School gardens make a lot of sense to me. Gardens can be a learning experience out of their room and offers “making” opportunities related to nearly every area of the curriculum. Often overlooked is just the amount of work involved in producing vegetables and an appreciation for the small farmers who often do this work. Lesson plans are available to help interested educators get started.
One of the issues with school gardens is the timing of growing vegetables in relation to the school year. Unfortunately, educators may find themselves taking care of a garden their students started during the summer which may not be how they hoped things would work out and student movement to another grade in the fall may make it complicated for students to follow through with a harvest.
My proposal is to take advantage of hydroponic gardening during the Fall and Winter. These units can be operated in individual classrooms and offer many of the educational benefits of outdoor gardens. My unit is from Aerogarden. Schools may also have small greenhouses as part of the biology program.
I grow crops year-round supplementing my larger outdoor garden with the multiple crops I can harvest indoors. Here is the latest crop (about three weeks old) of cherry tomatoes, lettuce, and some herbs. These will be available before the same crops I could grow outside.
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