Each month GardenABCs features a garden program or project that's making a difference with students and the community. We're honored to share these stories and hope they inspire you to get gardening with children! Read
Success Story:
North Junior High Garden-to-Plate Class
If there's one thing Diana Ellis has learned about junior high students in the past 20 years, it's that they LOVE to eat. Have them grow the very items they're consuming, and "kids find it amazing."
Ellis, a science teacher at North Junior High in Boise, Idaho, leads the Garden-to-Plate class, where growing and eating fresh foods take center stage.
Students grow vegetables in the outdoor garden and indoor growing lab, harvest the produce, and learn how to create yummy and nutritious dishes from what they've grown.
This past year, students grew chard, carrots, leeks, potatoes, pumpkins, peppers, tomatoes, beets, lettuce, strawberries and herbs.
Favorites meals created from this bounty included potato and Swiss chard saute, pumpkin cookies, and vegetable fried rice, a winning recipe that will be featured in the children's book Our Super Garden by Anne Nagro.
While eating what they've grown is a tasty pay-off, students get hands-on science and math lessons working in the garden and kitchen.
They explore the cycle of food production from compost to harvest, how food plants are adapted to their environment, the propagation of plants from seeds and cuttings, the nutritional value of different vegetables, and the interdependence between plants and animals.
Students also develop skills of observation, hypothesizing, experimentation, measurement, problem solving, estimation and calculation, and learn basic cooking and life skills, like kitchen safety, teamwork, eating seasonally and locally, and develop a willingness to try new foods. Students even share what they've learned with their families, often creating the nutritious dishes at home for all to enjoy.
Ellis, who was inspired by Alice Waters' Edible Schoolyard in California, would like to see the Garden-to-Plate program expanded throughout the district.
"With a little planning and support, any school could duplicate it, and I would be very happy to help make that happen.”
Learn more about the North Junior High Garden-to-Plate class!
View other garden projects we've featured on GardenABCs.
Tell us about your school or community garden project so we can share it with others!
This past year, GardenABCs featured some awesome school garden projects. In fact, they're so inspiring we've listed them here so you can review them whenever you like. Garden organizers - thank you for sharing your knowledge and passion with us! Tell us about your garden project and we'll feature it on GardenABCs. Got broadband? Let us know how you're using technology in the garden.
After-School Gardens
City Blossoms Washington DC
Children & youth, entrepreneurship, hands-on learning, art, community, healthy living skills
Gary Comer Youth Center Rooftop Garden Chicago
Youth, community, rooftop, season-extending techniques, healthy eating
Butterfly & Bird Habitats
The School 5 Learning Garden with City Green Paterson NJ
Third grade, learning lab, integrated curricula, also incorporates vegetable patches
Woodland Primary Butterfly Garden Gages Lake, Ill.
Students, seeds, flowers, butterfly life cycle, integrated curricula, hands-on
Community Gardens
Common Ground Community Garden Univ. of
Lake County Health Department WIC Garden Waukegan, Ill.
Nutrition education, mothers and children, vegetables, farmers' market
Troostwood Garden Kansas City, Mo.
Youth, vegetables, healthy eating, market / entrepreneurship
WE Garden in Capital Park Sacramento, Calif
State capital demonstration garden, community, students, edible, lessons in nutrition, academics, healthy living
Container Gardens
Interlachen Elementary Cafeteria Garden + More Interlachen, Fla
Multiple examples of container gardens. Elementary and high school students, science, curriculum, food production, healthy eating, science exploration
Cultural Gardens
Organic School Project Multiple locations - Chicago
Culture and history-based gardens, healthy eating, food sources, multiple disciplines
Discovery Gardens
Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Children Garden Brooklyn, NY
Planting, weeding, harvesting, tasting, and exploring the garden ecosystem, PreK and caregivers
Wee Gardeners Nature Workshop & Legacy Demo Garden Greensboro, N.C., Early childhood, hands-on, sensory, exploration, multiple intelligences
Environmental Education / Green Gardens
Patuxet Elementary Upper Marlboro, Md.
Outdoor classrooms, schoolyard and habitat improvement, community-building
Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter High School Washington DC
Garden-based academics and watershed education, student mentoring, business model for garden sustainability, healthy eating, developed in partnership with Earth Day Network
Mentoring Gardens
Gardening Together Habitat for Humanity Lake County, Ill.
Homeowners, landscaping, vegetables, community-building
Outdoor Classrooms
Alice Fong Yu Alternative School San Francisco
Pond garden, composting, raised vegetable beds, elementary students, environmental stewardship, California science, math & environmental standards
Atwood Elementary School Macomb, Mich.
Theme-based gardening, Wildlife Habitat, Michigan Junior Master Gardener Program, Feed the Hungry, Native Gardening and environmental sustainability, composting and vermicomposting.
CitySprouts Cambridge, Mass.
Helps school communitities create schoolyard learning gardens and teachers use these gardens by supporting core curriculum.
Julien Elementary School Garden Turlock, Calif.
K-6, multi-curricular, healthy eating, fruits and vegetables, native plants, insects, vermiculture, science experiments
Rainwater / Stormwater Gardens
The Buhr Park Children's Wet Meadow Project Ann Arbor, Mich.
These wet meadow ecosystems provide a habitat for native plants and animals, an attractive educational site for children, neighbors and other visitors, and an environmental filter for stormwater runoff from the park grounds.
Gregory Elementary School Rainwater Garden Wilmington, N.C.
Students, stormwater run-off, pollution control, environmental education
School Ground Improvement
The Schoolyard Greening Project - Brent Elementary, Washington, D.C.
Safety, learning, health, environment, gardens, asphalt graphics, library development
Various Projects
Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Projects
Vegetable / Edible Gardens
Borton Primary Magnet School Community Garden Tucson
Nutrition education, farmstand, chickens / eggs, tastings
The Dawes School Garden of Eatin' Evanston, Ill. Website
Slow Food in the School Project, healthy eating, preparing food
Dorset Cereals Edible Playgrounds Winner - 2008 RHS Chelsea Garden Show, Children, community, school yards, healthy eating, food production
Common Ground School Garden University of
From the Group Up in the Community Garden at the Children of Mine Center Washington DC
Nutrition education, eating what you grow, gardening basics, art in the garden, life skills
Learning Gate Community School Lutz, Fla.
Seed to Soup organic fruit and vegetable garden, raised beds, beneficial insect garden, compost yard, chickens, spiraling curriculum
North Junior High Garden-to-Plate Class Boise, Idaho
Eating what you grow, nutrition education, math and science lessons, junior high students
Organic School Project Multiple locations - Chicago
Healthy eating, food sources, gardens based on culture and history, multiple disciplines
SEED School Good Food Garden Washington DC
Healthy eating, 7th grade curricula, community education
St. Francis School Garden Goshen, Ky
Nutrition, lifecycles, germination, greenhouse, learning where food comes from, environmental stewardship, grades K-8
The Ivy School Garden Portland, Ore.
Healthy eating, learning how to grow food, cooking classes and tastings, creativity with recipes
Urban Sprouts School Garden Programs Multiple locations, San Francisco
Middle and high schools students, under-served neighborhoods, nutrition and health, academic achievement, ecoliteracy
Woodland Elementary West Harvest Garden Gages Lake, Ill.
Students, vegetables, charitable giving / food bank
Urban Farms
Earthworks Urban Farm Detroit
Learning food's origin, social justice, helping others, farm markets, summer programs
Green Youth Farm Chicagoland Also visit this link
Vegetables, market / entrepreneurship, team-building
