, appeared on others.

Eddington wanted to stay in Principe to measure the Hyades when there was no eclipse, but a ship workers’ strike made him leave early. Later, Eddington and Dyson both compared the glass plates taken during the eclipse to other glass plates captured of the Hyades in a different part of the sky, when there was no eclipse. On the images from Eddington’s and Dyson’s expeditions, the stars were not aligned. The 40-year-old Einstein was right.

“Lights All Askew In the Heavens,” the New York Times proclaimed when the scientific papers were published. The eclipse was the key to the discovery—as so many solar eclipses before and since have illuminated new findings about our universe.

To understand why Eddington and Dyson traveled such distances to watch the eclipse, we need to talk about gravity.

Since at least the days of Isaac Newton, who wrote in 1687, scientists thought gravity was a simple force of mutual attraction. Newton proposed that every object in the universe attracts every other object in the universe, and that the strength of this attraction is related to the size of the objects and the distances among them. This is mostly true, actually, but it’s a little more nuanced than that.

On much larger scales, like among black holes or galaxy clusters, Newtonian gravity falls short. It also can’t accurately account for the movement of large objects that are close together, such as how the orbit of Mercury is affected by its proximity the Sun.

Albert Einstein’s most consequential breakthrough solved these problems. General relativity holds that gravity is not really an invisible force of mutual attraction, but a distortion. Rather than some kind of mutual tug-of-war, large objects like the Sun and other stars respond relative to each other because the space they are in has been altered. Their mass is so great that they bend the fabric of space and time around themselves.

Read More: 10 Surprising Facts About the 2024 Solar Eclipse

This was a weird concept, and many scientists thought Einstein’s ideas and equations were ridiculous. But others thought it sounded reasonable. Einstein and others knew that if the theory was correct, and the fabric of reality is bending around large objects, then light itself would have to follow that bend. The light of a star in the great distance, for instance, would seem to curve around a large object in front of it, nearer to us—like our Sun. But normally, it’s impossible to study stars behind the Sun to measure this effect. Enter an eclipse.

Einstein’s theory gives an equation for how much the Sun’s gravity would displace the images of background stars. Newton’s theory predicts only half that amount of displacement.

Eddington and Dyson measured the Hyades cluster because it contains many stars; the more stars to distort, the better the comparison. Both teams of scientists encountered strange political and natural obstacles in making the discovery, which are chronicled beautifully in the book No Shadow of a Doubt: The 1919 Eclipse That Confirmed Einstein's Theory of Relativity , by the physicist Daniel Kennefick. But the confirmation of Einstein’s ideas was worth it. Eddington said as much in a letter to his mother: “The one good plate that I measured gave a result agreeing with Einstein,” he wrote , “and I think I have got a little confirmation from a second plate.”

The Eddington-Dyson experiments were hardly the first time scientists used eclipses to make profound new discoveries. The idea dates to the beginnings of human civilization.

Careful records of lunar and solar eclipses are one of the greatest legacies of ancient Babylon. Astronomers—or astrologers, really, but the goal was the same—were able to predict both lunar and solar eclipses with impressive accuracy. They worked out what we now call the Saros Cycle, a repeating period of 18 years, 11 days, and 8 hours in which eclipses appear to repeat. One Saros cycle is equal to 223 synodic months, which is the time it takes the Moon to return to the same phase as seen from Earth. They also figured out, though may not have understood it completely, the geometry that enables eclipses to happen.

The path we trace around the Sun is called the ecliptic. Our planet’s axis is tilted with respect to the ecliptic plane, which is why we have seasons, and why the other celestial bodies seem to cross the same general path in our sky.

As the Moon goes around Earth, it, too, crosses the plane of the ecliptic twice in a year. The ascending node is where the Moon moves into the northern ecliptic. The descending node is where the Moon enters the southern ecliptic. When the Moon crosses a node, a total solar eclipse can happen. Ancient astronomers were aware of these points in the sky, and by the apex of Babylonian civilization, they were very good at predicting when eclipses would occur.

Two and a half millennia later, in 2016, astronomers used these same ancient records to measure the change in the rate at which Earth’s rotation is slowing—which is to say, the amount by which are days are lengthening, over thousands of years.

