Getting Started: A Guide for Starting School Gardens as Outdoor Classrooms

The Center for Ecoliteracy's guide for selecting a site, garden design, ideas for curriculum engagement, and strategies for building community support around school gardens.

School Garden Checklist

A basic checklist from Let’s Move for getting your school garden started, with considerations ranging from soil health to garden design. 

School Garden Design Plans

This LifeLab resource details instructions for school garden beds and includes a "Demonstration Garden" that educators may use to model their gardens from. 

How to Start a School Garden: Your Complete Guide 

This is an excellent, in-depth resource that describes how to begin your school garden. 

University of Minnesota Extension Resources  The University of Minnesota Extension has several diagnostic tools will help you step through diagnosing a plant problem or identifying a weed or insect. Visit the Extension site for additional information about best plants and gardening practices for MN lawns, landscapes and gardens 

Planting the Vegetable Garden

The University of Minnesota Extension details how to plan for your vegetable garden, prepare your soil, start your plants indoors, and transfer seedlings. 

Vegetables for Minnesota Gardens

The University of Minnesota Extension also offers information about specific vegetables for the Minnesota climate and soil conditions. 

Planting Calendar for Minneapolis

The Old Farmer's Almanac offers detailed planting calendars for individual plants. 

Planning Tools and Calculators 

Johnny's 

Smart Gardener

Life Lab - Lessons 

This LifeLab reference page offers a range of activities that are relevant to gardening, which ranges from a list garden-based literature to making "flying seed models". 

Kids Gardening - Lessons 

This Kids Gardening resource offers lessons that can be filtered by grade, season, topic, and even indoor/outdoor capabilities. 

Farm to School: Curriculum 

The University of Minnesota Extension provides educators with curricula to integrate into garden-based education programs. 

Teaching in Nature's Classroom - Book

Rooted in research, this book provides fifteen guiding prinicples of garden-based education. 

Kids Gardening - Grant Opportunities

Kids Gardening offers grant opportunities to assist new and existing youth garden programs across the nation. 

Gathering Support 

This Kids Gardening resource emphasizes the importance of a school gardening community, and outlines ways to connect with supporters (i.e. creating a webpage, inviting the community to help with seasonal clean up, or identifying key harvesting days). Related resources on the Kids Gardening site include "People Resources - Valueing Volunteers", "Forming a Garden Committee", and "Sustaining Your Program".

Planning for Breaks - Maintaining a School Garden Over the Summer

• Enlist volunteers – Recruit summer volunteers to care for and harvest from the garden. In addition to students, parents, and teachers, approach community members and service organizations like Scouts, 4-H, or church youth groups about donating time to care for the garden. Some volunteers may be willing to adopt a bed for the whole summer; others will be interested in helping on a more limited basis. If possible, have one volunteer serve as overall garden coordinator for the summer. Create and distribute a written schedule so that someone is checking on the garden on a regular basis. Email or phone call reminders will likely be needed.
  Also, make sure to provide adequate instructions and guidance if the volunteers are not familiar with the garden procedures.
  You might hold a work day one Saturday per month to knock down weeds and or complete other tasks such as making mid to late summer plantings for fall harvest. Reward volunteers by letting them harvest and take home any ripe produce on the day of their service. You might also consider organizing volunteers to donate garden produce to a local food pantry or other community organization. Be sure to check with the organization first to make sure it is able to handle donations of fresh produce.

• Tap into summer youth programs – If your school runs a summer session or hosts a summer camp program on school grounds, get in touch with teachers or summer camp counselors to see if they are interested in taking advantage of your outdoor garden classroom during the summer months in exchange for upkeep. Or you might consider pairing up with a nearby local organization that runs a summer youth program, such as a library, parks and recreation department, or day camp for periodic summer garden care and learning. 

• Install irrigation – Drip irrigation equipment is available at most home improvement stores for a reasonable price, and you can set it up to run on inexpensive timers. It might be worth your while to search for someone to donate an automatic irrigation system.

• Use mulch – A layer of organic mulch reduces weed growth and maintains soil moisture, while adding organic matter to the soil as it breaks down with time. In vegetable beds use inexpensive organic mulch such as sheets of newspaper topped with straw. If you also have flower gardens on your school grounds, use a 2- to 3-inch deep layer of more durable organic mulch, such as shredded bark in these beds.

• Harvest in the spring – Another approach is to focus on crops that can be planted and reach harvestable size by late spring while school is still in session. The warmer your climate and the earlier your spring frost date, the easier this option will be. Cool season crops that mature quickly, like spinach, lettuce, beets, and radishes are all good choices for spring and early summer harvest in many parts of the country. Once your plants have been harvested, cover the bare soil with a thick layer of mulch to discourage weeds and prevent soil erosion. The mulch will gradually break down over the summer and winter, adding organic matter to enrich the soil for the following year’s crops.

• Plant in late summer for fall harvest – It’s also possible in many parts of the country to plant fast-maturing crops in late summer, as soon as students arrive back for the start of a new school year, for harvest in the fall. Or summer volunteers can start crops that need more growing time in mid to late summer; then returning students can take over the care and harvesting.  The longer the growing season in your area and the later your fall frost date, the more options you’ll have in terms of suitable crops. You can also extend your fall growing season with cold frames, row covers, or hoop houses to protect crops from the cold.

• Build soil during the summer – If you are not growing plants in your garden over the summer, plant a summer cover crop to suppress weeds and add organic matter to your soil.  Fast growing buckwheat is a good summer cover crop in most areas and is great for keeping weeds down. Cut the plants down about a week after they begin flowering so they don’t set seeds. On a small scale, plants can be cut down with hedge shears. Cut the shoots down in layers from top to bottom so they are chopped into relatively small pieces as they’re cut. You can then leave the chopped shoots on top of the soil as mulch. If you plan to plant vegetables for fall harvest, just pull the chopped shoots aside and dig holes for transplants. To prepare a seedbed for planting, turn the chopped shoots into the soil with a shovel; then let them decompose for a few weeks before planting seeds.  Check with your local Extension Service to for more information on other summer cover crops that are well suited to your area.

Tips From Teachers 

The University of Georgia Extension published a curated list of tips from teachers about school gardens, which primarily focus on increasing garden engagement at schools. 

Following safe growing, harvesting, and processing practices ensure that all can enjoy the local produce grown in your garden. Here are some resources to help your garden follow the best practices to avoid foodborne illness: 

Best Practices for Handling Fresh Produce in Schools 

This USDA site details some best practices for food safety in school gardens, from purchasing and recieving, to serving.

MPS Garden to Cafeteria Food Safety Plan Template

This template guides you through the process of writing a food safety plan - a requirement of our Garden to Cafeteria program. Whether you are planning to sell produce to your cafeteria or not, writing a food safety plan ensures that you consider all possible health and safety hazards in the garden.

For more information regarding food safety, visit our Garden to Cafeteria website, which details best practices for harvesting and handling produce.