School Garden Resources

Curriculum & Online Lessons
Educator Workshops & Consulting
Starting a School Garden
Gardening Resources
Garden Enhanced Nutrition Education Resources (GENE) – an extensive list of resources used in our Plant It, Grow It, Eat It and Healthy School Environment Workshops.
Garden Classroom Management Tips
The Value of Garden-Based Learning
Life Lab's Photo Gallery of School Garden Elements
Life Lab's YouTube Video Channel – over 40 videos demonstrating garden instruction, activity and Life Lab history.

Curriculum & Online Lessons

Created by Life Lab

• Life Lab Science K-5 Garden-Based Science Curriculum, The Growing Classroom Activity Guide, Kids' Garden Activity Cards, and more at the Life Lab Store.
• View lessons, videos, and activities posted on the Life Lab blog.
• 1st -4th Grade Science Exploration Units These downloadable units are the lessons we share as part of our Science Exploration Field Trip Program

Other great sites to find lessons

• Online lessons for PreK-6th Grades – a list, maintained by Life Lab, of hundreds of lessons from other garden-based education organizations (Have a site to add? send it on) 
• Online lessons and resources for Middle and High School – a categorized list, maintained by Life Lab,of food and garden-based learning resources of lessons and resources (Have a site or resource to add? send it on) 
• Kidsgardening.org – a great site and newsletter of lessons, activities, and more, check out their GBL book matrix to find just the right publication

Garden-Based Learning Literature Lists

• American Horticulture Society/Jr. Master Gardeners Growing Good Kids Book List
• Super Kids Nutrition Book Review Corner – list of nutrition related literature
• USDA's Agriculture in the Classroom – a searchable database, search for "book" media for literature resources
• California Ag In the Classroom Bookshelf
• Harvest of the Month Literature Links
• Life Lab's list of literature books that are displayed at workshops

Connecting to Content Standards

• CA Science Content Standards Related to Gardening
• A Child's Garden of Standards Connecting grades 2-6 to Garden-Based Learning
• Gardens for Learning Standards Supplement K-6 Garden-Based Learning content standards connections.

School Garden Workshops and Consulting

Life Lab Educator Workshops page lists all the workshops we provide
Life Lab offers consulting for your school garden team at your site or at our Garden Classroom
The California School Garden Network's Event Calendar - view workshops across California
Life Lab's School Garden Promoters Toolbox lists school garden regional support networks across the nation

Starting a School Garden

Life Lab's Getting Started

• Purchase or download Life Lab's Getting Started: A Guide for Creating School Gardens as Outdoor Classrooms. Download available in Spanish.

 Other great school garden planning resources

• Gardens for Learning: Creating and Sustaining Your School Garden from the California School Garden Network
• School Garden Wizard – an extensive guide for proposing and planning the garden to teaching and maintenance, created in partnership the United States Botanic Garden and Chicago Botanic Garden.
• Plant a Seed Watch it Grow - an online guide created by the Master Gardener Association of San Diego County
• School Garden Set Up Guide in Spanish and English from LA Common Ground Garden Program
• Growing, Eating, Living: A Garden Guide for Head Start – a getting started guide geared for early childhood educators.

Gardening Resources

Online resources specific to school gardening

• Children's Gardens – A field guide for teachers, parents, and volunteers free download from LA Common Ground Garden Program
• Creating and Sustaining Your School Garden Videos and Training Materials
• CSGN's Gardens for Learing: Creating and Sustaining Your School Garden Chapter 7 – Planting Your School Garden, Chapter 8 – Maintaining Your School Garden
• School Garden Wizard – an extensive guide for proposing and planning the garden to teaching and maintenance, created in partnership the United States Botanic Garden and Chicago Botanic Garden.
• Plant a Seed Watch it Grow - an online guide created by the Master Gardener Association of San Diego County

Resources worth purchasing

• Kidsgardening.org – carries materials and publications specific to kids gardening
• Sunset Western Garden Book Kathleen Norris Brenzel (Editor) A great garden resource with thousands of plant descriptions and growing tips. Includes loads of how to gardening tips.

