Start a school garden

School is not only for learning during classes! The school grounds are:

A source for improving children’s diet and health.
A source of healthy influences (like clean drinking water, physical activity).
An area for learning (about nature, agriculture, nutrition).
A place for pleasure and recreation.
A continuing lesson in respecting the environment and taking pride in one’s school.

Setting up a school garden will help you gain skills you can use, and get some delicious and nutritious food!

Where should you start?

Discuss your project with your teacher and find a ‘garden leader’ (the school principal or an experienced teacher) who will help you set up the garden and organize your work.
Find out how education authorities, health services, agricultural services and the local council can support the school garden, including funding possibilities.
Involve volunteers to help you, for instance among parents, community members, students and ex-students of the school.
Find tools and equipment, seeds and seedlings. The costs need not be high. If you start small, everything can be acquired over a few years. Often, equipment can be borrowed, and you can save your own seeds.
Decide what you want to grow: local plants, adapted to the local climate, are cheaper as well as safer. Even with a small garden, you will have more success if you have a variety of crops, not just one or two.
Organic approaches are better for the environment and cut the cost of fertilizers and insecticides. Persuade the school to adopt some good resolutions.

In our garden: