School Garden

May 27, 2022

Growing Sweet Potato Slips

Sweet potatoes are typically started by planting bare-root vegetative cuttings that have just begun to grow roots. Sweet potatoes are our favorite crop to plant at the end of the school year to provide a weed barrier in the beds through summer, while producing a crop that is ready to harvest when school starts back.… 

Mar 27, 2022

What’s New in Your Garden?

One of the great things many of us enjoy about spring is all of the newness we see around us. Bulbs begin bursting into flower, numerous shades of green from lawn grasses to tree leaves, birds belting out their choruses, and of course the warmer temperatures, are all things that make spring come alive. Newness is… 

Mar 27, 2022

Write, Rip, Grow

I recently came across this quote by Sigmund Freud, “Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways.” Some of those uglier ways that unexpressed emotions come forth can be acting out, depression and even physical symptoms, like a tummy ache or a headache. However, expressing our emotions can… 

Feb 16, 2022

School Garden Clubs

There are two primary ways school gardens are utilized. Either a teacher incorporates the garden as an outdoor classroom to meet curriculum goals, or a teacher or community group offers an after school garden club which focuses on learning and exploring in the garden without instructional parameters. We’ve reached out to three garden club leaders… 

Feb 16, 2022

5-4-3-2-1

The last few years have brought about a new or intensified feeling in many people, including children: the feeling of anxiety. Being outside and connecting with nature can help alleviate anxiety. Grounding techniques can also help to control symptoms of anxiety by turning attention away from stressors and refocusing on the present. This grounding technique,… 

Jan 20, 2022

Building Excitement for Spring

Hopefully you can continue to find ways to engage students in the garden or nature spaces through the winter (SEL Activities are a great way to do this). However, there are some indoor ways to build excitement for the spring garden and get some of the prep work done in advance, too! Request seed catalogs and… 

Jan 19, 2022

Nature Bracelets

Winter can be an interesting time in the garden, though the leaves have fallen and there usually isn’t much growing in the garden at this time. It can still be a great time for discovery. One of my favorite discovery activities in the garden or outdoor classroom is making nature bracelets. Each student is given… 

Dec 13, 2021

Building Culture

One new “ah ha” take-away from our completion of the Life Lab-Certified Garden Educator program was the tremendous importance of establishing events that build culture around the school garden. An annual pumpkin toss at an elementary school in Atlanta, Georgia, is one example that stood out. After Halloween, students (and even former students) bring their… 

Dec 13, 2021

Teachers Earn Certification

Congratulations to those teachers across the nation who were part of the first cohort to become Life Lab-Certified Garden Educators. Amy Bowman and Doug Vernon, our Plants for Human Health Institute STEM Education duo, completed the certification as did three teachers in the Cabarrus County School System. Megan CharltonDistrict STEM Coach K-8JN Fries Middle and…