We've listed some of our favorite sources for school and youth garden information.

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Our Super Garden
Children learn healthy eating habits by eating what they grow.  They explore the special powers fruits and vegetables give our bodies, like the “force field” created by vitamin C that helps keep us from getting sick, antioxidants that “karate chop” diseases, and fiber, which helps us poop. Learn more!




Our Generous Garden 
Students plant and harvest a vegetable garden and change their community in the process.  Read reviews!






Nuestra Huerta Generosa
Bilingual (Spanish and English) edition of nationally recognized children's book, Our Generous Garden. Featured book of the 2010 Florida Department of Education and Florida Department of Health's literacy and nutrition education program. Read reviews!




Nuestro Super Jardin
Bilingual (Spanish and English) edition of Our Super Garden, in which children learn healthy eating habits by eating what they grow. Reach Spanish-speaking children with this important message!  Or, use it to help learn another language! Learn more.




GardenABCs Learning Bug E-zine 
Free, monthly school and youth gardening news - sign up today!



More Books & Guides

Jo MacDonald Had a Garden  
By Mary Quattlebaum; Illustrated by Laura J. Bryant
Youngsters will love singing along to this new take on the familiar Old MacDonald tune. Along the way, they'll explore  soil, plant seeds, watch birds and pollinators, harvest vegetables, and even enjoy a homegrown garden treat -- a full seed-to-table experience! This book is beautifully illustrated and just the tome to pique children's interest in growing their own produce and creating a backyard habitat. Read this book first before heading out to the garden!  Dawn Publications.




Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation
 By Sharon Gamson Danks

Wow!  I wish this book had been around years ago when I first got involved with my local school's outdoor classroom.  It offers ideas from 150 schools in 11 countries that have successfully changed uninspiring, outdoor 'dead space' into thriving, creative learning environments.  It gives guidelines for building everything from wildlife sanctuaries and edible gardens to sustainable energy and water systems, and offers ideas for encouraging creative play and connecting curriculum.  Great photos illustrate how children interact with the natural world, art and academics in the outdoor classroom.

This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to transform -- or continue transforming -- their schoolyard, park or outdoor community space. It will cause you to look at your children's or student's play space with brand new eyes... and that's a very good thing.  Every school administrator and park official should have a copy of this inspiring manual on her desk. 

    ---- Anne Nagro, GardenABCs founder and author of kids' garden-based books

Details: Asphalt to Ecosystems, New Village Press, copyright 2010. $39.95  Learn more.


How to Grow a School Garden: A Complete Guide for Parents and Teachers 
By Arden Bucklin-Sporer & Rachel Kathleen Pringle of the San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance
Using a practical and hands-on approach, this book provides everything parents and teachers need to plan, build, use, maintain a school garden, as well as develop the integral programs to maintain them. Packed with strategies, lesson plans, and tricks of the trade from decades of experience, the authors will show you to make school garden projects accessible, inexpensive, and sustainable. 

Kids' Garden Activity Cards - 40 Fun Outdoor Activities and Games
With 40 interactive activities and games divided into five categories, Kids' Garden encourages children to engage with the outdoors and appreciate the green world around them. Each double-sided card has step-by-step instructions with colorful collage artwork. A great way for budding green- fingered gardeners to plant, investigate, learn and experiment! By LifeLab

2010 California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom Teacher Resource Guide
$5 for teachers outside California; free online

Children's Gardens: A Field Guide for Teachers, Parents & Volunteers

Getting Started: A Guide for Creating School Gardens as Outdoor Classrooms
Center for EcoLiteracy

Smart By Nature: Schooling for Sustainability
By Michael K. Stone/Center for Ecoliteracy
Foreword by Daniel Goleman, author of Ecological Intelligence



E-Newsletters & Magazines

Branch 
     The national newsletter of Project Learning Tree

Chicagoland Gardening

School Garden Weekly
Weekly Instructional Activities For Your California School Garden



Smartphone Apps

Leafsnap
Leafsnap is the first in a series of electronic field guides being developed by researchers from Columbia University, the University of Maryland, and the Smithsonian Institution. This free mobile app uses visual recognition software to help identify tree species from photographs of their leaves.



