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What I observed in these videos is how everyone seem to have the community involved. It's very important and helpful for the students as well to learn and see that when communities work together, it makes for a successful garden experience.

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Most of my challenges has been funding and community involvement. This year is different in that, we started early asking parents for assistance. It's unfortunate that garden has to suffer because of lack of funding. Since there isn't a budget for gardens in the school system.

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Definitely getting parents, the school, and everyone in the community involve. I have even gone to our local Food Lion for support, which they happily provided. Most importantly not being afraid to ask for help.

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I'd like to know how Ms. Norma B's Hydroponic garden is going?
I started one at our school but isn't going well. So I'd like to know how you're keeping the interest?

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I would definitely recommend DonorsChoose, which has been a great support for our garden needs.

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Project WET, Project WILD, Project WILD AQUATIC, Project Learning Tree are all great resources that I use in my classroom. Also if your state has a Green School program that might be a way to connect with other school gardens close to home. One of my best resources has been just asking and communicating what my dreams are for my school. Parents, adminstrators also have the same dreams for our students and when possible they volunteer to help, offer advice, and in somes cases even offer financial resources. 

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Project WET, Project WILD, Project WILD AQUATIC, Project Learning Tree are all great resources that I use in my classroom. Also if your state has a Green School program that might be a way to connect with other school gardens close to home. One of my best resources has been just asking and communicating what my dreams are for my school. Parents, adminstrators also have the same dreams for our students and when possible they volunteer to help, offer advice, and in somes cases even offer financial resources. 

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Help! Isn’t that what every garden needs. It is SO much work and just communicating the work can be time consuming. I have found that communicating what type of needs the garden has was helpful. When I started communicating the needs that was beneficial in the long run. As I communicated over and over again becasue just one email or one meeting is never enough I found that different people could offere different resources. Even if one person heard or read the communication that one person talked with several more. The passion for gardening will spread and through good communication those that can and will help will step up. 

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Help! Isn’t that what every garden needs. It is SO much work and just communicating the work can be time consuming. I have found that communicating what type of needs the garden has was helpful. When I started communicating the needs that was beneficial in the long run. As I communicated over and over again becasue just one email or one meeting is never enough I found that different people could offere different resources. Even if one person heard or read the communication that one person talked with several more. The passion for gardening will spread and through good communication those that can and will help will step up. 

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Yes, I have similar challenges. Although this past year I have made a great connection with the United Way in my community and the head of the GIVE program contacts me with items that have been donated that are garden related. This may be a resource for others in this class in your communities. 

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Yes, I have similar challenges. Although this past year I have made a great connection with the United Way in my community and the head of the GIVE program contacts me with items that have been donated that are garden related. This may be a resource for others in this class in your communities. 

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April has a similar challenge I have… reaching every student. With hundreds of students it’s hard to manage the time and jobs in the garden. I think the excitement is high and I have found that managing students is hard in a small garden space. One thing I have started doing is having stations (the same ones) each time the students come to the garden space they know they have a job to do. Even a job such as tearing up paper to put on the compost pile can be a job. Tidying up the garden and picking up leaves is a job. No matter how small the job it is still a station. I do have “what now?” things for students to do. Like color rubbing on a tree or brick wall.

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April has a similar challenge I have… reaching every student. With hundreds of students it’s hard to manage the time and jobs in the garden. I think the excitement is high and I have found that managing students is hard in a small garden space. One thing I have started doing is having stations (the same ones) each time the students come to the garden space they know they have a job to do. Even a job such as tearing up paper to put on the compost pile can be a job. Tidying up the garden and picking up leaves is a job. No matter how small the job it is still a station. I do have “what now?” things for students to do. Like color rubbing on a tree or brick wall.

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Organzing tasks and people is a common theme. 

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Organzing tasks and people is a common theme. 

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A common these that I observed is volunteers. Either during the school day or teacher, parent volunteers.

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Yes, I have had similar challenges. I have noticed that each year comes with it's new garden challenges, though.

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To Cindy:  I think of gardening as a "special interest" and not everyone is interested or likes gardening.  For those teachers that do not have an interest in gardening or think that they don't have a green thumb, I volunteer to teach their kids or if it's their garden section that they have no interest in growing, I ask other teachers if they would like grow more things, and give them more room.  For now, that seems to work.
To Jena: My principal has "Coffee with the Principal" every Monday w/ parents. After the meeting, they can volunteer to work in the garden (without students). After School, I have a "Gardening Club", Parents are welcome to come then and help teach, volunteer, work in the garden. For now, that is working for me.

