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One of the video presenters mentioned that a challenge has been finding people to care for the school garden in the off-season. Since summer is prime gardening season, I have been wondering what kind of solutions there are to this challenge.

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I noticed that several people mentioned that getting teachers to exhibit enthusiasm for teaching in the outdoor classroom is a common challenge.

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Many of our teachers are on the garden team, so we DO see many teachers bringing their children out to view the garden. I don't think that they are doing planned lessons or activities, though, so in that manner, we do face a similar challenge.

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I think teaming up with this organization, where it's available, is an excellent idea. They maintain the garden for us throughout the year, including the "off season". They also come out to conduct lessons in the outdoor classroom.

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I hear you about the cost of lumber, Ellen. I would say that reaching out to local contractors may help. I am trying to upcycle as much as possible. So, if you are looking for garden construction materials it may be worth using old framing materials...shouldn't be a real problem since you're probably not needing extreme "structural integrity".

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I did notice that some had concerns with affordability of a garden.  We have the same problem here.  We are asking for donations from local businesses to defray the cost a bit.   Parent donations and help would be appreciated to.  Vandalism was another problem I noticed which is so sad.

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We absolutely have similar challenges. Money and resources being the biggest hurtle. With the price of everything going up it will take more sacrifices to make our garden a reality.

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Definitely getting community support. Sending out letters to parents and community members for helps. You may be surprised with the outpouring of financial help.

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My advice woukd be to seek out parents,  area community members and organizations for resources, ideas. People around that area will have great ideas of  what plants grow best in that areas soil.  In doing this you might even find people who have supplies they would be willing to donate.

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I would ask if they considered putting up cameras in the gardens to deter vandals?

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I would definitely think about having some fundraiser to put up fences and a locked gate.

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I have been really lucky to have wonderful parents who love to donate money or items we need. Some even donate their time and talent. Never forget to ask for parents help. You might be very surprised and the results.

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A few teachers from Nevada mentioned about severe weather and how to maintain the garden class in that kind of condition.
That could be a very difficult challenge to overcome, because it seems like not much we can do --- but I applaud some of you how you want to find people to help garden thrive in the desert.

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I experienced vandalism at our school.  Even though it was not garden vandalism, but music portable, it made me feel hopeless and frustrated. I think having that experience made me realize I need to bring awareness to whole school staff, parents, and students about the issue at hand and  not to give up...

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I experienced vandalism at our school.  Even though it was not garden vandalism, but music portable, it made me feel hopeless and frustrated. I think having that experience made me realize I need to bring awareness to whole school staff, parents, and students about the issue at hand and  not to give up...

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I think having  vandalism  experience at our school made me more vigilant about seeking help and support and not to give up.   

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I think having  vandalism  experience at our school made me more vigilant about seeking help and support and not to give up.   

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I second Green Our Planet, our school has teamed up with them and they have made the whole beginning a school garden process so smooth!

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I also see the challenge of teachers going to the garden with students but not necessarily using it meaningfully, just as a different classroom space, which is ok sometimes, but it is a valuable tool for teaching content as well!

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I also see the challenge of teachers going to the garden with students but not necessarily using it meaningfully, just as a different classroom space, which is ok sometimes, but it is a valuable tool for teaching content as well!

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Commom concerns around resources, human and financial.

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Definitely dealing with how to have more staff and escpcially administration, join in the effort to get the garden off the ground. Teachers are coming off a stressful year and while the garden would help with socio and emotional issues, they are hesitant to take on extra "work".

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In order to encourage staff to participate, I am "selling" not just the potential for academic growth, but more importantly the wonderful power of nature to sooth, heal, motivate and ignite their students and themselves!

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Has anyone considered applying for grants as a funding resource?

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We were able to able for a 20,000 grant from a major computer company to incorporate STEM. We did get some computers but fortunately, rest of the money went to buy materials for the garden.