TV Shows, Movies & Videos

Urban Roots
URBAN ROOTS is the next documentary from Tree Media. Produced by Leila Conners (The 11th Hour) and Mathew Schmid and directed by Mark MacInnis, the film follows the urban farming phenomenon in Detroit. Urban Roots is a timely, moving and inspiring film that speaks to a nation grappling with collapsed industrial towns and the need to forge a sustainable and prosperous future.

Dig In 
Watch this new Chicago area TV show for the latest gardening ideas, fresh-from-the-garden cooking tips, and people / place profiles. Hosts are Mike Nowak and Jennifer Brennan.  View segments online or on Comcast.

A Community of Gardeners by Filmmaker Cintia Cabib.
Through the voices of young people, senior citizens, immigrants, garden volunteers and educators, this one-hour documentary will explore the vital role of seven community gardens in Washington, D.C., not only as sources of fresh, nutritious food, but as outdoor classrooms, places of healing, centers of social interaction, and oases of beauty and calm in inner-city neighborhoods.

Garden Learning Videos Life Lab Science Program
Web-based videos on school garden how-to and garden-based nutrition

White House Kitchen Garden Video
A seven-minute Web video about the development of the White House kitchen garden and the role of students from Bancroft Elementary School in farming it.

Library of Congress: History of School Gardens Webcast and Transcript
Constance Carter, Head of the Science Reference Section

Walker Jones Elementary School Garden on CNN
An inspiring video essay about a Washington D.C. school garden initiative ~ a great way to introduce key publics to the need for outdoor learning environments and lessons in healthy eating.



Websites

Aggie Horticulture Just For Kids 
Texas A&M University

A Homeowners Resource Guide to Lawn and Gardens
Helpful links to information on plants and flowers, pest control, landscaping, lawn and garden tips, environmental issues, and gardening. Thanks to Fawne Davis and her daughter for suggesting this resource!

Classroom Victory Garden Project
Created by the National World War II Museum. Among helpful features for teachers are: step-by-step guides for getting your garden started; interactive games; delicious recipes for after the harvest; and cross-curricular lessons that teach students not only about World War II and the role of victory gardens, but also about health, science, and citizenship. Also, teachers can get a free victory garden poster for their classroom!

Common Ground Garden Program Websites of Interest Listing
Calif. & national

Common Ground Expert Urban Gardener
UC-Davis Coop. Ext.

Cornell Garden-Based Learning 
Cornell University

Dave's Garden Gardening community website

Eco-Schools USA National Wildlife Federation
Join 43 other countries in this international initiative designed to encourage whole-school action for the environment

Garden Forever
This site offers links to numerous gardening articles, books, tips and links.

ILoveFreeThings.com 
Free seeds, garden posters, CDs and more!

The Little Green People Show
Sustainable living in the big city

Meeting Children's Nutrition & Health Needs through Gardening

Morton Arboretum Integrated Plants Database
View records of Arboretum trees and other plants, interactive collections map, images of pressed and living specimens, hardiness zone data and other information. The Morton Arboretum is located in Lisle, Ill.

Nutrition For Kids
Create a new nutrition culture for kids!  Books and programming from Connie Evers, MS, RD, an award-winning registered dietitian who has dedicated her career to promoting the nutritional health of children and adolescents.

Passion For Pollinators   
There is so much magic to be captured in the gardens of not only our Important Pollinators but other Insects as well.

The images captured in this photographer's own personal gardens not only show the beauty of these Insects, but their fascinating personalities.

Producepedia.com
An educational, easy to navigate, entertaining website aimed at helping people embrace a healthy diet. By Western Growers.
 
WikiGardens
Free garden encyclopedia featuring plant database, garden showcase, forum,
journal, vendors and garden groups

World Food Garden
The world's first map of small food gardens