What do you think about having gardens at school?
The school where I work has set one up – with the blessings of the district office – of course.
There are currently 2 raised planting beds, and a large sunshade. The Arizona sun can be deadly to a garden – so this was built for protection. Most of the materials for the garden were found around the property, so it has been very inexpensive to so.
The plan is to get the kids (high schoolers, in this case) interested in planting and growing different crops. We are using a method called hugelkultur (click the link for more info) in the raised beds, this will provide many years of great soil for the plants.
The garden can represent a half-credit for the student, if they participate in the garden and keep a detailed portfolio of the whole process. We have quite a few students interested and participating, their grades in their classes has to be at a certain level to work in the garden – we don’t want them getting behind while making mud pies.
