School Garden Network Engagement

[Daniel Barrera Ortega]

Hi everyone,

We’re interested in learning how school garden networks across the country engage their members. Networks help programs avoid working in isolation and create opportunities to share best practices, and we’d love to learn how you foster that engagement.

By “school garden networks,” we mean a group of schools or organizations that provide school garden programming that communicate, share, and learn from each other at a local, district, or regional level. This could look like a formal structure led by dedicated staff or a more informal approach, such as an open local listserv.

What are some effective ways your local school garden networks keep their members connected and communicating? This could include virtual/in-person gatherings, forums, trainings. Please share the name and links to your network as well!

A great example is on our Regional Support Models webinar where we see a breakdown of the strategy and platforms OSSE and Wisconsin School Garden Network provides to individual educators while deepening their connectivity.

Please make sure that you use the "reply all" button so everyone can see your response!

In community,

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Daniel Barrera Ortega Program Specialist School Garden Support Organization (SGSO) Network (He/Him) www.sgsonetwork.org

[Allie Arnold]

In D.C., we are bringing more teachers into a connected network of schools doing garden-based learning. There already exist many spaces to connect about just gardening, but the schools and teachers we work with don't always know about them.

Starting within and hoping that drop ripples outwards, we focus on the schools that come to our four-day summer training (about 10-15 schools) and then continue with our support into the next school year (about 5-8 schools). Within a school year, we hold four in-person gatherings for our school partner teachers to eat, connect with each other, and learn something new. The gatherings are named after the seasons: Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer. Fall is about igniting motivation and getting planting asap, Winter is about connecting to keep up the momentum, Spring is about preparing for all the activity that is about to burst forth, and Summer is a celebration of all they have accomplished. To stay connected in between, we have a whatsapp group chat for pictures, advice, and inspiration. 

Building connections among each other is our main goal and since they see each other somewhat infrequently, we make sure to plan gatherings that include name tags, games, facilitated discussions, and, of course, food!

-Allie

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Allie Arnold (she/her)

School Garden Program Manager

Friends of the National Arboretum

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[Sherman Garden]

Daniel, in San Diego we have a Facebook group called "San Diego School Garden Education Superstars." It is low-key and self-managed with members posting questions, inspirations and solutions.

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Christina Abuelo

School Garden Equity Catalyst

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[Jenna Deane]

Hi all,

I'm a former school garden educator and from that experience developed GeoGardenClub.  It's a digital resource offered free to school garden educators that supports this kind of networking. It's a garden planning and knowledge-sharing platform where gardeners can document their garden plans, observations, coordinate tasks, and share resources in a forum, which are all visible to others in their local "chapter."  Kind of like a regional Wikipedia for garden planning and management (but with more features).  This allows educators to view what nearby schools and community members are growing, manage teacher and volunteer activities, and provide connection and education to their broader school community.

It's fairly new (2026 is it's second year live!) so depending on your location, there may or may not be a chapter established in your area.  It's easy for me to create a new chapter if needed.

Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions or to get a free account set up.  I'm happy to offer virtual trainings too.

Best,

Jenna

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[Erin Maidlow]

In Oregon, we have the Oregon Farm to School Network and Regional Coordinators. Here’s more info, and I’m also a Regional Coordinator so reach out if you want more info! 

https://oregonfarmtoschool.org/regional-support/

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