Starting A School Garden
Nourishing our Children’s Curiosity
Planning & Getting Started
Planning is an essential first step toward developing a school garden program. Taking time to think through a project first is vital to the sustainability and long-term goals of the program.
Site location, planning for usage, staff training, custodial concerns, and garden maintenance for all seasons must be considered. The following sites will help in addressing these concerns.
TIP: Form a School Garden Committee – Creating a School Garden Committee to help vision and network with faculty and community is essential for long-term success.
Creating partnerships with the community will also help the garden become sustainable. Committees can be made up of parents, interested faculty or administration, and community members. The committee can meet regularly as the vision and planning for the future garden is forming and later for maintaining a vibrant program.
Start-Up Guides
Department of Horticultural Sciences at Texas A&M University: 6 Steps to Starting your garden
University of California Cooperative Extension: Building a Sustainable School Garden Program
Sample Student Safety Pledge & Liability Waiver
This sample form is to be used as a guideline only. Please make sure any waiver form you develop is approved by your school administration.
National Gardening Association
Includes a wealth of gardening information, with great tips for starting your first garden and links to student curriculum.
Kids Gardening
This site has many resources to get you started including gardening basics as well as funding resources
Center for Ecoliteracy
A free, 51-page downloadable guide designed and published by the Center for Ecoliteracy in collaboration with Life Lab Science Program, a national leader in garden-based education. The Getting Started guide outlines all of the key steps toward creating a sustainable school garden program.
Wellness Committees & Policies
TIP: Create a Wellness Committee or Wellness Policy – Another way to provide vision and clarity to your school garden is to write a School Wellness Policy that includes the vision for the garden space and its use.
The following resources are meant to give direction to those decision-making processes. A few schools on Hawai’i Island have integrated their school garden into their Wellness Policy for nutritional education and physical activity goals.
Wellness Policy Development Toolkit
Office of Hawai‘i Child Nutrition Programs, Team Nutrition, and the Hawai‘i State Department of Education provide five steps to creating a “Living healthy at school” policy.
Wellness Policy Implementation Checklist
The Hawai‘i Department of Health has created a Wellness Guidelines Checklist to guide the formation of school wellness committees. Working through the Checklist will take time, but will bring necessary capacity to your committee; engage community stakeholders; help pinpoint nutrition, physical activity, and wellness actions for your school; and give a positive direction to your school wellness committee.
Model Wellness Policy Guide
Created by the Center For Ecoliteracy, this guide provides language and recommendations to help schools and districts develop, monitor and update comprehensive wellness policies that set high standards for healthy learning
The School Health Index (SHI): Self-Assessment & Planning Guide 2014
The School Health Index (SHI): Self-Assessment & Planning Guide is an online self-assessment and planning tool that school wellness committees can use to help establish their school focus and goals for their economic and development plan. It’s easy to use and completely confidential.