School Gardens

The South Anchorage High School Garden Committee was established in 2013 after Larissa Wright-Elson finished her Permaculture Design Certificate program. Below is the "permaculture utopia" she designed as part of her coursework.

In 2014 a team of teachers from South studied at a week-long permaculture course at Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, a permaculture center in California. The School Garden Teacher Training and Support program greatly increased our committee's depth of knowledge in permaculture and the creation and maintenance of school gardens.

As an offshoot of the training South is starting a student permaculture club in the fall of 2014. Founded by club president and committee member Rebekah Myers, the club will bring awareness of the interconnected systems of culture and agriculture in Anchorage to students.

In September of 2014 South will host a local foods community event for students as a springboard for the club and the school's inside food growing program. Through a Farm to School grant from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, South purchased a Garden Tower that will allow food growing and vermicomposting in classrooms. This tower will be a teaching tool, showing how food can be grown year-round in Alaska.