Year-Round School Gardening: Tips, Challenges, and Wins

[Jessica Ritenour]

Hi everyone!

My team spends a lot of time supporting school garden programs and learning alongside educators in this space. 

I've been seeing a lot of amazing garden setups and resources shared here! One challenge we keep hearing is how hard it can be to keep momentum going throughout the school year—especially with time, weather, and staffing constraints. 

Curious to hear from this group - 

What's been most helpful in keeping your gardens active and engaging for students throughout the entire school year? 

Have you found success with:

• Indoor growing setups?
• Seasonal crop planning?
• Clubs vs. classroom integration?
• Anything that’s helped reduce maintenance?

Would love to learn more about what's working (and any best practices your teams have found)!

[Brooke Minnich]

Good morning!

Our program (SOIL Outdoor Learning Lab) is located in Durango, southwest Colorado, where we have a very short growing season (June-October). We're a school district program, which is great because we have two full time school district staff working solely on this project. We offer field trips to all 13 schools in our district as well as many community programs.

The biggest game-changer for us has been getting a geodesic growing dome greenhouse. We secured a grant for the purchase, as they are super pricey, and it's been so worth it! They are super warm during the winter months (we grew tomatoes, peppers, figs, greens, etc all winter in ours) and last much longer than a regular greenhouse . We've been able to offer field trips through the winter, as well as fresh produce to students who visit during the off season (late fall through late spring).

Another way we keep momentum going is by offering community programs and a community garden, which keeps the space vibrant during the summer months when school is out. We also rent out the space to community organizations to use for their summer camp programs.

For maintenance, it's been essential for us to have an AmeriCorps member every school year and college interns during the summer. We've been able to get donor funds to pay the AmeriCorps fee and fund some of our internships. I know that FoodCorps is also widely used for staffing school gardens, but we don't have it in our part of the state. Something to look into, though!

Happy to chat more! bmin...@durangoschools.org.

Best,

Brooke