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Money for the gardens,  design of garden,  and managing the garden during Civid

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Yes we were going to start a garden but the director did know were to put the garden and if the state would let us put it where she wanted it.

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Do what you do best and everything will come together.

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Is your garden on a flat surface or is it hilly?

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One resource I know of is the local FFA chapter by us could give us some good insight.

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Common challenges are finding space to make beds, finding funding and working with the age of the students whether they are very young or high school students with very specific curriculum needs.

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Yes! It takes some time to adapt your own mindset as to what learning should look like in this more unstructured space. At first it feels chaotic and out of control and that is where many teachers try to teach outside and then opt for the more regulated environment of indoors.

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Having students bring needed items from home helps. They bring their own gardening gloves or a packet of seeds to share. Saving gloves and tool donations allows all students to have what they need. Often it is a matter of just asking for help. I find if you are specific with your request, "We would like a compost bin because it would...." then parents or community members are more than happy to provide. The vaguer request for "garden funds" is less likely to get the needed response. Also you don't have to do everything the first year. Pick one thing and do it well and then add to it. This works much better than biting off too much and becoming overwhelmed.

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How can you get high-school students more involved? How can we show the value or opportunity for curriculum coverage beyond it just being an outdoor classroom space?

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Find local group of teachers for ongoing support and ideas.  I was able to do a year-long pro-d which allowed me to try new things and have someone to ask questions of. this is the Teacher that I connected with:
Megan Zeni - Room to Play | The Classroom Gardener

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Funding seems to be a common theme as does

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Two big challenges I heard are funding and maintenance of the garden, especially on weekends and in the summer. I hadn''t thought about lumber costs been so high for raised bed building!

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I like the idea of having a schedule for maintenance of the garden and using donor websites for fundraising.  I wonder if the local garden supply companies could sponsor a garden.

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I wonder if the history of agriculture can be included, especially with regard to changes in technology. Students might try to cultivate some of the subsistence crops that have been grown over time in different parts of the world.

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https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/connecting-the-school-garden-to-curriculum-standards

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sounds like many of us are dealing with  funding, supervision/maintenance, and space. A couple of us deal with our own inexperience, whether in gardening in general, or in the area we now live. Harsh conditions/short growing season are big challenges! There are also some who, like me, work with high school students and the perception that there is just too much content in existing curriculum to have a garden for high schoolers, or that it's somehow not "academic enough" seems to be a persistent mind set challenge. -Traci B, Snohomish WA

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YES! The mind set challenge with high school curriculum is the main one. It's hard to imagine an overhaul of "core 24" and our own school's curriculum expectations to the point where garden time would be a valued priority for all high schoolers, not just horticulture class. My own inexperience and the seemingly Herculean task of gathering people who know what to do and would be willing to help in start up and in on-going upkeep overwhelms me!
Traci B Snohomish WA

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I was sorry to hear of Gretchen's garden's vandalism. It's sad that I'm not surprised. My school district is suburban, with threats from animals like rabbits and deer, but also we have also dealt with vandals around school property. Wildlife cameras capture images of animals, but also exactly WHO is in the garden doing WHAT! We have a camera at our house and it does have a range that reaches to the end of the driveway. Perhaps a few of those could be set up along with signs that all garden activity is recorded...I really like the idea of partnering with the neighborhood and inviting older kids to be mentors. I wonder if leaving some delicious produce at the gate with a note about "come share in the bounty, don't make us send out a bounty hunter..." would help? :)
Traci B Snohomish WA

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I agree with above comments..I am curious what has been done at a district level/whole school level to get buy-in for teaching via garden interaction at the high school level. I can see it easily being incorporated into our consumer science/culinary arts class, in cooperation with horticulture, with CTE credit, but I have a hard time imagining "core" classes spending time in the garden or revamping the curriculum. The "have to's" are just so numerous...Frankly, I think there is too much attention on "what" kids are supposed to know vs "how" kids learn best . We are due for a complete overhaul of what and how we teach!
Traci B Snohomish WA

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I live in the district nextdoor to Mukilteo/Olivia Park Elem mentioned in one of our videos, in the state of WA. Zsofia looks like a good resource locally!
https://farmerfrog.org/about/team/zsofia-pasztor/
-Traci B, Snohomish WA

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I observed that a common theme is that most teachers had an issue with temperatures and funding the garden and finally getting volunteers to take care of the garden during breaks and summer vacations.  