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Sheila,  During Covid, I got a grant through "Bluewatermelon Project"  They provided me with all the hydroponics materials, lighting, etc.  Even the plants and directions.  Because of Covid, I did not have time to even open the box (shameful).  This was a project and goal of mine to start it this year with my gardening class.  First thing we grew in the hydroponics unit was "Itoi Onions"  very common in hot weather (We live in Arizona).  Every student in the club got to grow a bulb.  They all survived (Thank God). It took about 6-9 weeks to be full grown.  They also got to cook a rice recipe using their onions.  I post pictures of growth process on school emails, but not everyone is interested. The gardening kids loved it. Hoping that the more things we grow, the more interest it creates. It was all a trial and error though, since it's my first time using the system.

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Join gardening clubs/classes through your city, state.  Even if you can't make the meetings, they will forward you the recordings and you can watch them in your own time. Talk to other schools in your community that have a garden in their schools. Kids gardening has great resources.

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It seems that the common themes I've been noticing has been managing volunteers and overall involvement of the whole school.

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As I am creating this new garden program for my current adopted school from ground up, I have came across most of the same challenges as everyone else. As I don't see funding as much of a challenge, I find that if you get everyone in the school excited and involved in the garden then that the funding will follow. As stated in my Flip video, it's mostly figuring out how to get every student K-8 involved in such a small space. Every grade has about 5 different classes so to me it seems impossible to allow everyone to truly get a good hands on experience in the garden.

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To try to get more people involved within the school community, try creating flyers within the school for the student or send home flyers for the parents. Be present within the school at different events helps create a buzz about the school garden. Try getting put in the school newsletter every week and showcase what the students are doing. Once people start noticing what you are doing, they will start asking how can they be apart of it or what can they do. Most of the time its someone within the school who know other people or organizations that would love to get involved. Most importantly, just don't give up. Stay consistent because someone will notice all of your hard work and it will all pay off.

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Most every state has a cooperative extension that can offer a wide range of resources for school gardens.  I would say look into that first. They can also facilitate a meeting with the school district to talk about available school garden funding. You could also partner with local businesses to help with certain projects for the school garden and to bring awareness to the community of what the school is actually doing.

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My follow up question is for Ms. Cyndi R, do you feel that 30 minutes was enough time for garden class time. I feel like 30 minutes goes by so fast and I am pretty much doing it by myself so I can't split up the students. It really has been a challenge for me to incorporate every grade so I am very interested in how this was scheduled.

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It takes a team, it is not something that should be shouldered by a single person.

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Yes, the problems of time, help, money, involvement are all common. Getting people involved is a key challenge that is important to the long term success.

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A common theme I've noticed is how to maintain the garden classroom especially if you don't have the money to keep up with the work that needs to be put in.

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I notice that scheduling students and classes, as well as getting, scheduling and retaining volunteers are the main challenges.

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My challenge is similar to others in trying to figure out how to make gardening a whole school effort whether it is scheduling or getting other teachers involved or parent volunteers or fundraising/finding funds.

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Regina,
I have a similar challenge in that we are out of school mostly in June and July or mid June-mid August. I have tried a few things with varying success. During covid summer 2020, when I could not have parents here but wanted to have a garden if we came back in fall, I offered staff to have a garden bed for themselves but take care of one bed for the school. It worked and when we returned, they were all willing to let the students work in and learn from their beds.
The other thing I have done is to find families and staff that would take care of just one area. I told them that it didn't have to be perfect and I understood if it didn't work out to be here every week. Families like claiming one area (the popcorn or the tomatoes or cabbage) and they only have to learn how to take care of one primary crop. We just try to get the plants established as early in the spring as possible. I also choose crops that will mature quickly for spring gardening so we can harvest by June or long season crops like cabbage, potatoes, corn, leeks that will grow all summer. We plant cover crop in some beds and plant fall crops upon returning in August. I use insect netting to help with insects in some summer crops and frost fabric as season extenders so we can grow fall lettuce, carrots (45 day varieties), radishes, sugar snap peas, greens. It's definitely trial and error. we don't always focus on the harvest but the process so we still get a chance to dig, weed, plant, water, and play with the critters. Cyndi

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If you have parents that would be willing to work in the garden during school hours can they get into the garden area if they have a background check? If so, could you meet with them occasionally to show the jobs and then they do them independently? Or you post them in a google doc and they sign up for the jobs?