By the middle of the 19 th century, scientific discoveries came at a frenetic pace, and eclipses powered many of them. In October 1868, two astronomers, Pierre Jules César Janssen and Joseph Norman Lockyer, separately measured the colors of sunlight during a total eclipse. Each found evidence of an unknown element, indicating a new discovery: Helium, named for the Greek god of the Sun. In another eclipse in 1869, astronomers found convincing evidence of another new element, which they nicknamed coronium—before learning a few decades later that it was not a new element, but highly ionized iron, indicating that the Sun’s atmosphere is exceptionally, bizarrely hot. This oddity led to the prediction, in the 1950s, of a continual outflow that we now call the solar wind.

And during solar eclipses between 1878 and 1908, astronomers searched in vain for a proposed extra planet within the orbit of Mercury. Provisionally named Vulcan, this planet was thought to exist because Newtonian gravity could not fully describe Mercury’s strange orbit. The matter of the innermost planet’s path was settled, finally, in 1915, when Einstein used general relativity equations to explain it.

Many eclipse expeditions were intended to learn something new, or to prove an idea right—or wrong. But many of these discoveries have major practical effects on us. Understanding the Sun, and why its atmosphere gets so hot, can help us predict solar outbursts that could disrupt the power grid and communications satellites. Understanding gravity, at all scales, allows us to know and to navigate the cosmos.

GPS satellites, for instance, provide accurate measurements down to inches on Earth. Relativity equations account for the effects of the Earth’s gravity and the distances between the satellites and their receivers on the ground. Special relativity holds that the clocks on satellites, which experience weaker gravity, seem to run slower than clocks under the stronger force of gravity on Earth. From the point of view of the satellite, Earth clocks seem to run faster. We can use different satellites in different positions, and different ground stations, to accurately triangulate our positions on Earth down to inches. Without those calculations, GPS satellites would be far less precise.

This year, scientists fanned out across North America and in the skies above it will continue the legacy of eclipse science. Scientists from NASA and several universities and other research institutions will study Earth’s atmosphere; the Sun’s atmosphere; the Sun’s magnetic fields; and the Sun’s atmospheric outbursts, called coronal mass ejections.

When you look up at the Sun and Moon on the eclipse , the Moon’s day — or just observe its shadow darkening the ground beneath the clouds, which seems more likely — think about all the discoveries still yet waiting to happen, just behind the shadow of the Moon.

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I reviewed my Yale admissions file to see what the Ivy League school really thought about my application. What I learned surprised me.

• I reviewed my Yale admissions file to see what the Ivy League school thought about my application. 
• Most of my scores weren't that impressive, but they really liked my genuine attitude and excitement.
• Reviewing my application reminded me how far I have come as a student. 

"Brian spoke so fast it was electrifying."

This was the first quote from my Yale interviewer. She wrote those words in my admissions file, a document I finally got my hands on three years after being accepted into Yale University .

I remember that interview like it was yesterday. It was a Zoom call — my application cycle happened at the crux of pandemic remote learning — and I was wearing my father's old, oversize dress shirt. The interviewer was lovely. Some of my answers to her questions probably didn't make sense, and she was right. I definitely forgot to breathe in between my sentences.

But viewing my admissions file years later gave me a peek into what my interviewer was actually thinking that day, and I learned what really got me into Yale.

I reviewed my application as a junior with the registrar

Every student in the US can review their college admissions file under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. I emailed my university registrar, and within 45 days, a member of their support staff reached back out to schedule a virtual meeting. Picture-taking and recording were not allowed, so I jotted notes by hand.

There was very little verbal interaction between me and the staff member. She screen-shared my admissions file and let me read in silence. Something told me she understood the emotional weight of this moment for students, and I appreciated that. It is intimidating for any teenager to package their identity into a 650-word common application essay and a questionnaire — but it is arguably even more so to witness retrospectively how everything was judged.