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I observed that a common theme is that most teachers had an issue with temperatures and funding the garden and finally getting volunteers to take care of the garden during breaks and summer vacations.  

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Yes i have experienced all of these from the funding to the climate to protecting the plants from animals.

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Yes i have experienced all of these from the funding to the climate to protecting the plants from animals.

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Parents help is always a great place to start. I have been very lucky. If it is for their children that have been more that willing to donate money or even their time to help our garden.

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Parents help is always a great place to start. I have been very lucky. If it is for their children that have been more that willing to donate money or even their time to help our garden.

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I would ask is their a resource in their area that can help put together a fundraiser for your garden?

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I would ask is their a resource in their area that can help put together a fundraiser for your garden?

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Yes we have seen many of our gardens come and go because some staff members have an interest and then they get moved or leave our center and the garden is forgot

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some of the common themes of problems i have noticed are space and money. Not all centers have he space for a garden or raised beds and if they do funding is a big issue. People are talking about not being able to find grants and i'm not even sure if daycares have grants for gardening we have been doing our best to ask families for donations and some years its great and others we hardly get anything.

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I noticed that one common theme is trying to figure out how to keep the gardens alive during the summer and during breaks. A timer  to water the plants might be a good solution to this problem.

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I noticed that one common theme is trying to figure out how to keep the gardens alive during the summer and during breaks. A timer  to water the plants might be a good solution to this problem.

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I have yet to start a school garden.  I noticed that there are other teachers who are in the same situation.  They as well as I are not sure where to get started.

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I have yet to start a school garden.  I noticed that there are other teachers who are in the same situation.  They as well as I are not sure where to get started.

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I think that a timer for the water would be a good solution for those schools that are not sure about how to water when nobody is there for the summer.

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I think that a timer for the water would be a good solution for those schools that are not sure about how to water when nobody is there for the summer.

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One teacher was not sure how to include low income parents in helping with garden because they were too busy working and did not have extra money to help.  She should ask all families anyway.  They might really enjoy helping.

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One teacher was not sure how to include low income parents in helping with garden because they were too busy working and did not have extra money to help.  She should ask all families anyway.  They might really enjoy helping.

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I think that it would be helpful to get the community involved because the more people that there are to help, the more resources there are.

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There seems to be a commonality of finances, maintenance and participation involving the gardening process.

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We've absolutely have experienced many similar challenges. For me the big one is including the children in the entire process. Often we see teachers harvesting/watering the garden without any children involved in the process

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Scheduling watering, having families volunteer to be a part of the process would be helpful in multiple ways

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How do we allow families to become more involved in the process during the times we're in now

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reaching out to your local community gardens, nurseries and families would be a great start

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Our kids and school support the outdoor garden whole heartily. They got behind this by having one knowledgeable teacher directing others.

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Getting support from the local community is the best way to get resources for building your garden whether it be a highchool woodshop or college to share skillsets.

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If you don't have the space start small with gallon buckets with drilled holes in the bottom. At my old school we just had a retaining wall but the kids were estatic about taking care of anything we planted.

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Some common themes that I have noticed were maintenance, participation from everyone, not having enough space, and when school is not in session how schools will take care of the gardens.

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I have had similar challenges with Money, and not having the children wanting to participate. With the cost of lumber going up, we don't have the funding we need to be able to keep a school garden. I have also had students not want to participate in the school garden as well. Some of my students don't like to get dirty or even touch the dirt.

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The videos that I watched seemed to have the theme of very little space and lack of staff involvement.