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Is your garden away from the school? Is that why you need permission for the students to work in the garden? I like your idea of just outdoor classes to connect with nature but if students can do that can't they all go to the garden if it is on school grounds.

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Kids Gardening and Whole Kids both have good grants. You may even find a parent who does not want to play in the dirt but is a good writer and can help you write the grant application. I also utilize our local Ag Extension. They have offered some grant money that they secured for local community gardens and resources such as plants. They often have Master Gardeners that want to volunteer. High Mowing Seeds has a great seed selling fundraiser. You make 50-60% of the sales. the 8th graders help me divide the seed orders in February. Your school leaders are your greatest resource in promoting the program.

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Common Themes
I noticed that many of the challenges involved gaining support from volunteers to bring the dream for a garden classroom to reality. There were also several challenges that involved scheduling the program into the school day which seems to reflect the the garden time is not adequately valued by those who set the curriculum.

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I am a community volunteer at a preschool at my church. There is a courtyard garden which the preschool uses for some of their outdoor time. In the courtyard there are raised beds for growing vegetables, borders of native plants to support pollinators, small trees, a mud kitchen, an art area, a reading area, and grassy space for play. The teachers do very little to provide a formal outdoor education opportunity. I plan opportunities to meet with classes in the garden to plant, observe, and harvest. The teachers are very happy to have a volunteer plan and execute a gardening program. I am trying to educate the teachers as well as the children. I hope the teachers will want to make gardening and outdoor classroom an integral part of their program.

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I also have similar challenges: not enough funding, not enough community members or school staff involved in the school garden, not enough volunteers to take care of the school garden over the summer.

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Can you share more information about the connection with the United Way? Our school garden will benefit from any donations we can get.

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I will recommend posting any wishes you have for your school garden in BuyNothing. You will be amazed how generous community members can be.

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Yes, there are a few common challenges: lack of volunteers, school being too fully pack with other classes to include gardening in their regular class hours, and designing a gardening curriculum .  But the common goals that we share are building an involving community around the garden, and hence students' learning.

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Yes, there are a few common challenges: lack of volunteers, school being too fully pack with other classes to include gardening in their regular class hours, and designing a gardening curriculum .  But the common goals that we share are building an involving community around the garden, and hence students' learning.

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Yes, recruiting volunteers particularly in summer time seems to be a common challenge

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Yes, recruiting volunteers particularly in summer time seems to be a common challenge

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We experienced the summer with a summer camp.  Also for this winter semester, we are planning to grow mushroom because we can hardly go outdoor.

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We experienced the summer with a summer camp.  Also for this winter semester, we are planning to grow mushroom because we can hardly go outdoor.

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For designing the gardening curriculum, I started out from scratch but making the best out of Life Lab's materials.  Then this semester around, I started to add in ideas that I got inspired for from this class.  Of course, referring to how other educators have been doing is another way for building my own stronger syllabus.

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For designing the gardening curriculum, I started out from scratch but making the best out of Life Lab's materials.  Then this semester around, I started to add in ideas that I got inspired for from this class.  Of course, referring to how other educators have been doing is another way for building my own stronger syllabus.

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As I just mentioned, Life Lab has good and implementable materials.  This class also presents useful resources that can be tailor-made according to our different situations.

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As I just mentioned, Life Lab has good and implementable materials.  This class also presents useful resources that can be tailor-made according to our different situations.

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In summer time, having in place a drip irrigation  for the garden can help release manpower almost completely.  This should help solve the biggest challenge that we all have.

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In summer time, having in place a drip irrigation  for the garden can help release manpower almost completely.  This should help solve the biggest challenge that we all have.

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As a parent frequent communication is helpful. Especially communication of the needs in the garden. Having a sign up sheet of tasks needed in the garden would help parents to know where to start. If gardening is intimidating for parents, maybe hosting a weekend day or afternoon in the garden to teach about the tasks needed, get hands on experience and create a community as well.

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A common theme I noticed in the videos was not having enough adults to assist students in the garden.