Choosing Plants and Planting Dates

• Deciding what and when to plant in your school garden is often challenge for new gardeners. These page will help you make a successful plan.
  • Planning an Annual Vegetable Harvest includes links to various planting guides
  • Planting Perennial Plants
    
    
• Edible Theme Garden Planting Guide Life Lab has created a theme garden planting calendar to help schools plan an edible harvest. This document has suggested planting dates and generalized days to harvest for the following edible theme beds:
  • Spring Planted: Pizza Bed, Three Sisters Garden, Salsa Garden, Stir Fry Garden, Grazers Garden, Salad Garden
  • Fall Planted: Sitr Fry Garden, Salad Garden

This chart was created for a California Coastal climate, you will need to modify the planting dates for your climatic zone. Additionally, "days to harvest" differ depending on seed varities and these numbers can be modified. The file is an Excel file so you should be able to modify this chart for you needs.

General gardening resources

• Many state's cooperative extension offices have Master Garden volunteers who provide gardening support. Contact your local California Master Gardener.
   
• University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources Catalog
  • Search the ANR Catalog for hundreds of resources for purchase and free downloads. Many publications are relevant to sustaining and instructing in school gardens such as: Honey Bee Education Posters, Natural Enemies Are Your Allies (beneficail insect ID poster), Home Canning Guides, Home Vegetable Gardening, and slide show on How to Begin A School Garden and A School Garden Curriculum.
    Click on the "Free Publications" link to download information on growing vegetables, trees, pest control and more.
     
• UCSC Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems  "For the Gardener – Downloadable Organic Gardening Tip Sheets"  Browse tip sheets on growing garlic, potatoes, peas, greens, onions and garlic. Learn about water conservation, cover cropping, building healthy soil, controlling slugs and snails, and more

• Growing A Healthy Garden is a great primer on how to maintain a healthy garden ecosystem.

• Savingwater.org has handouts on maintainting healthy garden, a compost calculator, directions on installing a drip irrigation system, and much more.
   
• Dripworks.com – a great place to learn about and purchase drip irrigation supplies. They have a free irrigation design service and offer %15 off for school gardens.
   
• Materials Calculators for estimating soil quantities for filling garden boxes. Most landscape stores sell materials in cubic yards.
  • http://www.soilbuildingsystems.com/CubicYard.php This calculator adjusts for settling
  • http://www.soildirect.com/pages/material-calculator.php5 This one has different equations for different sized beds
  • http://www.metric-conversions.org/volume/cubic-feet-to-cubic-yards.htm This on converts cubic feet into yards
     
• Information on vegetable, flower and herb planting, care, and harvest can be found at:
  • Organic Gardening.com: Get gardening tips, sign up for monthly garden reports for your area, and simplified information on the care and harvest of garden plants.
  • National Gardening Association's Food Garden Guide: Detailed information on planting, care and harvesting of garden plants.
  • National Gardening Association's Regional Reports: Get gardening information for your region, sign up for bimonthly gardening tips.
  • Burpee.com: Great information on gardening and seed catalog, sign up for regional garden reports, visit their "library" for plant care and harvest information. visit their "nutrition guide" for vegetable nutrient content and garden kitchen tips.
  • Bonnie Plants: Simple and concise information on growing common vegetables and herbs. This site also has tips for harvesting vegetables.

Garden Classroom Management Tips

Sustaining Your School Garden- Article from The Garden Times, Spring 2002

Summer Vacation for Your Garden- Article from the Garden Times, Spring 2003

Managing an Effective Outdoor Classroom- Article from the Garden Times, Spring 2003 plus more resources on Effective Outdoor Mangement

Worm Bin Bingo Game – Instructions to play and download link for worm bin bingo cards 

Garden Pathways shows hundreds of ways to connect school gardens to academic content.

Salad Harvest Cards  Use these cards to break the task of harvesting and/or preparing a salad with a group of kids.  

The Value of Garden-Based Learning

 The Garden, A Master Teacher  An excellent essay on the many benefits of garden-based learning.

CSGN Research Page

has research briefs on the value of school gardens, an extensive list of research articles, and much more.