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I have the same problems but I recently had a parent asking to help us out when we get it up and running

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I think for us to overcome some of the challenges we face will be to ask parents for involvement and our Local Boys and Girls club has already established garden classrooms so I think I can get ideas from them to help us out

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Getting all parties who need to be involved in a garden program to be excited and be on board seems to be a challenge that several classmates had.  Someone even mentioned that you may have some teachers who are very very involved, but then their career takes them elsewhere and their replacement may not share the same enthusiasm and therefore the garden program starts to fall apart.  Another issue mentioned is financial setbacks.  Finding funding and grants has been an overall issue for many.  

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Getting all parties who need to be involved in a garden program to be excited and be on board seems to be a challenge that several classmates had.  Someone even mentioned that you may have some teachers who are very very involved, but then their career takes them elsewhere and their replacement may not share the same enthusiasm and therefore the garden program starts to fall apart.  Another issue mentioned is financial setbacks.  Finding funding and grants has been an overall issue for many.  

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We don't have a garden yet.  We are in the process of gathering information and pooling together resources to set our program up for success once we actually begin.  A challenge so far is brainstorming ways to find funding, so yes, we are having the same challenge as many others.  

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We don't have a garden yet.  We are in the process of gathering information and pooling together resources to set our program up for success once we actually begin.  A challenge so far is brainstorming ways to find funding, so yes, we are having the same challenge as many others.  

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We plan to have a fundraiser to get our garden started, and then we are hoping to set up a small farmers market every Friday afternoon to help with continuing costs as well.  

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We plan to have a fundraiser to get our garden started, and then we are hoping to set up a small farmers market every Friday afternoon to help with continuing costs as well.  

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Our private 3K program is 2 blocks away from the public elementary school in our community.  Before we begin our program, I plan to reach out to the 4K and Kindergarten teaching staff and see if they have a school garden, if they've found success in certain things, and if they don't, if they'd like to set a curriculum and start one as well.  

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Our private 3K program is 2 blocks away from the public elementary school in our community.  Before we begin our program, I plan to reach out to the 4K and Kindergarten teaching staff and see if they have a school garden, if they've found success in certain things, and if they don't, if they'd like to set a curriculum and start one as well.  

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Common themes I observed is that people have lots of ideas but money and time is obstacles in the way

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Common themes I observed is that people have lots of ideas but money and time is obstacles in the way

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With what I hear everyone saying is that we have lots of different challenges but with the same goal in mind. Sadly for most those challenges can't be fixed. (Need more money, need time, need volunteers) But we can make some changes by resourcing together, trying to find cheap, easy ways to make things and take the enthusiasm that we have and spread that to others.

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Put requests out every where you can. Post on help sites, look up different ways to use items, resource with people who have created the garden you want and learn what knowledge they know.

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Put requests out every where you can. Post on help sites, look up different ways to use items, resource with people who have created the garden you want and learn what knowledge they know.

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I'd have to ask what they did to help with the challenge 

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I'd have to ask what they did to help with the challenge 

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I love pintrest as I get lots of ideas and most are cheap or free to make

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I love pintrest as I get lots of ideas and most are cheap or free to make

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I noticed that people had a wide variety of challenges which goes to show how much goes into having a productive outdoor learning environment! One thing I did notice though was some struggles with outdoor garden upkeep and destruction. Ms. Parker mentioned how maintenance mowed down one of the gardens and the same thing happened at my school. I'm not sure where the lack of communication is happening but it seems like there may need to be more admin support (in this case and others) to help convey the importance of the outdoor learning environments

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I'm hearing FUNDING being an issue. Teachers are doing fundraising, grant writing, and personal donation to run the program. I'm also hearing that we are cheerleaders to create a Green Team to do collective work.

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I'm hearing FUNDING being an issue. Teachers are doing fundraising, grant writing, and personal donation to run the program. I'm also hearing that we are cheerleaders to create a Green Team to do collective work.