I got a behind-the-scenes look into Yale admissions when they read my application

Each aspect of my application was rated out of nine points. My readers gave me a six for my extracurriculars and for my first teacher recommendation. They gave me a seven for my second teacher recommendation and my counselor's recommendation. I received an "outstanding" for my interview and a 2++ for my overall rating. The overall rating is given on a scale from 1 to 4, with 1 being the highest, and pluses were a good sign.

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In all, my ratings weren't exactly bad, but they weren't extraordinary either. The numbers on the pages stared back at me — cold, formulaic, and transactional. It felt strange to be reduced to a system of numbers, knowing that something as qualitative as extracurricular activities could still be broken down and scored.

Beyond the ratings, however, what truly stood out were the comments left by the admissions officers . Many of the comments were on my character, my essays, and the possible contributions I would make as a student.

"I teared up reading Essay 1," one reader wrote of my common application essay. Another said of the same essay: "His Chinese New Years are untraditional in that they remind him of his family's financial struggles."

I got emotional. All the memories of writing that essay came flooding back. I remembered how difficult it was to start it. I knew there was no easy way for someone to understand me without first knowing my background. I wanted to prove that I deserved a seat at the table where legacy students and the wealthy continue to outnumber their first-generation, low-income peers like myself.

I kept reading and found more comments from admissions officers that moved me: "He treats his mom well;" "He seems to have a truly good heart;" "One of the most intelligent, sincere, jovial students ever met;" "I have no doubt that Brian would push his peers at Yale to stand up for what's right;" and "I come away with compelling impressions that the student would contribute significantly to the undergrad community."

I searched for a negative comment. There were none.

I didn't deserve this, I muttered under my breath. Here I was, a junior in college, no longer a 4.0 student , my post-grad plans murky, balancing two part-time jobs and hoping to make it out of midterms alive. It felt good knowing that someone had rooted for me to be here.

The process reminded me how far I have come

Coming from an underserved household where no one had gone to college, I had always looked at the Ivy League application process skeptically.

Without the resources to enroll in SAT test prep and the financial safety net to pursue unpaid leadership positions and resume-boosting activities at school, I had doubted the "holistic" admissions process many colleges boast. My critiques about Yale remain numerous.

But at least in their comments, the admissions committee gave me grace in that they reviewed my application in light of my circumstances. I might never know exactly what happened in that reading room. Still, a couple of lessons ring true, based on my own viewing experience and my conversations with others who had done the same: Good character and potential are the key; I didn't need to be perfect.

And finally, I — not anyone else — needed to give me the fighting chance of applying in the first place.

"GPA is outstanding, especially in context," an admissions officer said. "This is a home run."

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Ranana Dine Wins Essay Competition

April 8, 2024.

The Divinity School is pleased to share that Ranana Dine , a PhD Candidate in Religious Ethics, has been selected as the 2024 recipient of the Mark and Ruth Luckens Essay Competition in Jewish Thought and Culture for her paper, “Capturing Corpses: The Advent of Photography and Depicting Jewish Death.”

The Jewish Studies Program at the University of Kentucky’s awards the Mark and Ruth Luckens Prize for the best unpublished original essay in Jewish thought and culture that is also suitable for oral presentation to a general audience. Made possible by a generous gift from the late Dr. Mark Luckens, the winner gives a public lecture in connection with the University of Kentucky Jewish Studies program. 

Ms. Dine will give her public lecture on April 16th, 6pm via Zoom.

Dine is also the research coordinator at the University of Chicago’s MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics and the managing editor of Images: A Journal of Jewish Art and Culture ; her scholarship has appeared in multiple journals. Before entering the PhD program, she received an MPhil in theology and medical humanities from the University of Cambridge and a BA in religion and art from Williams College.

Dine’s dissertation focuses on how a visual approach to the corpse and to the memory of loved ones can inform our understanding of our obligations to the dead. 

Her winning paper addresses the significant relation between photography and death since the invention of that technology, and how photography of the dead, within Jewish history, has mostly meant to signify Jewish suffering. “Sadly this has become even more salient in the wake of October 7th,” writes Dine. “Although death photography serves a purpose – it can inform the viewer of something significant and even incite moral outrage and action – we should ask what story these photographs construct and perhaps turn to more complete stories of relationality, community, and care in the face of death.”