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A common theme I noticed in the videos was not having enough adults to assist students in the garden.

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At the Wittenbach Wege Center where I work, we also have difficulties having enough volunteers to maintain the community garden.

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At the Wittenbach Wege Center where I work, we also have difficulties having enough volunteers to maintain the community garden.

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For Norma R.,  I would suggest they consider looking into creating a food forest for the original school garden where the irrigation is present.

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For Norma R.,  I would suggest they consider looking into creating a food forest for the original school garden where the irrigation is present.

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For Petra S., I would suggest looking into hydroponics as a way to have students involved in gardening inside.

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For Petra S., I would suggest looking into hydroponics as a way to have students involved in gardening inside.

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Yes! I am still having challenges, specially when you need help. Our school garden is a Second Grade garden but we decided to invite the whole school to be part of it this year and only one grade level wants to partner with us. The principal helped by sending an invite to everyone, but it was unsuccessful.

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Getting volunteers (parents, community) and getting help from other co-workers.

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shortage of volunteers or limited site access for volunteers; limited staff time or engagement

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shortage of volunteers or limited site access for volunteers; limited staff time or engagement

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There was a school here that had a limited garden size. In FL we have the benefit of growing seasons aligning well with the school year. So one teacher simply had 2nd grade to the planting, etc., for one semester and another grade level did in the next semester. She still took classes out for intermittent activities like releasing butterflies, etc., but they weren't as actively engaged in the regular tending of the space. She could have expanded the garden BUT her goal was to align with science standards and she had limited help in opening/closing the garden so she needed to keep it scaled to her ability/time. Another site designated beds to teachers interested. used a bulk for a certain grade level most tied to curricula timing and cooler time of day and then some of the beds reserved for an after school club that helped pitch in with all over garden care. I think the frequency, timing, and depth of activity of the garden interactions can be adjusted if trynig to serve a whole school with a small space. You can also have some of the activites support other subjects or well-being and not be direct garden education every time. 

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There was a school here that had a limited garden size. In FL we have the benefit of growing seasons aligning well with the school year. So one teacher simply had 2nd grade to the planting, etc., for one semester and another grade level did in the next semester. She still took classes out for intermittent activities like releasing butterflies, etc., but they weren't as actively engaged in the regular tending of the space. She could have expanded the garden BUT her goal was to align with science standards and she had limited help in opening/closing the garden so she needed to keep it scaled to her ability/time. Another site designated beds to teachers interested. used a bulk for a certain grade level most tied to curricula timing and cooler time of day and then some of the beds reserved for an after school club that helped pitch in with all over garden care. I think the frequency, timing, and depth of activity of the garden interactions can be adjusted if trynig to serve a whole school with a small space. You can also have some of the activites support other subjects or well-being and not be direct garden education every time. 

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I would try to get clarity about volunteer access. Perhaps if there is a really dedicated volunteer if they get a higher background check they may have more access to help in the garden. I don't think you would be overrun with volunteers but you may luck out with one or two that would be willing to go the extra step to help. Our district- yes, more limits on level ones and more access for level twos, but the latter takes time and a fee. (Mindy H)

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I would try to get clarity about volunteer access. Perhaps if there is a really dedicated volunteer if they get a higher background check they may have more access to help in the garden. I don't think you would be overrun with volunteers but you may luck out with one or two that would be willing to go the extra step to help. Our district- yes, more limits on level ones and more access for level twos, but the latter takes time and a fee. (Mindy H)

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I noticed that volunteers were a common theme. Whether it was shortage of them or just managing them in general.

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I have experienced similar challenges in regards to volunteers. I know first hand how difficult it is to get volunteer/parent help. I have had no help from any parent volunteers.

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I wish I had advice or suggestions But unfortunately I am at a loss for most of these challenges. I am still trying to figure things out along the way.

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I am just wondering how to get parents to help with the gardens? It is like pulling teeth with these parents.

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Unfortunately I do not know of many resources. I am very new to this. KidsGardening is the only resource I have found and I am still looking around on it.

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I have a similar challenge to April, where I am working to create or assign a school garden curriculum to my schools in order to increase the efficacy and sustainability of the program! I just am not able to see all of the students with the time I have, because of teacher availability and constraints. I think a curriculum would help reach everyone more efficiently!