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Grant writing is very time consuming with limited benefits. Fundraising is an endless battle. We are a Title I school, and money ends up going towards other programs rather than garden-based learning.

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Grant writing is very time consuming with limited benefits. Fundraising is an endless battle. We are a Title I school, and money ends up going towards other programs rather than garden-based learning.

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I noticed many schools sharing that they had a lack of funding and interest from the already overwhelmed teachers

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At our school we are fortunate in having a very active PTA that supports our gardening efforts.  My advise would be to attend PTA meetings and voice your gardening opinion and put in for financial support and manpower.
Sherry schellenger Parker

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Let the school, principals, community, parents, everyone know what you are trying to do and that you need help for the benefit of the children
Sherry Schellenger Parker

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Funding, location, climate and administrative and peer support seem to be common challenges among settings.

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Funding is always an issue in anything I try to do it seems. Beyond that, my situation is different than many in the class in that I am a family childcare provider, so I don't have to have administrative support. Our climate is perfect for growing. Location of the garden was an issue in that this property is also my home and anything I do with the outdoor space impacts my personal space as well.

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Since the raised beds we put in this year is all new to me, I have no advice at all to give others.

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Where does one look for grant opportunities?

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The recommendations for resources I have are the resources in this course. I also use the Go NAP SACC tool for training and resources. They have a great Farm to ECE module.

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We do have similar challenges with implicating others to our efforts of maintaining a school garden: administration; teachers in the special education field even though they found it rewarding for their students; science and environmental teachers; environmental club and their leaders who are not often ready to get ready to touch the dirt: will plant and mow, but not weeding; Culinary art teachers who can teach their students about the benefits of the garden and even use the products of the garden; everyone would like to pick stuff from the garden but do not want to participate on taking care of or even bring their students to contribute....

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Thank you everyone for giving advice about involving parents. I hesitated often to do that, but I will do it for this school year with the PTA and also with the parents of my students.

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I would like to focus on fund raising or grants and I will involve more parents to this activity, so that I could add more visible areas (leisure for example and a storage) to the garden area.

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Many garden centers are willing to help schools. Even Home Deposit  and Lowers have gardening experts working in this area. When starting a conversation with them it is amazing the information you can gain and the experiences that have enjoyed.

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Many garden centers are willing to help schools. Even Home Deposit  and Lowers have gardening experts working in this area. When starting a conversation with them it is amazing the information you can gain and the experiences that have enjoyed.

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Annette Dollar

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I would like to be more organized in the time frame for getting a long term garden established for future students and teachers...keep it going ...to be passed on...???

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I would like to be more organized in the time frame for getting a long term garden established for future students and teachers...keep it going ...to be passed on...???

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Annette Dollar

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Don't give up on your dreams and enjoyment of working with kids of all ages and abilities in the garden!!! We can learn lots of things from all things around us including nature!!

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Don't give up on your dreams and enjoyment of working with kids of all ages and abilities in the garden!!! We can learn lots of things from all things around us including nature!!

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With having such a small garden and having the proper amount of land beyond our playground area, I am hoping to ask for a garden box to be made for each of the classrooms, that way we don't have to share and our garden won't be too much out of control.

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Some of common themes I noticed was finding a place for the garden that was accessible for all students and that easy to get to for all students. Additionally, I noticed that there is a need to find enough people to help and support the garden program.

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We have a similar problem find enough people to support the program so that all of the heavy lifting doesn't fall on one or two people. We have a lot of classes that use the gardens but the maintenance for the entire outdoor place falls to one or two people.

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We have organized work days at our schools. We invite staff, students, families, scouts and other community members to help. It has been great for big projects and big clean ups. We still struggle with finding people to help with the routine maintenance.

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I was wondering if those in an area with a short growing season used greenhouses as part of their garden program.

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Where I live, I was able to reach out to our local park authority staff. They are working on getting rid of invasive plants in the parks and one of the staff members said that she would love to help us with a native plant pollinator garden.