Gardens: Outdoor education at school and at home

As the weather continues to warm up this spring, it provides an opportunity for students and staff alike to get out of the classroom more often and enjoy the outdoors. One way for teachers to provide an impactful educational experience, while also enjoying some nice weather, is a school garden! Gardens and other outdoor classroom settings are able to provide numerous benefits for students, including:

  • Enhanced observational skills
  • Exposure to the food growth process
  • A heightened understanding of responsibility and accountability
  • Practice at building relationships through cooperation
  • Instilling an appreciation for nature and the environment first-hand

School gardens also provide an excellent pathway to teach students about how food gets from the soil to their plates – and a successful growing season can even provide healthy snacks to students straight from the garden! Almost half of LPS buildings have gardens or outdoor classrooms available for students and staff to assimilate similar types of hands-on learning into lesson plans. Several of these gardens are in collaboration with Community Crops, an organization that provides resources and management practices to promote education through the gardening experience. Last year, LPS and Community Crops worked together to create a comprehensive Garden Manual that details the process of creating, sustaining, and utilizing a garden for the benefit of students. The Garden Manual is available for public use.

While LPS promotes garden learning within the district, you can also instill an appreciation for gardening with your student at home! Gardening can be a fun family activity throughout the spring and summer. Having your student help with planting and caring for the plants will teach responsibility and patience, as well as provide a satisfying experience after harvesting some healthy snacks! Some basic tips to teach your student about successful gardening include:

  • Do research on your plants! – Learning which plants grow successfully in certain seasons is an important first step before planting.
  • Mulch around plants – this protects the soil and base of the stem.
  • Be sure to water the soil, not just the plants – healthy roots lead to healthy plants.
  • Make a schedule to care for your garden – successful gardens require continuous care.
  • Focus on just 3-4 plant varieties – meeting needs of too many plant types can be time consuming and overwhelming.
  • Create your own compost pile- use this compost to supplement the soil in your garden!

For more detailed tips on how to create a garden, or how to better manage an existing garden, see the Garden Manual on the LPS Sustainability website. There is also a multitude of resources available online to browse at your leisure. Happy gardening!