Our Garden Classroom

Before...

After...

Now!!!

This is the grassy area next to Rooms 14, 15, and 16. Right now we have 17 garden plots (including a butterfly garden, an herb garden, a tea garden and a cut flower bed), 4 picnic tables, a compost bin, and 4 vermicomposting bins. In the next phase, we will add 9 to 12 fruit trees, a seating area and a fence.

Garden Grants

We've been so fortunate to have been awarded grants to fund our Garden Classroom program.
We are so thankful to the following organizations for their generous donations.

Construction of the Garden

A special thanks to our Community Partner Coastal Tree Care for building our garden beds and fence.

Proposed Garden Layout

Sustainability Garden.pdf

Project Overview

The desire to start a school garden came from the creation of a Sustainability Club (now known as the Darnall Earth Saver’s Club) two years ago. A group of 45 students in grades 2-6 come together Fridays after school to decide on ways that we, as a school community, can help and conserve our environment. Creating a new school garden was at the top of their list and is now a reality. We spend our Friday afternoons planting, fertilizing, weeding, harvesting, collecting seeds, and preparing our garden beds for the next planting season. Nine classrooms and the Sustainability Club were involved last year in the inaugural planting season. We just built eight more garden beds this fall and had a planting day where ten classes and the Sustainability Club planted winter vegetables, herbs, and plants in our new butterfly garden.

Vision

Our vision for the garden is that it will be a place where our students can be exposed to the natural world and learn through observations, investigations, experimentations, and hands-on experiences. It will be a place that will enhance their knowledge of nutrition by learning how to grow their own food and to teach them how to be stewards of our natural environment.

Educational Objectives

The objectives of our school garden are to provide a space for students to:

learn healthier eating habits as they will be closely involved in growing their food from planting to harvest;
explore and investigate plants and animals in a garden ecosystem to support their learning in the classroom;
share their knowledge and harvest with our school community and families;
understand how to be stewards of our natural environment.